Trailer
Plot summary
Wyatt Earp spends his boyhood on the family farm in Pella, Iowa, during the Civil War, while Virgil and James, his older brothers, are away with the Union Army. He tries to run off and enlist by lying about his age, and his father stops him. When the war ends the family heads west, and Wyatt takes work driving wagons and refereeing boxing matches. Back in Missouri he marries Urilla Sutherland and becomes a lawman; she dies of typhoid fever while pregnant, and he burns their house and drifts, robbing a man in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, until his father posts bail. He hunts buffalo, meets Bat and Ed Masterson, and serves as a deputy marshal in Wichita then Dodge City, where complaints of excessive force cost him the post. Chasing Dave Rudabaugh, he meets Doc Holliday.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Wyatt Earp (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Kevin Costner was originally involved with Tombstone, another film about Wyatt Earp, written by Kevin Jarre. He disagreed with Jarre over the focus, believing the emphasis should be on Wyatt Earp rather than the many characters in Jarre's script, left the project and teamed up with Lawrence Kasdan on his own Wyatt Earp.
- After leaving Tombstone, Costner used his then-considerable clout to convince most of the major studios to refuse to distribute the competing film, which affected casting on the rival project.
