Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War

As a TOURGUIDE in Arizona that visits Tombstone often, I was fascinated by the pauses during the programs re-enactments while listening to Ed Harris' explanation of the backstories and politics that were involved with the situation. It was fascinating, surprising, and eye-opening - if not jaw dropping.

Most of us know the Wyatt Earp/Tombstone story and have probably seen the 1993 Kurt Russell/Val Kilmer TOMBSTOME film...This is not a Glamorized Hollywood movie. It's much like a documentary, where the backstory and "dots" connected were jaw dropping at times. It was quite the Spiderweb. You'll watch this and recognize the parallels consistent with today's corruption in the media, with Politicians, and big businesses.

I promise you, you will sit up in your chair, put your hand over your forehead and realize, WOW...SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE!

I've recommended this to my entire team of Tour guides, and they agree - It's very informative, entertaining, fascinating and very WELL DONE!

GOOF: Ep3 At 31:33 when Wyatt's lawyer went to answer the door, you can see a digital thermostat with the green glow, on the wall, on the right side of the door.

GOOF: Ep6 when they show horse and carriage up north riding through the city, they horses are on asphalt The storytelling is really good, pulled me in from the start. Has me googling these historic figures and old newspaper clippings. The acting is amazingly good! I don't recognize anyone from the big screen but they are better than most known names.

Narrator comes in at the perfect time with his deep, frontier voice.

I've never been into cowboy stories before but this series might have just have gotten a new fan of the wild, Wild West! Love it!

This is an outstanding documentary on the events surrounding the Earps and the Clantons. I have read and watched plenty of books and documentaries about the events and this still provided new facts I never heard. This is not a straight documentary as they have actors playing the roles in little vignettes of the events. They all do a very commendable job of giving a human touch to the events. Ed Harris is a fantastic narrator. He is not just reading the script.

He uses various inflections in his voice to provide either humor or tension to the events he is narrating. He needs to do more of this kind of voicework. Where this show really shines is taking a very broad approach to the the events and discussing outside factors that led to the conflict. Some of these are the hurt feelings still being held by the South after the Civil War, America's debt from the war, trying to pay off that debt with silver from Arizona, said silver getting hijacked by stage coach robbers, J. P Morgan trying to get investors in England to give him loans to buy up the railroads, the recent assassination of President Garfield, Wells Fargo bankrolling Wyatt's Vendetta Ride until it becomes too scandalous, and, finally, the impression people in the East were getting of the West based on the inflammatory news articles in the New York and Washington D. C. papers. President Arthur even sent General Sherman to Arizona to determine if the violence was getting out of hand. Hint: It was. The gunfight at the OK Corral and the aftermath were not happening in a vacuum. They were affecting events all the way to Washington and Europe.

All of this is handled with pinpoint storytelling. Each of the six episode focuses on a different aspect of events. In the first episode you get the backstory to include how Tombstone came to exist, the climate in America post-Civil War, and the background on the Earps' and Clantons' conflict. Then you get an episode dealing with the OK Corral gunfight and the alternate views of both sides. There is an entire episode on the preliminary hearing trying the Earps for murder. This was fascinating and the best part of part of the series IMO, as most of the movies skip right over or give very little attention to the details of how close the Earps came to hanging. Ike Clanton comes across as a pretty sly and wily opponent rather than a drunken fool like he is portrayed in the movies. Yes, he drank, but he was also ingenious at times in how he manipulated the press and the townfolk.

The one negative I found in this show is the way they completely ignored Johnny Ringo. He is not even mentioned. Michael Biehn deserved better. Haha.

I binged this entire series last night as I could not wait for the next episode. A very well done series that deserves to be watched by anyone who enjoys historical documentaries.

This docudrama about the West, and more particularly, Tombstone and the Earps, is one of the best written, if not the best written, stories about what really happened. Through multiple sources looking at multiple aspects, we get a full idea of what was happening. How London to New York to Washington to Arizona all come into play between the Civil War, the railroad, the stagecoach, cattle, the newspapers, etc. Is a wonder. Marvelous writing and homework on the part of the producers and writers. It's literally like nothing you've ever seen before.

Why not a 10? Well, it's the acting. The acting isn't up to a 10 level. Everything else is, so that's why it gets a 9. The acting isn't bad, but when everything else is perfect, it could use a slight boast.

Well, if you only know Wyatt Earp from the movies, such as Tombstone (which is a great movie, BTW), then this will open your eyes to the complexity of the real Wyatt Earp.

It wasn't all so cut and dried as the movies make it out to be. And events didn't quite go down the way the movies claim. It's actually much more interesting than that!

This docu-drama does a great job of layering in the events, all the way from the local events in Tombstone, to the reverberations they caused politically and economically.

The drama parts are well acted and the story rattles along at a great pace. They manage to end each episode on a cliffhanger, too.

And a special mention for Ed Harris' outstanding narration!

I binge-watched it in one evening and i highly recommend it!