Summary
Tombstoneand its 1957 predecessor,Gunfight At The O.K. Corral,are two of the most famous dramatizations of the life of notorious, gunslinging lawman, Wyatt Earp. The Kirk Douglas movie is a quintessential Western classic, whileTombstone’s growth in popularityhas deemed it a cult hit.Both revolve around the same event lifted from Earp’s posthumous biography: a shoot-out that occurred in the town of Tombstone, Arizona. And yet, despite this historical context, both movies make a crucial mistake with their stories.
In Tombstone, on October 26th 1881, Earp and his brothers faced off a group of cattle-rustlers and thieves known as“The Cowboys”.The anecdote is great fare for an epic retelling, not least because The Cowboys also had two sets of siblings in their ranks. This battle between brothers has become almost synonymous with the Western genre.Tombstone’sdepiction of the gunfight awards theKurt Russell movie some historical accuracy, but both films are premised on one fallacy. Though a fateful encounter did take place that day,it wasn’t at the O.K. Corral.
10 Best Movies To Watch Like Tombstone
Tombstone is a great entry point to the Western genre. But where should viewers go next? These 10 films have similar characters and themes.
Gunfight At The O.K. Corral and Tombstone Both Heavily Feature The O.K. Corral
The Iconic Location Is Key To The Staging Of The Earp Gunfight
Gunfight At The O.K.Corral was John Sturges’ 1957 remake of the 1939 filmFrontier Marshall, based on the Wyatt Earp biography of the same name. Until the biography was published two years after Earp’s death, the famous stand-off in Tombstone, Arizona was not widely known. The anecdote captured the imagination of the film industry just as Hollywood was starting to move on from the Wild West. As renewed commercial success ushered in the Golden Age of Westerns,the O.K. Corral became fundamental to cowboy mythology, so much so that Sturges made it his film’s centerpiece.
…the Corral’s open space stages the essential tableau of the outlaw-lawman standoff
The spectacular gunfight sequence lasts 11 minutes in total.Gunfight At The O.K. Corralimmortalized the event further as it became a classic in the genre. Itundoubtedly influenced the Kurt Russell movieover half a decade later. In both depictions, the Corral’s open space stages the essential tableau of the outlaw-lawman standoff. Physical distance enhances the rising tension as each group waits for the first man to draw. The particular way that these films stage the gunfightdefines their biggest inaccuracy.
The Real Life O.K. Corral & What Actually Happened
The Short Encounter Did Not Actually Take Place At The O.K. Corral
The titleGunfight At The O.K. Corralis misleading as the real confrontationdid not even take place there. The main historical sources, testimonies from the preliminary hearings held after the event, reported the confrontation occurring in an adjacent side street six doors down, at the side of C.S. Fly’s photography studio. The studio can be spotted in theTombstonescene. This locationputs the Earps and the Cowboys in much closer proximity than the films portray, hence the real fray only lasting around 30 seconds. It was far from the lengthy stand-off as dramatized.
Though Westerns would have audiences believe in a lawless age of gunslingers, the reality was that few people were permitted to bear firearms.
Despite its ominous name, the real Tombstone was an unextraordinary mining boomtown, like so many others that sprung up along the frontier.Shootings were a frequent event, so much so that Tombstone introduced an ordinance preventing citizens from carrying weapons into town. Though Westerns would have audiences believe in a lawless age of gunslingers, the reality was that few people were permitted to bear firearms. Similar ordinances were in place in most towns, and it was this very law which led to the fight in Tombstone, as theEarp brothers and Doc Hollidayacted to disarm the Cowboys.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that these two great Westerns are premised on a historical fallacy. It would be difficult to create an accurate retelling of that day in Tombstone, becausehistorical accounts were already contradictory. Newspapers weren’t tied to a concept of journalistic neutrality - every account favored one side or the other. But historical accuracy was never the aim. The Western genre isat heart a romanticization: the myth of the new frontier.The Gunfight At The O.K. CorralandTombstonemay be defined by historical inaccuracy, but the truth wouldn’t have made such a good story.
Tombstone
Cast
Tombstone chronicles legendary marshal Wyatt Earp and his brothers as they seek fortune in a prosperous mining town. Forced to confront a gang threatening the community, Earp joins forces with the infamous Doc Holliday, highlighting a tense battle between lawmen and outlaws in the American West.
