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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Sided
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
  • Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
  Subtitles
    English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, English - Hearing Impaired, Italian - Hearing Impaired, Romanian, Bulgarian
  Extras
  • 6 Deleted scenes
  • Theatrical trailer
  • 2 Documentaries

Wyatt Earp

Warner Bros./Warner Home Video . R4 . COLOR . 183 mins . M . PAL

  Feature
Contract

This is a classic Western about one of the mythic figures of our time.

One of my favourite directors, Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, Accidental Tourist, French Kiss), co-wrote as well as directed this. And its quality shows throughout.

This account of the life of Wyatt Earp spreads leisurely over three hours, tracing his life from young adolescence to settled middle-age, long after the tumultous events in Dodge City, Tombstone and Tucson that earned him fame.

Kasdan chose Kevin Costner as his Wyatt. And it is a good choice. Costner is content to play Earp close to his chest, letting the story slowly reveal the character.

False drama is eschewed; the violence, when it comes, is realistic, and the human motivation for feuding and gunfighting is treated as more important than the action.

Interractions are treated far more seriously than in most movies of this genre. It starts off with Wyatt's father (Gene Hackman) inculcating in his young brood the importance of family allegiances -- of blood ties. This is a theme expressed throughout the movie, as Wyatt travels with his brothers, who join him as frontier lawmen and Faro dealers in Dodge City and Tombstone.

This isn't a whiter-than-white Wyatt -- he has deep flaws, but there is much here to admire. And Dennis Quaid puts in a strong performance as one of Wyatt's closest but most tortured friends, the consumptive Doc Holliday.

This is of course not the real Wyatt Earp, no more than was John Ford's Henry Fonda in another classic Earp biography, My Darling Clementine. Interesting to know that John Ford met the real Earp in the 1920s, when Earp was working as a technical advisor on Western movies in Hollywood. I guess we'll never know just what the real Earp was like.... but it doesn't really matter. The legend is the important thing, and Kasdan tells it exceptionally well.

  Video
Contract

This widescreen anamorphic transfer is spread over two sides of a disc, with 86 minutes on the first side, and 97.26 minutes on the second. My review copy came spread over two discs instead, but I'm presuming the quality is identical.

This is a stunning transfer. There seems to be no image degradation of any kind -- colours are rich and vibrant in the day and open country scenes, and suitably muddy and dull at night. The cinematography is served exceptionally well; it would be hard to imagine a more perfect transfer.

The only flaw is the need to swap discs -- or flip it over -- halfway through the movie. It would have been far better to have had a dual-layer side for the movie, with extras housed alone on a second single-layer side, or on another disc.

  Audio
Contract

The 5.1 Surround is employed well, without unecessary dramatics. Westerns need emphatic, ringing gunfire and we get that -- but the soundtrack and dialogue are also served well.

  Extras
Contract

Two extra features are provided and both are very weak.

First is a new featurette running for 14 minutes entitled It Happened That Way - the title comes from dialogue towards the close of the movie. We think at first we're going to hear something based on research into the life of the real Wyatt Earp -- instead, we have the director and actors discussing Wyatt Earp based on what they learnt from this movie. How pathetic!

The second featurette is a 23-minute television special from 1994, Wyatt Earp: Walk With a Legend, which is the usual television flim-flam. It's just a long promo which repeats everything we already know. It could easily have been left off -- especially as it begins by telling us at great length how wonderful large-screen epic movies are, but shows all the excerpts in pan-and-scan!

Included also are six Deleted Scenes of more than usual interest. It's hard to see why most of these scenes were deleted, as they would have added immensely to the overall feel of the movie.

In fact, there is on video in the States a special 212-minute version of the movie which incorporates these deleted scenes. It's odd that this extended version wasn't used for this DVD.

There is the obligatory original theatrical trailer, in a good anamorphic transfer. And that's it for trailers -- some great deleted scenes and two pretty useless docos.

  Overall  
Contract

I think it's a classic movie, and should be owned by anyone who enjoys the Western genre.

Don't be deterred by the length -- this one is directed by Lawrence Kasdan, not Kevin Costner, so every minute is important. Take a leisurely ride into the real Wild West, and buy it so at the end of the ride, it will slot into your shelves till the next time the prairie moon calls....


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      And I quote...
    "A classic Western about one of the mythic figures of our time."
    - Anthony Clarke
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DVD 655A
    • TV:
          Loewe Profil Plus 3272 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Denon AVR-3801
    • Speakers:
          Neat Acoustics PETITE
    • Centre Speaker:
          Neat Acoustics PETITE
    • Surrounds:
          Celestian (50W)
    • Subwoofer:
          B&W ASW-500
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