The protrait traces him from a boy to a lawman defending boomtowns with his brothers and doc holliday. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 04/05/2005 Starring: Kevin Costner Gene Hackman Run time: 189 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Mick Jackson

This massive, in-depth study of the dark Western icon comes off with mixed results. Trying to capture the whole life, (warts and all) of the lawman-criminal-brother-fortune hunter, director Lawrence Kasdan gains points for sheer scale, giving us a rich epic painted in dark colors with gritty settings. But the visual poetry and extensive foreshadowing ruin the dramatic drive. Some scenes have as much impact as stalker movies; you're just waiting for someone to get knocked off. As Earp, Kevin Costner is not afraid to look rumpled and play colorlessly (as in The Bodyguard), but it saps the energy of this 3-hour-plus film. The only relief is Dennis Quaid as a droll Doc Holiday, a much more engaging character. New faces Linden Ashby and Joanna Going (as an Earp brother and a lover, respectively) are solid finds, though the remainder of the female cast is barely given anything to do. Best is the first half, with Costner, as hip as he was in his Silverado days, going through a series of ups and downs until he accidentally finds his profession. Great set design (Ida Random) utilizes dozens of similar settings that always look distinctive. Recommended to fans of the star and the genre, but the story never justifies its length. --Doug Thomas

In a recent interview on the "Director's" series on TV, Lawrence
Kasdan noted that Kevin Costner was already well into production on
this "series", when he asked Kasdan to come on as Director. Costner
was preparing a mini-series for HBO of "Earp", and, when that fell
through he needed help in reshaping it as a movie. Kasdan did what
he could, but it was too late to do very much in the way of cutting
the series down. Other: I love this film, and I love the fact that
Earp never took a bullet, lived to a ripe old age, and was buried in
a Jewish cemetary near San Francisco near his wife "Josie"...RIP

This movie is more a biography of Wyatt Earp than a simple retelling of the OK Corral shootout story. It starts with the lead-in to the OK Corral, then flashes back to Wyatt as a young boy planning to run away to fight in the civil war with his two older brothers. It shows Wyatt as taking over leadership of the Earp brothers and as a frustrated businessman along with the many things Wyatt did to end up a lawman-gunfighter. The defining event in his life in the movie is the loss of his wife, which colors all of his subsequent actions from mugging a man to stealing a horse to hunting buffalo, etc. Dennis Quaid is outstanding as Doc Holliday as is Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp. I would have given this 4 and a half stars had it been edited down to about two hours and forty-five minutes. It is too long. Lots of very good actors and a big story though.

Wyatt Earp came out around the same time as Tomb Stone. It seemed that Tomb Stone over shadowed Wyatt Earp for some reason but I much preferred Wyatt Earp. Dennis Quad is a much better Doc Holiday than Val Kilmer. In fact, as much as I like Kilmer him being Doc Holiday was one of the things that kept Tomb Stone from appealing to me. On the other hand, Quad's Doc Holiday is one of Wyatt Earp's strong points. Kostner is excellent in this role. He is able to show Wyatt's personality changes throughout the movie as events effect his life. This is a long movie but it has a good pace that makes the three plus hours go by quickly. Not as well as Pearl Harbor did but not bad. Even though the movie is long, and they cover a lot of territory, I couldn't help feeling that there were some holes left unfilled here and there. Like, how did we get from point A to point D, what happened to B and C. Overall, I really like Wyatt Earp and that's why it's in my collection. One other thing worth mentioning about this movie is the fact that the famous shoot out at the O K Corale, is just that, a shoot out. In older movie versions based on Wyatt Earp or the famous shoot out had it being a long drawn out battle with people taking cover etc. I don't know which is more historically accurate but the difference stood out to me.

Now this is not a new movie but it is new to Blu-ray. It carries a budget price which makes this movie an excellent value. The Blu-ray video quality is very good on this movie. Just notice the detail in the early scene where Wyatt as a boy is running through the corn field. The audio is on par with modern movies as well. You aren't going to get a lot of effects like a Star Wars movie but the sound is good. Not tinny or thin sounding like some older movies that get transferred to a new format. I'm interested in hearing how Disney deals with this issue on their remasters of very old movies being released again on Blu-ray.

If some how Wyatt Earp missed your VCR when first released and you like Westerns, this is a must see movie. If you are looking to add a title to your beginning Blu-ray collection, Wyatt Earp is a fine example of the format and at about half the price of most new releases you can't go wrong.

Among the unintentional laughs was the dramatic walk to the OK Corral by the Earps and Doc Holliday. This should have been released as a comedy.
Another flawed, but still excellent, version of the Earps was "Tombstone."

I purchased this blu ray DVD.......... After renting it from Netflix...
I could not believe the pristine picture quality........and surround sound this wonderful remastered movie has to offer......1080P really shines with this movie.......If you enjoy quality somewhat factual movies..........Kostner.........really shines in this one......make this part of your Bluray Collection.........you wont be sorry>>>>>>>