Hour of the Gun (1967)

 

A different take on the most famous shootout in the history of the Old West, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. While most films depict the events leading up to the event, Hour of the Gun opens with the gunfight and focusses on the (bloody) aftermath of it.

On October 26, 1881, at 3 p.m., Sheriff Virgil Earp has an appointment with rancher Ike Clanton, who does not recognize the sheriff's authority. Clanton only counted on Sheriff Virgil Earp and his younger brother and deputy Morgan, but at the last moment Virgil has also sworn in his older brother Wyatt and his friend Doc Holliday. The Clantons and their friends have no chance against this quartet of skilled and experienced gunmen: Three of them are killed, several others (including Ike Clanton) flee. Clanton takes the Earps and Holliday to court, but they are acquitted. He then hires professional killers to deal with his opponents. There are assassinations on Morgan and Virgil Earp, but Wyatt is less easy to outwit.

Sturges had already made a film on the subject, but emphasized that he wanted to present a more accurate depiction of the legend than in the highly fictionalized Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957); therefore the new film opens with the followng statement:

""This picture is based on Fact. This is the way it happened." 

The film may be closer to what happened than its predecessor, but not all details are accurate. To mention only a few: the gunfight takes place in the corral, while the actual gunfight took place at a nearby location (1); Ike Clanton (who survived the gunfight, as shown in the movie) was not killed by Wyatt Earp in a duel in Mexico (instead he was killed by another lawman in 1887 for cattle rustling) and Doc Holliday is portayed as a Civil War veteran who was much older than the Earp brothers while in reality he was younger and also too young to have fought in the Civil War (2)

Hour of the Gun is filmed in a classic, somewhat old-fashioned style, but the tone of the film is closer to Peckinpah than to Ford. While Wyatt Earp was still portrayed as a noble figure in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, he is portrayed here as a bitter man, looking for loopholes in the law to legally eliminate his opponents. In the end, he seems hardly any better than his opponents. 

In 1967, this bitter view of a legendary figure was not appreciated but today most comments are more positive, and rightly so. It's not a masterpiece, the narrative is rather episodic, and the film loses some momentum in the second half, but the actors are very fine (James Garner is my favorite in the long line of actors who have played Wyatt Earp) and both the opening (with the actual gunfight) and the ending, set in Mexico and reminiscent of Leone, are excellent.

Notes:

*(1) See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.K._Corral_(building): "(...) the historic gunfight did not take place within or next to the corral on Allen Street, but in a narrow lot on Freemont Street, six doors west of the rear entrance to the corral."

*(3) Doc Holliday was born August 14,  1851, which means he was only 13 years old when the Civil War ended on May 26, 1865. Wyatt and Virgil Earp were born March 18, 1848 and  July 18, 1843 respectively. Morgan, the youngest of the three brothers, was born April 24, 1851, which means he was still 4 months older than Doc. 

Dir: John Sturges - Cast: James Garner (Wyatt Earp), Jason Robards (Doc Holliday), Robert Ryan (Ike Clanton), John Voigt (Curly Bill Brocius), Sam Melville (Morgan Earp), Frank Converse (Virgil Earp), Albert Salmi, Charles Aidman, Monte Markham, Robert Philips, William Schallert - Cinematography: Lucien Ballard - Music: Jerry Goldsmith.