Product Description

Guns don't stay in their holsters long when vigilantes Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday meet outlaws in the Wild West. James Garner (Maverick) and OscarÂ(r) winner* Jason Robards (All the President's Men) saddle up as the legendary gunslingers in this riveting, fact-based story that is "the closest filmmakers have ever come to the truth of the OK Corral gunfight" (LA Herald-Examiner). With the dust barely settling at the OK Corral, the notorious Clanton brothers unleash their revenge. One by one, they gun down Wyatt Earp's brothersbut they won't have the last shot. Using his US Marshal's badge as his authority, and Doc Holliday (Robards) as his deputizedright-hand man, Earp begins a zealous pursuit of vengeance that the west will never forget.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11587 in DVD
• Brand: MGM HOME VIDEO (UNDER FOX)
• Released on: 2005-05-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Features

• Guns don't stay in their holsters long when vigilantes Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday meet outlaws in the Wild West. James Garner (Maverick) and Oscar® winner* Jason Robards (All the President's Men) saddle up as the legendary gunslingers in this riveting, fact-based story that is "the closest filmmakers have ever come to the truth of the OK Corral gunfight" (LA Herald-Examiner).With the

Customer Reviews

Excellent 60's revisionist Earp Film
Hour of the Gun is director John Sturges' own revisionist follow-on to his earlier Gunfight At the OK Corral made in 1957 with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Whereas the older film was a traditional stereotypical western which ended with a long, heavily fictionalised re-creation of the famous gunfight this one starts with the gunfight and focuses on its aftermath. This time Sturges and his screenwriter have made a conscious effort for historical accuracy and the first hour or so of this film is probably about 80% true (Gunfight at the OK Corral was about 80% fiction right down to a climatic fight that included several people, particularly John Ireland's Johnny Ringo, who were never present). The film was also influenced by a book called The Earp Brothers of Tombstone by Frank Waters, which appeared in 1966 (one year previously) and was the first major work to try and debunk the Earp legend. More recent historians have discredited Waters for making his book as fictionised as Stuart Lake's Frontier Marshall the tome that set up the Wyatt Earp myth back in 1931. Hour of the Gun falls between the two camps - it depicts Earp as an embittered, vengeful man but also softens the extent of his revenge killings and creates a greater initial myth about the man's character in order to cut him down to size than he deserved at the time. For a Hollywood of its time the film is refreshing in its historical accuracy although it distorts the role of Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan) who is here the leader of the outlaws and creates an entirely fictional ending in which Earp and Doc Holliday track him down to a hideout in Mexico. The names of Clanton's henchmen whom Earp hunts down have also been altered and the character played by Steve Inhart who is killed by Earp in a scene taken from Stuart Lake's book was actually called Indian Charlie (but presumably Sturges didn't want to make Earp seem like a racist by shooting an Indian).

The film works very well as a cynical, disenhartened look at a mythical hero (the audience's viewpoint is that of Doc Holliday, played with world weary resignation by Jason Robards, who sees his idol disintergrate but can't bear to leave him). James Garner as Earp is suitably unsympathetic and far removed from his easy Rockford Files personna. There is an excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith and you should go out and buy the CD. Sturges makes splendid use of the widescreen ratio and this film should get a w/s DVD release as soon as possible. It's world shadows that of the Vietnam era when we learned that our heroes weren't what they seemed and what we were fighting for was not what it once was. An essential 60's western

What Happened After the OK Corral
The HOUR OF THE GUN is a remarkable achievement for its time, following the exploits of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and company AFTER the gunfight at the OK Corral ... and it's fascinating.

Jason Robards plays a wonderfully subdued Doc Holliday, almost to the point of trying to remain Wyatt's moral voice.

In a surprising turn, James Garner turns in a dynamic performance as the stiff-laced Wyatt, who won't rest until justice for the death of his brother has been avenged.

This film serves as a companion piece to THE GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL (wildly inaccurate in most of its depictions), and it succeeds admirably in attempting to set the record straight.

But, there's still the Johnny Ringo bit ...

While a VHS purchase may work well for some Wyatt and Doc purists, I'm holding out for a DVD widescreen version, hopefully with some extras for those of us who believe good things come to those who wait.

When the Legend Becomes Fact
There's no Hollywood romanticism in director John Sturges' hard-hitting account of the O.K. Corral aftermath. "Hour of the Gun" (1967) remains among the great unheralded Westerns, with superb performances by James Garner, Jason Robards and Robert Ryan. The role of Wyatt Earp is a perfect fit for Garner - it's too bad he didn't appear in more Westerns of this caliber. Far superior to Sturges' overrated "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957).