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Wyatt Earp (1994)

Director:
Lawrence Kasdan
COUNTRY
USA
GENRE
Western
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Wyatt Earp
RUNNING TIME
190 minutes
Producer:
Kevin Costner
Lawrence Kasdan
Jim Wilson
Screenwriter:
Dan Gordon
Lawrence Kasdan


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Wyatt Earp Kevin Costner
Doc Holliday Dennis Quaid ½
Nicholas Porter Earp Gene Hackman ½
James Earp David Andrews
Morgan Earp Linden Ashby
Warren Earp Jim Caviezel
Tommy 'Behind-The-Deuce' O'Rourke John Doe
Ike Clanton Jeff Fahey
Josie Marcus Joanna Going ½
Johnny Behan Mark Harmon ½
Virgil Earp Michael Madsen
Allie Earp Catherine O'Hara
Ed Masterson Bill Pullman
Big Nose Kate Isabella Rossellini
Bat Masterson Tom Sizemore
Bessie Earp JoBeth Williams
Mattie Blaylock Mare Winningham
Mr. Sutherland James Gammon
Mrs. Sutherland Karen Grassle
Tom McLaury Adam Baldwin
Urilla Sutherland Annabeth Gish

 

Review

Lawrence Kasdan, who was such a fresh new director in the early 80's with films like Body Heat and The Big Chill, may well have felt ambitious when making this daunting epic about the famous title character, but apparently he put all his ambition into reels and running time, creating an utterly uninspiring, meandering recount of Wyatt Earp's life and time in the process. Remarkably, after the excessive 190 minutes, you still feel like you haven't really gotten to know Mr. Earp very well, which is not exactly a great testament to Kevin Costner's performance. Still, the biggest problem is Kasdan's script, which is so concerned with dwelling on the small and mundane that it completely fails to bring any wholeness to the story. Instead we're trapped in umpteen meticulously arranged sets and unaccounted supporting characters who appear and disappear so fast that their actors' only redemption is that they don't get enough screen-time to be dragged down by Costner's out-of-depth acting.

Copyright © 5.6.2017 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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