As A Huge Tombstone Fan, I Was Finally Ready To Give Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp Another Chance. Here's How It Went

Kevin Costner’s Wyatt Earp and Tombstone have always been linked. Not only are they both about the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and his brothers, but they also came out within a year of each other. While Tombstone has been lauded over the last 30 years as one of the best Westerns of all time, Wyatt Earp doesn’t have the same reputation, to say the least.

I first saw both in theaters when they were released, and while I’ve watched Tombstone hundreds of times over the years, I just recently rewatched Wyatt Earp, and I have to say, it’s not nearly as bad as I remember, though I’m not ready to call it better than its “twin movie.” Here are my thoughts.

Wyatt Earp Is Not As Good As Tombstone, But It Does Some Things Better

I can’t say that watching Wyatt Earp changed my opinion, but I do think that while Tombstone has a more electric vibe, a slew of legendary lines, and some amazing performances, it also plays very fast and loose with the historical facts. WE plays it much straighter, and I appreciate that. Movies don’t have to be historically accurate for me to like them, but I always appreciate it when filmmakers do try their best to blend the facts as well as possible, while still telling a good story.

WE tells much more than just the titular Earp’s full story; it includes all the Earp brothers, whereas Tombstone only focuses on the three who were involved in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Kevin Costner’s version of the story includes much more of his backstory, including when he first meets Doc Holliday (Dennis Quaid), his time in Dodge City, Kansas, and even the full story of Wyatt’s vendetta ride after Morgan was killed by the Cowboys, as seen in both movies.

The effects of the Earp brothers’ war with the Cowboys on their families, including Wyatt’s first wife, Mattie Blaylock (played by Mare Winningham) is also shown. This is glossed over completely in Tombstone, whereas in WE the viewer really feels just how hard it was on all the brothers’ wives and how upset they were at Wyatt. This adds more of a true family dynamic to the film, rather than the tough machismo of Tombstone, which doesn’t ignore Mattie (played by Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), but doesn’t give viewers the whole story of her addiction problems.

The Casts Are Excellent In Both Movies

Both movies have fantastic ensemble casts who really shine. Comparing the performances isn’t really fair, because the movies are just so different. I distinctly remember the comparisons at the time between Dennis Quaid and Val Kilmer in their takes on the legendary Doc Holiday, and it’s easy to see why people like Kilmer more.

Tombstone features one of Kilmer’s best performances, but Quaid is also excellent, albeit in a different way. He is much more subtle, for sure, and doesn’t have the same quippy lines that Kilmer had, but he plays the role with much more menace, and that is probably more accurate to the real dentist-turned-gunfighter. Kilmer’s Holiday is as much a comedian as he is a dangerous outlaw.

The lead roles, played by Costner in Earp and Kurt Russell in Tombstone, are portrayed very differently. Going with the overall tenor of the latter, Russell plays the typical tough-guy lawman, while Costner plays Earp with more nuance, as a man who is more conflicted over his actions. Both have their advantages, but again, it makes Tombstone the much easier film to watch over and over.

One thing that WE has that Tombstone doesn’t is a fantastic performance by Gene Hackman as the Earp brothers’ father, Nicholas Porter Earp. The character doesn’t appear in Tombstone, and Earp takes full advantage of Hackman’s performance to show where the brothers came from and why they were the men they were.

Ultimately, Wyatt Earp Is Too Slow, And Too Long

While telling the whole story has its advantages, it also means that Wyatt Earp drags a lot. Its over three-hour runtime is something I felt the whole time. Tombstone, with its much more modest two-hour and ten-minute length, is so much more manageable. It really hums along the whole time. I caught myself looking at how much time was left in WE a few times, which is never a good sign.

What Earp is attempting to do, and what Tombstone is attempting to do, are two very different things. The latter is much more of an old-fashioned shoot ‘em up in the vein of classic Westerns. Its dialogue crackles, and the gunfights have you on the edge of your seat. The former, in keeping with Costner’s style, is a much more sweeping epic telling the (mostly) true history of the legendary lawman and his battles with the Cowboys across the Old West.

In the end, I have a much greater appreciation for Wyatt Earp than I’ve had for the last 30 years. I have a much better understanding of the real history (and to learn more about that, use your Netflix subscription to check out the docu-series Wyatt Earp and The Cowboy War), and Wyatt Earp is much truer to it. For that, it gets some well-earned points from me. But still, it’s not Tombstone. I will most certainly watch that again and again, as I have for decades, while I’ll probably never watch WE again.

So, what do you think? I hope, if you're like me, that you give Wyatt Earp another chance if you’ve only watched Tombstone over the years. Let me know in the poll below if you plan to check it out now (you can catch it until the end of the month on Netflix’s schedule. You’re a daisy if you do.