American Experience: Wyatt Earp

Discover the true story of iconic Wild West lawman Wyatt Earp in this installment of American Experience. His reputation as a deadeye quick-draw cemented during the shootout at the O.K. Corral, Earp would later rise to the status of folk hero thanks for his tireless efforts in taming the west. But Earp wasn't always the do-gooder the legends made him out to be. In this documentary, filmmakers eschew the myth in favor of the man, tracing the troubled youth of a drifting opportunist who married young, then fell in with a lawless crowd following his wife's untimely death. It was precisely those underworld ties, however, that helped to establish Earp's credibility as a lawman, and led him straight to the 1881 gunfight that historians are still talking about today. Later, after avenging his brother's death and fleeing to Los Angeles, Earp spend his last days searching for redemption, and a means of reclaiming his tarnished image.