To me, this movie is perfection.

Thanks for the memories!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it few days back on a blu-ray. This is another take on the OK Corral shootout, more entertaining n has a better shoot out sequence n good cinematography. Once again v get to c a young Lee Van Cleef in a very short role but this time he gets a few dialogues unlike in High Noon. Cleef wants to eliminate Doc. Unknown to Cleef, Doc is a skilled knife thrower besides being a qualified dentist n a gunslinger whose aim cannot be questioned because none of his opponents r alive. Watch the reply Doc gives to Earp after being questioned regarding shooting guns. V also get to c a very young n unrecognisable Dennis Hopper who is being preached by Earp about the dangers of a life of gun-slinging for the young. The best thing about the film is the chemistry n the performances of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Sturges' direction is wonderfully simple but nowhere close to The Great Escape n Magnificent Seven.

This account of the events leading up to and including the historical shootout between Wyatt Earp and the former dentist come gambling gunfighter afflicted with tuberculosis (that becomes the Marshal's friend) Doc Holliday versus Ike Clanton and associates in Tombstone, Arizona is notable for the on screen relationship portrayed between its two leads, Burt Lancaster as Marshal Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday.Directed by John Sturges, with a screenplay by novelist Leon Uris from an article by George Scullin, this slightly above average Western received an Academy Award nomination for Warren Low's Editing; its Sound Recording by George Dutton was also Oscar nominated.According to this film, Wyatt Earp was a lawman above reproach, with an enviable moral code of conduct. He was so well thought of that the association which develops into a friendship between him and the gambler, who's also a notorious gunfighter, known as Doc Holliday threatens to tarnish the Marshal's reputation. Rhonda Fleming plays Laura Denbow, a gambling woman who temporarily interests Marshal Earp enough for him to consider settling down and retiring from the law. Jo Van Fleet plays Kate Fisher, a floozy and longtime girlfriend of Doc's; her loyalty wanes as he is weakened by his disease and promise to the Marshal not to kill anyone since they'd become friends. The situation is exacerbated when Kate takes up with Johnny Ringo (John Ireland), one of Ike Clanton's hired guns that exploits the situation.Clanton (Lyle Bettger) is a powerful cattle rustler who owns the less lily white county sheriff Cotton Wilson (Frank Faylen); Earl Holliman plays Earp's somewhat green Deputy Sheriff Charlie Bassett whereas a very youthful looking Dennis Hopper plays Clanton's youngest boy Billy. Whit Bissell plays the head of Tombstone's citizen council, which backs Wyatt and his brothers Virgil (John Hudson) and Morgan (DeForest Kelley); Martin Milner plays the youngest, greenest Earp brother Jimmy, whose murder by the Clantons leads to the personal showdown in this fictionalized account of the events. Don't blink or you'll miss Kenneth Tobey as Bat Masterson near the beginning of the film (sitting on a porch with Wyatt); would be Western movie veteran Lee Van Cleef appears a little less briefly as the disgruntled Ed Bailey, whose skirmish with a knife throwing Holliday is short-lived. Jack Elam might be hard to spot as well; he plays one of the McLowery brothers that's allied with the Clantons in the climactic (lengthened to a cinematic six minute) gun battle with the Earps and Holliday.As a producer, Sturges would follow-up this story ten years later by directing Hour of the Gun (1967) with James Garner and Jason Robards in the Wyatt and Doc roles, respectively.

Before this movie was released My Darling Clementine (1946)was the most unabashedly absurd movie ever made about the famous gunfight. Both movies were laughable and appalling and a waste of talent. This The Gunfight at the OK Corral had as much to do in reality with the actual gunfight as the re-enactment on Star Trek did. There are no saguaro cacti as far south as Tombstone. Both movies use them as props. When you enter Tombstone from the north the cemetery is on your left, not right as in both movies. The fight lasted less than 30 seconds. It was not a running gun battle. If America cared about history our defense forces would call in an air strike on Hollywood.

Solid production with two great action-drama stars in the lead roles yet this movie just doesn't feel at all special. Maybe it is the fact that since this movie several other movies have been made about the famous gunfight at the OK Corral, and they were more accurate and more engaging. Tombstone (1993) covered not just the gunfight but the aftermath, which stretched for years. Wyatt Earp (1994) was an extensive study on Wyatt Earp, including the gunfight, though was overly long and a bit laboured.So, now, it feels dated and surpassed. However, for its time this movie is okay. Good performances by Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in the lead roles, plus the cinematography and action scenes are good. Plot is a touch dull, as the gunfight is really the only exciting part. While the backstory is very important, it feels overdone and padded.Ultimately, a so-so movie. Rather watch Tombstone for the full, accurate story.