Where to watch Wyatt Earp
3 1/2 Stars
Wyatt Earp is a movie about a man and his family. The movie shows us the good times and the bad times of one of the West’s most famous individuals.
Wyatt Earp runs over three hours in length and has been broken into three distinct periods in the lives of Wyatt (Kevin Costner) and the entire Earp family. The film allows time for the story to explain how Wyatt became a buffalo hunter, boxing referee, widower, drunkard, and eventual horse thief before becoming the famous law enforcer of Tombstone, Arizona. Lawrence Kasdan delivers a masterpiece that is both contemplative and rousing in equal measures.
Kevin Costner is a perfect choice to portray the legendary Wyatt Earp, and Kasdan is the right filmmaker for the material. The film is sprawling and dense, but never boring for a moment. While “Tombstone” is the more action-oriented of the two films, Wyatt Earp is far more intelligent and artfully crafted. Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday has become an iconic character, and admittedly, Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of the same character isn’t as charismatic. That could be because this version is a more accurate interpretation of the actual people and events. Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp is an unjustly overlooked film, but it’s undeniably one of the best films of 1994.
Directed by: Lawrence Kasdan
Written by: Dan Gordon, Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman