Search - Hour of the Gun on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1967 DVD Release: 05/17/2005 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 41 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 5 Genres: Western, Historical Film, Docudrama, Revisionist Western

John Sturges directed this sequel to his Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which is more of a melancholy character study than an action Western. The Edward Anhalt screenplay (based on Douglas D. Martin's -Tombstone's Epitaph) traces Wyatt Earp's (James Garner) moral decline from a lawman with high ideals to a mean-spirited vigilante bent on personal revenge. Ironically, Doc Holliday (Jason Robards), an admitted lawless gambler, reacts to Earp's vengeful turnabout by becoming the moral force that Earp has rejected. When Earp's brothers are killed by goons employed by Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan), Earp becomes obsessed with vengeance and organizes a posse to track down the killers. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

James Garner - Wyatt Earp
Jason Robards, Jr. - Doc Holliday
Robert Ryan - Ike Clanton
Albert Salmi - Octavius Roy
Charles Aidman - Horace Sullivan

The MGM DVD of John Sturges' Hour of the Gun (1967) offers a choice of how to watch the movie: one side is letterboxed at 2.35:1 (with enhancement for 16 x 9 monitors), capturing the movie's original Panavision image, and the other is full-screen (1.33:1), panned-and-scanned to fill the monitor. Anyone with any sense and a monitor bigger than 18 inches will choose the letterboxed side; the pan-and-scan job on the full-screen side is done well, but it's no substitute for the proper aspect ratio and image, even if the main focus of this movie is characterization and not images or action. The latter is very violent, especially for the period in which this movie was made, but the real emphasis of the film is on historical accuracy (in the action and portrayals). Sturges' goal was to demythologize the personae of Wyatt Earp (James Garner) and the others involved in the struggle for control of Tombstone, AZ, in the year 1881; he succeeded, but the result is also a dark, brooding film that engages in a little too much moralizing (little of it resolved) for most Western fans to enjoy. It's interesting viewing, but it's also not half as entertaining or engrossing as Sturges' earlier, more legend-based Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). The 101-minute film has been given 16 chapters, which is adequate, and comes with the original trailer, which makes the movie look more exciting than it is. There are optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles, but no other extras, which is a bit puzzling, considering that there is at least one promotional making-of featurette about the film in existence. The disc opens automatically on a simple, easy-to-use single-layer menu. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide