Wyatt Earp

I remember from my youth that Wyatt Earp was "brave, courageous and bold."  Last weekend I caught Wyatt Earp on television.  This was the 1994 movie starring Kevin Costner (b. 1955).

I think that this may be the most accurate portrayal of the real Earp, but you have to keep in mind that Earp's real history is very cloudy and many details will never be known.  In both of the recent movies, Wyatt Earp and Tombstone (1993), Morgan Earp dies on a pool table.  In reality he died on a couch where they put him after he was shot.  Also, Josie Marcus, who lived with Wyatt for the rest of his life, was not really that beautiful.  All the actresses chosen to portray her are very definitely beautiful.  And in this movie, Wyatt burns the house where he lived with his first wife, when in reality he sold it for $75.00.  Are the details really necessary?  Take a look at the 'Goofs' link on IMDb for more.

The USA extended version of this film is 212 minutes in duration.  I had the pleasure of watching it on commercial television for over four hours.  Did I say pleasure?  It gave me time to walk the dog and do other chores, since the commercial breaks were close to ten minutes long.

Enough complaining!  This movie had a wonderful cast.  As I may have said before, Costner is best in sports movies, but he also does well in westerns.  All of the major characters are also played by stars including Gene Hackman, Bill Pullman, JoBeth Williams, Tom Sizemore, Mark Harmon, etc.

The real color in this movie comes from the Bit Parts.  Since the cast is so large, let's look at just a few.  Norman Howell played Johnny Ringo.  This was a small part in Wyatt Earp.  In Tombstone, Ringo is much more prominent.  In reality, I don't know how well either of these movies did, but I know that Ringo didn't die at the hands of Earp (as in Wyatt Earp) or Doc Holliday (as in Tombstone). 

Norman Howell is a stunt man.  He is in over 200 movies, but only has acting credits in 20.  I think it was a smart move to cast stunt artists in some of the parts.  His first acting role was in The Cowboys (1972) starring John Wayne. 

Indian Charlie, who is killed by Earp in a creek during the revenge scene, was played by Scotty Augare.  Augare is only in two movies and one TV series, but he was a wrangler for Dances with Wolves (1990) and I bet that is when he came to the attention of Costner.  He is a very handsome man, obviously of Native American lineage.

Ben Zeller played one of the doctors.  If you look closely, you'll find that Zeller was construction coordinator for Dances with Wolves, and was in the cast of Silverado (1985).  Another Costner find?

Did you see Tea Leone (b. 1966)?  She is a dance hall girl in a very small speaking part, only her third movie.  I missed her completely in A League of Their Own (1992), a fact I just noticed while doing this research.

Lastly, at the end of the movie we see young Mackenzie Astin (b. 1973) on the ship in Alaska with Wyatt and Josie.  Astin had the lead role in Iron Will, released the same year as Wyatt Earp.  I liked him in both movies.  He is the son of Patty Duke and John Astin, and now has 46 titles listed on IMDb.

I won't recommend that you put together a list of movies about Wyatt Earp to watch when you are snowed in for a weekend, but that's up to you.  All I know is, "Long may his story be told."

Kevin Costner 1995 - 1997

I wonder why big name actors get involved in post-apocalyptic movie settings.  Look at the three movies Kevin Costner made in 1995, 1996 and 1997.

- Waterworld 1995.  Set in the future, after the polar ice caps melted and the world was engulfed in oceans.  A silly premise for a movie.  It could have been called Waterworld, the Search for Dirt.  It is filled with characters named, Nord, Bone, Djeng, and Depth Gauge.

Quite a few bit actors, though.  Michael Jeter was in 71 acting roles, including some good ones.  Patch Adams (1998), The Green Mile (1999) and Jurassic Park III (2001).  He is small of stature, and his roles tend to be a little off-base for some reason, playing the technical expert on either the good or the bad side of the story.

Jeanne Tripplehorn has a strange name, but she is a good actress.  She was in The Firm (1993) with Tom Cruise, a decent thriller.  She's been in 31 roles in the last ten years, and is a regular on "Big Love" on TV with Bill Paxton.  I think we will see her quite a bit in the future.

- Tin Cup 1996 was a sports movie about a down-on-his-luck golfer.  This puts Costner at his best, in a sports movie, with Rene Russo and a great cast of misfit golf groupies.  Supporting roles include Don Johnson and Cheech Marin.  Marin actually plays a guy trying to bring Costner's character back down to reality!

In the smaller roles, but larger than extras, we find Dennis Burkley (128 career roles), Rex Linn (72 roles), Mickey Jones (121 roles), and Michael Milhoan (77 roles).  This was a good movie.

- The Postman 1997 was set in the future, after the war, and Costner found a postman's uniform to wear.  He brings the world together by starting mail delivery, against all odds.

It was another silly movie.  As I look through the cast and the movies they have made, I find that they tend to make movies that I have no desire to see.  I watched Waterworld and The Postman once, simply because Costner was in them.  Disappointed both times.

Dear Mr. Costner,  If you are reading my blog, stick to sports movies, or at least to parts where you can play an average, likable guy.  Oh, and please, if you do another part as a Briton (Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves) at least TRY to use an accent.

Baseball in the Movies

Somehow I found myself watching For Love of the Game from 1999 with Kevin Costner last night (again), and it started me thinking about baseball movies.  (Oh no!  He's thinking again!)  How many baseball movies are there?

If you enter "baseball" in IMDb, you get 149 hits under partial titles.  It didn't look very accurate, so I did a Google search for "movies about baseball."  That turned up this web site, http://www.bostonbaseball.com/baseball_movies and they list 199 titles.

Next question...how many featured Kevin Costner?  That site lists four baseball movies with Costner.  Chasing Dreams from 1982 is one of Costner's first films, and apparently it was not very good.  Then there are the famous ones, Bull Durham in 1988, Field of Dreams in 1989 and For Love of the Game.  Those last three are all pretty good movies with lots of great bit actors.  Let's look at some of the interesting bit parts in For Love.

Vin Scully, the famous baseball announcer played himself.  He has had 11 acting roles plus 43 appearances as "self" over the years, including "Mister Ed" in an episode called "Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed" in 1963.  But he never really acted, he just did announcing and narration.

Bill and Sharon Costner, Kevin's real parents, appeared as his parents in a thought balloon during the end of the game.  They also appeared in Tin Cup four years earlier, another Costner sports film...different sport.

Director Sam Raimi's brother Ted had an extra part as a doorman.  Ted also has 80 roles of his own listed on IMDb.  Sam must be an interesting person.  He was amazing in a 1993 film called Indian Summer.  Sam has acted in 25 films, directed 16, written 19, and produced 40.  That's well rounded.

Larry Joshua played the obnoxious Yankee's fan in the airport bar.  Larry was also in Dances with Wolves with Costner in 1990.  He has 64 roles listed, mostly on TV, but with a good number of movies and a great NY accent.

Hugh Ross was the trainer for Coster's character, Billy Chapel, who helped him back after the accident.  Ross was in Wyatt Earp with Costner in 1994.  Are we seeing a pattern here?

I guess when you are as big in Hollywood as Kevin Costner, you can cast whoever you want.  That is not a bad thing, though.  If you know who they are and what they can do, you can more easily place them in a fitting part so they can bring more magic to the screen. 

Well, there isn't as much magic in For Love of the Game as there was in Field of Dreams, but its a pretty good movie that could really be called a chick flick for guys.