More on historical accuracy


Generally I believe movies should be historically accurate enough so as to enable the viewer to suspend his awareness that he is watching a movie and for several hours believe he in another place and another time. Unfortunately this will vary from viewer to viewer depending on the historical knowledge of the viewer. Posters on some of the Wyatt Earp movie boards criticize a particular movie because hats or belts or holsters are from another historical period. Maybe for this viewer seeing the wrong hats on the screen just made it difficult for him to go back to another place and time. Certainly if we saw Wyatt drive off in a pick up truck almost all viewers would find it too incredulous and start trashing the movie.

Regarding GFAOKC, I was not overly concerned that Wyatt was clean cut or that names were changed or that events were inaccurate or out sequence. What kept on coming to my mind throughout the movie was how the hotel rooms were so ornately furnished. I know the set designers wanted period pieces but all the rooms, even Kate's room on the south side of town seemed overly luxurious. I wonder if moviemakers thought that kind of eye candy was appealing to 1950s audiences and would help at the box office?

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Since I have been doing Old West living history I have noticed that many Westerns have glaring errors such as Busacadero gun rigs (the low slung holster through the belt gun rig) which are a Hollywood invention, belt loops on trousers (they were again turn of the century), pointed toe boots. Some even use the wrong guns. Almost every film uses the Colt Single Action M1873 Revolver in one of its various models even if the film is set before 1873 (John Waynes Comencheros is a classic example of this set in independant Texas but The Duke still uses a Colt SAA).

With GFAOKC there are so many historical mistakes (a couple commonm in all the films like Wyatt Earp being portrayed as a dark haired man when he was blonde) We know that before the fight Doc was living with Big Nose Kate Elder in Flys rooming house (which backs onto the actual gunfight site (which was not even in the OK Corral but in Lot 2 Block 13 on Freemont Street) not in a hotel and would have been simply furnished like most rooms in the town as Tombstone was still recovering from a major fire a few months before.

I am studying the events surrounding the gunfight for a History Course and use a couple of interesting books. One is a personl diary of a resident of the time and the other is the court transcripts of the hearings into the fight.

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You should stop by the TOMBSTONE message board, robyn. A lot of very knowledgable people post there, along with the usual trolls it's fun to ridicule. My last post there involves this movie, and one part of it that may have been accurate (if only by accident).

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Robyn,
Strictly speaking, "buscadero" rigs were not invented by Hollywood. Legendary Arizona lawman Commodore Perry Owens wore one in the 1880s, and was photographed in it. Several other period photos show men (a Texas Ranger, in one case) wearing slotted gunbelts with low-hanging holsters. These were not common, but were known. What Hollywood (or, more properly, what stunt man and fast-draw champion Arvo Ojala invented FOR Hollywood), was the metal-lined holster that served as the platform for quick-draw stunts. The metal-lined holster didn't bind the revolver, but let the cylinder start to turn even before the gun left the holster, to speed up the draw. Matt Dillon, Paladin, Marshal Dan Troop and his deputy Johnny McKay, The Maverick Brothers, all the Cartwrights, Rowdy Yates and Gil Favor, the stars of The Magnificent Seven and literally dozens of others used the Ojala rigs in classic 1950's Western TV shows and in many films as well.

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae

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Well the actual gunfight was fought in a very confined space and took less than a minute. Compared to that any other mistakes pale into insignificance. Great movie though.

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