Speaking of shootouts in Arizona, 132 years ago today: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

[Aristus]

5. Despite the inaccuracies in "Tombstone", it's still the Hollywood account

most faithful to the actual event.

I grew up about 30 miles west of Tombstone, and visited every few months. I became very familiar with both the legend and the reality of the event.

Several things that "Tombstone" got right:

The gunfight took place, not in a "corral" as we know it - an enclosed timber fence - but in a vacant lot and the street leading to it.

The town of Tombstone is situated in the mountains of Arizona, which the film depicts accurately, having been photographed at a location roughly 20 miles from the real Tombstone. Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp" was filmed in the prairie lands of South Dakota. The flat landscape doubling as Southern Arizona looks nothing like the real location. Most of the other "O.K. Corral" movies were film on studio back lots in California.