You won't be disappointed!

Such a frustrating disappointment

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I just watched this on TCM free on-demand. The story starts with the famous Gun Fight at the OK corral as Wyatt Earp (James Garner), Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) and the other Earp brothers confront Ike Clanton's gang (Robert Ryan). The story is in some ways a sequel to John Sturges previous film 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'(1957) with different actors. The plot here deals with the aftermath of the famous gun battle, the court trials, and the revenge killings that followed. I felt that Jason Robards' was the standout performance here by far. His fine depiction of hard drinking seriously ill Doc Holliday is both memorable and believable. One standout scene is after Doc has an argument with Wyatt Earp and gets punched for what he says, his reaction to that punch is one only a man of Mr. Robards' talents could express so well; he was hurt both physically and emotionally at the same time by the punch. The punch also revealed just how sick he was in spite of his hiding it. Mr. Robards is, in my opinion, one of the greatest screen actors and often underrated as such. James Garner was competent, yet only had to act like a tougher less good-natured version of his Bret Maverick TV persona, there really wasn't much range to his Wyatt Earp. Robert Ryan was also in the film, unfortunately he had very little screen time or decent scenes to show off his usually impressive talents; any decent actor could have played his role. Overall it was a good if formula western with no real surprises to brag about. The reason it's worth watching is for Jason Robards' stand out performance, some excellent dialog, and fine music by Jerry Goldsmith. At the end the TCM host said this was considered John Sturges finest western, I have to disagree, a few of his other works 'The Magnificent Seven' and 'Last Train From Gun Hill' were at least as good or better. Don't get me wrong, this is a good western, just nothing special or different like some of his others works were. I give this film a 6 out of 10 stars.

A true Western for western fans is what we got here. Down to earth and believable this movie has grit and realism in several parts that when put together bring credibility to the well told tale of the gunfight at OK corral and then some. James Garner pulls it off nicely along with a splendid supporting cast that all relish their roles and hold nothing back. Decent musical score that helps us stay tuned in too. Enjoy the whiskey drinking, horses, saloons, dust, threats, good and bad guys and notice how the law worked but really didn't. Its like they were between trusting it and not trusting it and this grey zone is where this films spends its time. Law and order was necessary or total chaos would reign. However, the law was in its beginning stages and was not mature enough or strong enough to stand on its own. Furthermore, it could be bought and manipulated of which this movie shows well. The movie is a must see again which is the true test of a good flick and worthy of being in ones library. Get a snack, tasty drink and begin the...

"Hour of the Gun" is one of two films John Sturges made about the notorious Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the first being "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" itself from ten years earlier. It is sometimes seen as a kind of sequel to the earlier film, but does not star any of the same actors. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were played by Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in the earlier film and here by James Garner and Jason Robards. Also, there is no direct continuity between the two films. "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" had incorrectly shown Ike Clanton as dying in the Gunfight; here he is correctly shown as surviving it by running away. (Clanton himself claimed to have been unarmed at the time, a claim which has been disputed)."Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" the Gunfight comes as the final climax of the film; here it is the opening event, with the main part of the film detailing the subsequent feud between Earp, his brothers, Holliday and his other supporters and the Clanton gang. Sturges wanted the film to be more historically accurate than previous cinematic accounts of this subject, including his own previous effort and the notoriously inaccurate "My Darling Clementine". The Gunfight, therefore, is shown as a brief affair, lasting less than a minute with only three men (Billy Clanton and the two McLaurie brothers) killed. Earlier versions had made the shootout last for several minutes with a significantly higher death toll.After the Gunfight, Ike Clanton swears vengeance for the deaths of his friends and brother, possibly motivated by guilt at his own failure to protect them. He has the Earps and Holliday charged with murder, but they are acquitted by the court. He and his gang then ambush first Virgil Earp, seriously injuring him, and then Morgan, killing him. Now it is Wyatt Earp's turn to seek revenge for the death of a brother. He forms a posse to hunt down and kill the surviving members of the Clanton Gang in what has become known as the Earp Vendetta Ride. In the film's one major historical inaccuracy their last victim is Ike himself. (In reality Ike Clanton was killed by another lawman, Jonas Brighton, who had no connection to the Earps).I was not particularly impressed by Garner as Earp, who seemed to find it difficult to step into the shoes of Lancaster and Henry Fonda who had played the role in "My Darling Clementine". Modern audiences might also find him wanting when compared to Kevin Costner in "Wyatt Earp" from the nineties. I found that Garner was rather too taciturn and unemotional and that he did not really convey in any depth the psychological development which Earp undergoes during the film, from an upright, by- the-book lawman in the early scenes to the later man obsessed with revenge and quite prepared to go outside the law to avenge his dead brother. Robards was not too bad as Holliday if one can overlook the fact that he was too old for the role. (Robards was 45 at the time the film was made; Holliday was only 30 at the time of the Gunfight, and died at 36). Robert Ryan was quite good as Ike, crediting him with a certain intelligence and making him more than a mere thug (which is how he is sometimes portrayed).As a revenge Western, "Hour of the Gun" is a relatively good one, with some decent action sequences, but compared to the earlier "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" or the later "Wyatt Earp" it lacks the monumentality and the sense of the epic which I find appropriate to a story which is, after all, one of the great legends of the American West. 6/10

Reportedly the John Sturges-directed, ponderous Hour of the Gun that came some ten years after the high-profile flourished Gunfight at the OK Corral, was a much more appreciated film. Mostly the admiration came form the director who was dismayed at the bending of historical facts to fit into a palpable Hollywood vehicle.Writing kudos to Edward Anhalt who takes the gnarly legal situations of the film and makes them gripping as scenes are set up to examine the way in which Wyatt Earp uses the instruments of the law-enforcement system to bring the Clanton Brothers to trial for their wide-ranging activity of robbery and assassinations. Moreover the film highlights well how the character of Wyatt Earp disintegrates to the level of avenger in order to force justice.It's a thinking man's film. These gunslingers talk a lot about their reasons for doing what they do. The deadly gunfight at the OK Corral happens very early in the movie, and the nullifying affect it has on the balance of power between law-abiding citizens and the outlaws becomes a social pivot point in how the film defines success. This is a period of change in the West, a time in which laws were supposed to supersede gun violence, and the script makes note to repeat the efforts of Earp to utilize this new rule of the land.The performances of James Garner as Wyatt Earp, Jason Robards as Doc Holliday, and Robert Ryan as Ike Clanton anchor the film one three distinct personas. Each represents a defined viewpoint of how civilization is proceeding, and each argues as well with words as he shoots his gun.There is some slight bending of historical accuracy as when Garner's Earp finally tracks down Ryan's Ike Clanton and the confrontation is one of those classical Hollywood standoffs. This only seems slightly self-indulgent for the filmmakers. This is still a classically-structured movie and we already know the story, but seeing how Hour of the Gun reaffirms the myth of the West will have you thinking more about how America developed such a respectful admiration of guns.