以西部传奇警长怀特．厄普为题材的影片中最新最大的一部，可惜成绩不是最好。导演劳伦斯．卡斯丹采用文艺片的手法叙事，企图把主角还原为普通人的血肉之躯，刻画他的出身背景与人际关系多于西部片传统的正邪对决，节奏比较缓慢冗长，也缺少火爆的枪战动作场面。不过全片制作严谨，凯文．科斯特纳也依旧维持了相当的明星魅力。剧情描述怀特．厄普的一生如何挣扎于家庭、兄弟、夫妻、朋友之间的矛盾。有一次他摆平了发酒疯的枪手而成为小镇警长，他想实施法治，规定任何人不准带枪入镇，也不准在镇上决斗，结果惹火了当地的歹徒，双方不得不展开一场大火拼。James Newton Howard's luminous Wyatt Earp pays explicit homage to the classic Western scores of Hollywood greats like Dimitri Tiomkin and Alfred Newman. By turns rousing, tender, and bittersweet, it's music of mythic proportions, brilliantly evoking the grandeur of the Old West. Howard subjugates traditional action themes in favor of a pastoral approach channeling the everyday heroism of pioneer life: the hammer falls of railroad construction are given as much thematic attention as the climactic gunfight at the OK Corral, and romance and gunplay co-exist as equals, each the yin to the other's yang.