Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

I've already seen early 1990s twins Wyatt Earp and Tombstone, so I am familiar with the story behind Wyatt Earp. We could say the story of Earp is the Robin Hood or the Bible of the Wild West - no two versions or interpretations are identical and the between the "good" and "bad" guys is continually blurred.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral focuses heavily on the lawman Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) and the construction of his relationship with gunslinger John "Doc" Holliday (Kirk Douglas) before the famous gunfight that made Wyatt Earp a Western legend.

This film is superb.

Having watched a few older westerns in the last few months as part of my university studies I found I had a much higher appreciation of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. While it is won't be on par with greats The Searchers and A Fistful of Dollars (you'd be hard-pressed finding any), I have to put this film up with some of my favourites.
The storytelling is simple, yet effective; Douglas and Lancaster are great as the leading men; the script, while obviously dated, is still fantastic - I loved everything about this film. The supporting cast, including the likes of Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, Dennis Hopper, Lee Van Cleef (even only if for a few minutes), John Ireland and Lyle Bettger, all did exactly as much as they had to to give their characters the sense of realism the film craves, as well as add a lot of colour to what could easily have been a boring story.

Give it a look - it still rates as well as the later reimaginations of the Wyatt Earp tale.