Wyatt Earp is a 1994 semi-biographical Western film, written by Dan Gordon and Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Kasdan. It stars Kevin Costner in the titular role as lawman Wyatt Earp, and features an ensemble cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Mark Harmon, Michael Madsen, Joanna Going, Tom Sizemore, Bill Pullman, JoBeth Williams, Linden Ashby, and Mare Winningham. It was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for “strong gunfights, some language and sensuality.”
Unlike most films depicting lawman Wyatt Earp, this one gave the back history of his life, starting in his teenage years and taking the viewer on into his late years. Dennis Quaid received some praise for having portrayed Doc Holliday very accurately.
Production
Kevin Costner was originally involved with the film Tombstone, another film about Wyatt Earp written by Kevin Jarre. However, Costner disagreed with Jarre over the focus of the film (he believed that the emphasis should have been on Wyatt Earp rather than the many characters in Jarre’s script) and left the project, eventually teaming up with Kasdan to produce his own Wyatt Earp project. Costner then used his then-considerable clout to convince most of the major studios to refuse to distribute the competing film, which affected casting on the rival project.
However, Wyatt Earp, released six months after Tombstone, was the less successful of the two films, taking in $25 million on a $63 million budget, compared to Tombstone’s $56 million domestic gross.
Inaccuracies
- In the film, two Earp brothers, Virgil Earp and James Earp, are portrayed returning home together following their service with the Union Army in the Civil War. In fact, James was wounded in a Missouri battle early in the war, returning home shortly thereafter. Virgil Earp actually returned home with another brother, Newton Earp, who was not mentioned in the film, but who, like Virgil, served until the war’s end.
- Wyatt Earp was not a well-known lawman until after the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
- Josie Marcus was not a well-known actress, and in fact had been in Tombstone, Arizona for quite some time prior to Wyatt Earp’s arrival, having lived previously with a lawyer, and with Sheriff Behan.
- Wyatt Earp is depicted as having shot and killed a man who shot into a theater in Dodge City, Kansas. The cowboy’s name was George Hoy, and in fact, both Earp and James Masterson fired on the man, and it has been said that Masterson actually killed the man.[citation needed] The presence of James Masterson was ignored in the film.
- Wyatt Earp is depicted as having met Bat and Ed Masterson while working as a buffalo hunter out west. Historically, it is disputed as to when and where he first met the brothers, but it is certain that when he did meet them he came to know not only Bat and Ed, but their brother James as well. James was ignored in the film altogether.
- Josie Marcus was not present during the George Hoy shooting.
- Ed Masterson replaced Marshal Larry Deger as town marshal of Dodge City following Wyatt Earp’s departure, not Earp.
- Wyatt Earp did return to Dodge City following Ed Masterson’s murder, but he did not return and become marshal. Instead, he returned and began working under lawman Charlie Bassett, whose presence was ignored in the film.
- Wyatt Earp was never the Marshal of Dodge City. He was Assistant Marshal and Deputy Marshal.
- Tombstone Marshal Fred White was in fact well liked by the outlaw “Cowboy” faction, and contrary to the film depiction, by his own testimony prior to his death, the shooting by Bill Brocius that caused his death was accidental. Brocius in fact showed remorse and regret over the shooting.
- Marshal Fred White was depicted as being an older man, but in fact was either 31 or 32 at the time of his death.
- The film portrays both the assassination attempt of Virgil Earp and the assassination of Morgan Earp happening on the same night.
- The film also portrays that Virgil Earp lost the use of his right arm when in reality he lost the use of his left arm.
- Outlaw Johnny Ringo was not shot and killed during the shootout at “Stinking Springs”. His death happened later, and was “officially” ruled a suicide. Several men were implicated as having murdered him, to include lawman Wyatt Earp, gunman and gambler Doc Holliday, gambler Mike O’Rourke, and gunman “Buckskin” Frank Leslie, as well as little known gunman Lou Cooley, one of the few men alleged to have never feared Ringo despite his reputation. Earp and Holliday were most certainly in Colorado at the time, and more likely than not the death was in fact a suicide.
- Wyatt Earp was not involved in one hundred gunfights in his lifetime. Though an exact figure is difficult to calculate, fewer than ten would be more accurate.
