The latest popular docu-drama from Netflix takes a look at a well-known aspect of America’s early history: Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War gives us another look at a shootout in Arizona in 1881 that’s since become known as The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Combining historians’ testimonials, dramatic re-enactments and narration from Ed Harris, Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War depicts the build-up and consequences to this shootout and the feud that it kicked off. We learn about the combatants and the war it turned into, as well as how it reached into the American government and British monarchy.
If you’ve watched Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War and have found yourself in a wild (west) mood, you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of other movies and TV shows that have depicted this same event… in vary degrees of accuracy, as you’ll soon see.
So as What to Watch’s Western expert, I’ve picked a few of these stories that you can watch, most of which are famous (or should be).
Tombstone
One of the most famous modern westerns is Tombstone, released in 1993, and so there’s a good chance that many Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War watchers will know it as their entry point into the story.
Tombstone is a relatively loose adaptation of the entire story, not focusing on the gunfight alone as some other adaptations do. The cast is seriously stacked:
Kurt Russell plays Earp while Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton depict his brothers; Val Kilmer is Doc Holliday (with Netflix’s casting department clearly taking inspiration from this role) with Stephen Lang playing Ike Clanton and Thomas Haden Church joining as Billy Clanton. Charlton Heston, Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Michael Rooker, Billy Bob Thornton, Billy Zane and Terry O’Quinn also appear, and Robert Mitchum narrates.
If you live in the US you can watch Tombstone on Hulu or Paramount Plus, while in the UK it’s on Disney Plus.
My Darling Clementine
Now onto one of the most classic Westerns of all time from 1946, My Darling Clementine was directed by the legendary John Ford, and starring Henry Fonda and Linda Darnell.Â
My Darling Clementine combines the story of the build-up to the O.K. Corrall shoot-out with a romantic plot between Fonda’s Earp and Cathy Downs’ Clementine Carter. It’s not exactly close to the true events, given some of the deaths and roles and the fact that Carter isn’t a real person, but once you’ve seen Netflix’s doc you’ll know that anyway. This is reportedly because it’s based on an biography of Earp in which the Marshall lied about much of his past.
The movie has proven influential for many other film-makers with Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Michael Mann and Sam Peckinpah all listing it amongst their favorites,Â
At the time of writing My Darling Clementine isn’t on a streaming service in the US or UK, so if you want to watch it you’ll have to buy or rent it digitally or buy the DVD or Blu-ray.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Of all the entries in this list, the one you probably could have guessed to be about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral is… Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
This 1957 movie is considered by some to be a remake of the previous John Ford movie from a decade prior, or if another 1930s movie called Frontier Marshal, and it’s another director’s attempt to depict the drama. This time John Sturges takes the lead, and the movie again has a star-studded cast with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas playing Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.
In what’s becoming a theme, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral plays pretty fast and loose with the real events of the showdown but it does bring in characters based on other real-life personas (with a range of involvements in the events).
Gunfight was nominated for a few Oscars and remains a respected Western, even if it’s not as well known nowadays as My Darling Clementine. Look out for other Western icons in the movie like Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam and John Ireland, as well as Star Trek‘s DeForest Kelley and Dennis Hopper.
In both the US and UK, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is streaming on Paramount Plus, but in the US it’s also free on Pluto TV and Hoopla.
Hour of the Gun
After directing Gunfight at the O.K. Corrall, Sturges wasn’t done with the story of Wyatt Earp, because a decade later he returned to direct Hour of the Gun.
Hour of the Gun is a much more accurate depiction of the shoot-out between the Earps and the Cowboys, though it does take some dramatic liberties to create a conclusive story. It stars James Garner as Earp, Jason Robards as Doc Holliday and Robert Ryan as Ike Clanton.
Of all the classic Westerns on this list, Hour of the Gun arguably keeps closest to the true events of 1881 (not that that’s saying much) but it’s one of the more forgotten of the O.K. Corrall adaptations.
Because of this, it’s a little harder to watch online. US streamers can watch it via MGM Plus but in the UK, you’ll have to buy or rent it digitally (or buy the DVD).
Wyatt Earp
Not to be confused with an old TV show of the same name, the Wyatt Earp movie is the most modern entry on this list as it comes from 1994, only six months after Tombstone. It was reportedly originally designed to be a TV miniseries but was instead shot as a movie.
Directed by Star Wars and Indiana Jones writer Lawrence Kasdan, Wyatt Earp is more of a biopic of the titular lawman than a dramatization of the O.K. Corral fight, but obviously that means it covers lots of the same ground.
Kevin Costner plays the lead role with Dennis Quad stepping in as Doc Holliday and Gene Hackman depicting Wyatt’s father Nicholas. Wyatt Earp was quite poorly received, possibly because of the recency of Tombstone, and possibly because it’s really long at three hours. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography though.
Unfortunately, Wyatt Earp isn’t on a streaming service in the US or UK, but you can buy or rent it digitally or pick up the DVD.
Doctor Who
Watch On
No, I didn’t accidentally start writing a different article mid-way through this one about the Wild West; some of the classic Doctor Who episodes from the 1960s jumped on the Wyatt Earp bandwagon too.
This comes from the third season of Doctor Who from 1966, when William Hartnell was the titular time-traveler. In one four-episode serial, the doctor and his companions travel to Tombstone to witness the O.K. Corrall gunfight.Â
It goes without saying that this serial, called The Gunfighter, isn’t exactly historically accurate — time travelers almost definitely show up in a British police box in the real 1881 shoot-out.Â
But if you’ve already seen a few of the Wyatt Earp movies on this list and want something a bit different, it’s worth a watch. That’s especially true because it’s pretty easy to stream.
In the US, you can watch old Doctor Who episodes on Tubi, and in the UK, classic Doctor Who episodes are on iPlayer. Both of these options are free!
