Having been on a western streak recently, I was happy to finally get my hands on a DVD of Gunfight at OK Corral, because it was one of those westerns I have been wanting to see for a very long time. Well, I was not disappointed. The film flows smoothly, and it’s very exciting, as well as containing a gripping drama, which is very much aided by the quality acting by the cast, with the leads Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas turning in ace performances, and great, experienced direction from John Sturges, who keys in one of his best films all time.
However, it is the underlying aspects of the film that almost speak louder than the face value of the movie. Yes, the film is an exciting one about bandits and the law hand, and it obviously questions who is who in a land and a time where you could carry your own gun, and you were not to pressurised on not using it (and would actually have to stand a level of embarrasment in the odd cases where you would have to pull out of a challenge to a gunfight). There is also a more personal underlying aspect that I find interesting more than any other; the friendship between the killer and the law hand, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, which of course is one of the famous tales from the ole west. This friendship is already an anti-friendship in itself, as it is the attraction of the opposites; Earp is a brave but reserved and quiet hero, who only rarely exposes his feelings, and who prefers the old fashioned lifestyle (even the one that sees a lady gambling as not a lady at all), whereas Doc is much more mundane, is trigger happy and earns his living as a gambler (not for nothing, Doc calls Wyatt a preacher and Wyatt calls Doc a killer, though neither seem to mind their individual nickname, as perhaps they too seem to know that that is what their nature defines them to be, charmingly evident in the scene where Doc talking to his girl friend Kate says that people like he and her have never mattered). And yet, this attraction of the opposites seems to be taken even one step further. I for one see reason to believe that their friendship in both man’s eyes is considered more than just any old friendship.
Let’s consider this aspect, I believe it is definitely worth it. Holliday’s excitement on face value can only be seen as friendship, because he says himself that he considers Wyatt Earp the only friend he has ever had. That doesn’t explain his failed attempts to hide his disappointments (and a hint of anger) when he is told by Wyatt Earp himself of his marriage. I also believe there are similarities between the passion that Wyatt Earp shows in the courting of his girlfriend (the lady gambler) and his friendship with Doc Holliday; at first he pushed her away and even seems to punish her in some way by sending her in jail, just like he pushes Holliday away by telling him not to go to Dodge Point. Then, he lures one by finally revealing to her that he knew where she would go every afternoon horse riding, and lures the other one by looking for him in the morning and taking him with him on his camping trip to prevent the arrival of trigger happy gunfighter with reasons to kill Earp and ruin his reputation and his town’s reputation. Their bond is so strong that in the final bout, neither man can go through with the gunfight without knowing the other at his side. Further reason to believe this underlying passion between the two main characters is found in the character of Doc Holliday himself, weak, unable to love the only woman he seems to have a care for, and ill. He is the femining character, and knowing that, it is easy to read a sexual undertone between his friendship with Wyatt Earp.
The technical aspect of the film is very good. The photography is great, but that’s a given. I find it myself, that whenever I am writing a review about a western, most of the times I have reason to praise the photography. In this film, there is also a nostalgic element as cinematographer Charles Lang settles for the still shots, with the camera remaining static, some shots actually recalling the older westerns of the silent era, very two dimensional and which allow the shot comprise the whole room (the effect of course is aided by the use of the panavision technique, but that goes without saying anyways). I don’t know whether the photography seems to be good most of the times in westerns because it needs to be, or because of the importance of atmospere in westerns, but I do notice most of the times that the photography and cinematography in westerns always stands out. That being said, the settings help a lot. The difference between Dodge Point and the one at next to OK Corral are built very well, though different because portraying two different stages of the film.
The pace of the film is quite admirable. The film flows easily, although inevitably, there is one scene too many in some occasions. I’m sorry to have to say that one of those scenes is the one with a very yound Dennis Hopper, the youngest of the Clanton brothers, brought home drunk to his mother by Wyatt Earp, and giving him a lecture on why being a gunfighter is bad. That scene is written so awkwardly that I refuse to believe it was written by the same man that wrote the first fifteen minutes of the movie, where I thought that the way the story settles in and starts is so elegantly done that you hardly notice the movie has just started, and you actually feel like you have known every one of the characters introduced all your life. Perhaps that is the effect you get from the starting song, and the refrains that you get every now and again, which signal the beginning and ends of different part of the movie, an element that some people may see as too pompous and ever much too cheesy, but I found interesting because now I know where Ennio Morricone got his inspiration for the theme of Fistful of Dollars.
The finale is great and exciting, which makes the build up seem all the more satisfying. And that is what the movie is, satisfying. Somewhere around there there is a lecture, and that is the element that slows the movie down. As I said, that scene with Dennis Hopper is horrific. But it’s probably one of the best westerns ever made.
I would also like to emphasise Lancaster’s performance as Wyatt Earp, as it is golden, and I get the feeling that people don’t talk about good old Burt as much as they should. He deserves more credit, he acted in so many good films.
WATCH FOR THE MOMENT – One of the Earp brothers is shot down, and we see Wyatt breaks down. In this scene we finally notice how important his friendship to Holliday is to him and it’s very touching.