Wyatt Earp (1994) review

Dir. Lawrence Kasdan

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

Remembering Gene Hackman

1930 – 2025

Kevin Costner clearly has an attachment to the character of Wyatt Earp and the story the man holds. He turned down the role in the classic western Tombstone because not a significant amount of focus was placed on the character, and went on to fund a film on the character, with Lawrence Kasdan (writer of the last two Star Wars films) manning the project. This is, of course, 1993’s Wyatt Earp, a richly-detailed picture of opus length. However, “richly-detailed” in the sense that the film seems to be concerned over smaller events (IE: personal relationships Earp had with people like Doc Holiday and smaller little societal impacts) rather than the bigger ones, such as the notorious battle at the OK Corral.

The film concerns the life of Earp in traditional biopic fashion. It shows him in his early years as a typical farm-boy, who wants to run away to join his brothers in the army, only to be intercepted by his father (Gene Hackman), who gives him a stern talking-to. Around the dinner table later that day, Wyatt’s father reminds his large family for the umpteenth time that blood-relation is above all other relationships and that everyone else is just strangers. For a biopic roughly three hours in length, this is a pretty shallow moral to tack on.

But so be it. After about fifteen minutes of Earp’s childhood, we are transported to the future and begin to see the events that made up the man’s life. Numerous battles, a doomed marriage, societal weariness, etc. One of Earp’s rivalries we see brew dramatically overtime is his with Doc Holiday (Dennis Quaid, who slimmed dramatically to play the part), another ruthless gunslinger in the time of the 1800’s.

Performance-wise, the film is rather complete. Costner had good reason to fight for the ability to play Earp, has he brings a truly complete package to the stress, anguish, and heroic abilities of the title character. Quaid shines through the performance of Holiday, not playing the film solely for menace and not overcompensating scenes of violence or verbal language. He’s collective throughout most of the picture. I suppose the only performance that was a letdown (especially for a top-bidding role) is Gene Hackman’s, who is criminally shafted with only about fifteen minutes of screentime the entire picture. Hackman gives a mildly-intrigued performance, but overall, it’s flat and kind of dry for a man with such known charisma and passion for the game of cinema.

The cinematography is one of the main star’s of the film. Kasdan and cinematographer Owen Roizman include scenery that seems to have sprung to life from old canvas oil-painting depicting western culture. The atmospheres are often sun-soaked, roomy, picturesque, and very easy on the eyes. Set to the wonderfully engaging score, this enacts a great tonal cacophony that is potent when it needs to be, as well as being somber or controlled on demand.

I suppose the most unfortunate thing is that it doesn’t leave me with much to talk about. Wyatt Earp tells the audience what to think, what to feel, and how to respond frequently, and doesn’t even give us a thought-provoking moral to even contemplate. It’s a well-made story, but one that doesn’t so much want us to look at its own story or plot-points with opinion as much as it wants to say how we should view them. When it comes to epics (Casino, Goodfellas, and The Passion of the Christ), I was left with either a moral, a theme, or an encompassing thought to build off of upon viewing them. When it comes to Wyatt Earp, it’s more like film we watch and recall as a only a passing amusement rather than a true classic or renowned picture in any regard.

At three hours long, Wyatt Earp manages to be violent, intriguing, interesting, maddening, tedious, and kind of low in the compelling department. Its photographed in a beautifully mosaic light and its music and tone seems all down to a tune, but too often does Kasdan become too concerned with smaller details and mixed personas of Earp, unfortunately obscuring the main impact the film is supposed to leave on us. That and the fact we scarcely get a scene or a theme that has us deeply thinking about the film in a bigger light leaves much of its impact virtually empty. Wyatt Earp is one of the longest films I’ve ever sat through, and I wish it was one of the best too boot, as well.

Starring: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, and Gene Hackman. Directed by: Lawrence Kasdan.