On January 24 at 8 p.m., witf will be airing a film from American Experience on one of the most controversial and mythic figures of the West.

Wyatt Earp is the award-winning story of one of the central figures in the narrative of how the West was won. The one-hour film features interviews with some of the best-known biographers and historians of the American West to present a fresh take on an old legend.

“A lot of people feel strongly that Wyatt Earp was either hero or villain. The real story is a lot more interesting than that,” explains Rob Rapley, who wrote, directed, and produced.

Wyatt Earp has been portrayed in countless movies and television shows by some of Hollywood’s greatest actors, including Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and more recently, Kevin Costner, but these popular fictions often belie the complexities and flaws of a man whose life is a lens on politics, justice and economic opportunity in the American frontier.

As a young man, Wyatt Earp was a caricature of the Western lawman, spending his days drinking in saloons, gambling, and visiting brothels. He gained notoriety as the legendary gunman in the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, but shortly after his death in 1929, distressed Americans down on their luck transformed Wyatt Earp into a folk hero.