Although inaccurate it far outweighs "Doc" made 4 years later. Garner does his best in portraying Earp as grim and unemotional, yet cool and unflinching. This was Earp's persona. Robards, although older than the real Holliday was at the time, also does well. I'm not so sure if the real Holliday was concerned with Earp losing his character. He was a loyal friend who was in it for a pound.
Robert Ryan is a superior actor, but Clanton wasn't a land baron. Clanton was a rustler/rancher, loud-mouth/coward that provoked the gunfight at the O.K.corral and lost the case for the prosecution by being a not-too-bright liar. I don't know if Ryan could be cast correctly to portray the real Ike Clanton.But he does well regardless. Earp also didn't really kill Ike.
This movie does explore the vigilante ride of Wyatt and Doc after the wounding of Virgil and the killing of Morgan Earp. Pete Spence was never a sheriff, and Sherm McMasters was a cowboy that informed for Wyatt. The movie is a superior western and as close to accurate as Hollywood came until "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp".
The mood is somewhat interesting but it wasn't a moral struggle for Wyatt and Doc in real life. They were doing what they felt was right, vengeance. Earp thought in very black and white terms, killing his brothers killers was the right thing to do in his mind. It didn't matter if it was against the law he often swore to protect as a peace officer in those western boom towns. He was always upright and correct in his profession as a lawman, but in matters of family he was not on the job and no longer wearing a badge. his duty to law enforcement no longer applied.
Robert Ryan is a superior actor, but Clanton wasn't a land baron. Clanton was a rustler/rancher, loud-mouth/coward that provoked the gunfight at the O.K.corral and lost the case for the prosecution by being a not-too-bright liar. I don't know if Ryan could be cast correctly to portray the real Ike Clanton.But he does well regardless. Earp also didn't really kill Ike.
This movie does explore the vigilante ride of Wyatt and Doc after the wounding of Virgil and the killing of Morgan Earp. Pete Spence was never a sheriff, and Sherm McMasters was a cowboy that informed for Wyatt. The movie is a superior western and as close to accurate as Hollywood came until "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp".
The mood is somewhat interesting but it wasn't a moral struggle for Wyatt and Doc in real life. They were doing what they felt was right, vengeance. Earp thought in very black and white terms, killing his brothers killers was the right thing to do in his mind. It didn't matter if it was against the law he often swore to protect as a peace officer in those western boom towns. He was always upright and correct in his profession as a lawman, but in matters of family he was not on the job and no longer wearing a badge. his duty to law enforcement no longer applied.