Western RoundUp: Tombstone (1993) | Classic Movie Hub Blog

Western summary: tombstone (1993)

Was the 1881 OK Corral Shooting the Most Filmed True Incident in Western Cinematic History?

I’ve never tried to count how many movies the shooting appears in, but it’s a significant number. I’ve previously written here about four different films in which it appears; in a 2018 column I covered Border Marshal (1939), Tombstone: The Town That’s Too Hard To Die (1942) and wichita (1955), and I also wrote a 2021 review hour of the gun (1967).

This month we return with a look at the Earps and Clantons theme tombstone (1993) starring Kurt Russell as famed attorney Wyatt Earp.

Wyatt’s brothers Virgil and Morgan are played by Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton, with Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday.

This was my first ad of tombstone, which I honestly avoided in part due to my concern about the level of violence given the R rating. And to be honest, based on the advice of those who know my tastes, I didn’t see the first few minutes of the mayhem; Instead, I began the film at the point where Wyatt Earp arrives in Tombstone, Arizona. I’m glad my curiosity finally got the better of me as I enjoyed the film.

tombstone covers much of what other films about Wyatt Earp and his brothers do, including not only the famous shooting but the key events that followed. Part of what’s interesting about the Earp movies is the variety of each movie and their different styles. Each film has unique aspects while covering familiar territory.

Of particular interest is the placement of the OK Corral shootout in various narratives. At John Ford My dear Clementine (1946) the firefight is the climax of the film, while hour of the gun takes a completely different approach: this is how the film begins!

In tombstone The film splits the difference and places the shootout roughly halfway through the film’s 130-minute runtime.

I found tombstone A powerful and memorable film with plenty of classic moments. I wouldn’t call the film a classic myself, for reasons I’ll get into below, but it’s a well-made film that comes highly recommended.

tombstone begins with the Earp brothers and their wives reuniting in Tombstone. Wyatt has retired as a lawyer and the brothers intend to live quieter lives. But despite Wyatt’s protestations that he’s done with the law, he can’t resist the challenge of helping a saloon owner put an unwanted Faro dealer out of business.

The Earps earn money from Tombstone, and in their free time they also enjoy watching a theater company, which includes Josephine Marcus (Dana Delany) and Fabian (Billy Zane). Tombstone is a wild town, however, and the murder of the town marshal (Harry Carey Jr.) by Curly Bill Brocius (Powers Boothe) is but a memory.

Eventually, Virgil feels guilty for ignoring the plight of the townspeople at the hands of the Cowboys, a violent gang that includes the Clanton family; He takes a job as a marshal, which ultimately leads all three brothers and Wyatt’s good friend Doc Holliday to the shooting.

As depicted in some other films about Earp Lore walking past the OK Corral, the Cowboys later retaliate against Wyatt’s brothers, followed by Wyatt and Doc hunting down the remaining members of the gang.

One of the things I liked the most tombstone is the way it brings together various lore from past films; It’s natural for elements of the story to repeat themselves, but some of the moments almost seem like homages to movies that happened before.

In particular, there is a dance theme with Wyatt and Josephine, which of course is reminiscent of the dance of Henry Fonda and Cathy Downs My dear Clementine; The Shakespearean actor and even one of the Earps, who sits on a fence with his boots up, also bring back memories of the Ford classic.

The close-up depiction of the shooting made me think of it Tombstone: The Town That’s Too Hard To Diewhile the dead in glass caskets recalled a scene inspired by Samuel Fuller’s Earp Forty guns (1957), which I wrote about here last year. Wyatt’s visits to the sick Doc in the sanatorium towards the end of the film were strongly reminiscent of him hour of the gun.

The film’s atmosphere is also greatly aided by the use of some of the great “faces” of Western history, including the aforementioned Carey. Names such as Pedro Armendariz Jr., Chris Mitchum, Don Collier, Buck Taylor and Gary Clarke feature in small roles throughout the film, with the film itself being narrated by Robert Mitchum.

Even Charlton Heston happens to appear in a couple of scenes, although while he’s gorgeous, his looks are a bit inexplicable. Heston’s memoirs In the arenaappeared shortly thereafter tombstone‘s release, provides no insight. I suspect there is a story there worth exploring in the future that has to do with the film changing directors during production.

Kilmer deserves acclaim for his unusual performance as Doc Holliday; In fact, that fateful moment when he winks at the OK Corral is perhaps the film’s greatest moment, as Wyatt sees the resulting change in their opponents’ facial expressions and realizes what is about to go under. It’s a real “Whoaaaa!” moment that makes the viewer sit up and take notice.

Russell does an excellent job of playing a contradictory Wyatt who warns his brothers that killing someone isn’t going to feel like they expect it to. And as a Sam Elliott fan of old, I also loved him in a pretty big role as Virgil, although sadly a bit of the light goes out of the film when he gets on the train to California about two-thirds of the way into the film.

And that’s really part of the overall problem with the film, as the strong narrative structure falls apart a bit in the last third or so of the film. By this point Wyatt’s brothers are dead or gone and so on hour of the gunWyatt and Doc spend the rest of the film chasing down the bad guys, which is regularly punctuated by touching scenes with the dying Doc.

To be honest, it gets a little boring watching men ride around and have gunfights, and the movie is a good ten minutes overdue, interspersed with the occasional brilliant moment of “Thanks for always being there, Doc.”

The film is quite modern in its “elliptical” storytelling, where we enter the film in the middle of the story and not everything is written out. While it’s the current style, it’s also a bit problematic as we have to ask ourselves many questions such as why the brothers, as would-be settlers, don’t have a child under them, and there’s also an oddity where they comment “found” their wives.

Indeed, the brothers seem to be “in between and between” two worlds, often representing the law but working in a rowdy gambling house; They are married but not exactly “family men” and their wives come from questionable backgrounds.

We also wonder about the disappearance of Doc’s girlfriend Kate (Joanna Pacula), and Wyatt’s abandonment of his laudanum-addicted wife Mattie (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) also comes up short. He puts Mattie on the train to California with Virgil, Allie (Paula Malcomson) and Louisa (Lisa Collins), and that’s the end of it.

An ending card mentions Mattie’s fate, although it doesn’t clarify exactly when it happens in connection with Wyatt beginning his relationship with Josephine.

Let’s just say I spent quite a while on Google filling in the blanks after the film ended. Again, that’s both a blessing and a curse because I love it when a movie pushes me to delve deeper into the story, but there was a lot of the time that focused on men riding around and shooting guns that could have been better used for more character development instead.

Still, it was fascinating to learn some unexpected things in the film that were actually history and not screenwriter Kevin Jarre’s creation, including the wounded Virgil telling his wife Allie not to worry that he still had one have a good arm to hold her.

The film was directed by George P. Cosmatos, with writer Jarre providing uncredited direction for Heston’s scenes. The film was directed by William A. Fraker and directed by Bruce Broughton (Silverado).

The excellent cast also includes Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Priestley, John Corbett, Jon Tenney, Michael Biehn, Thomas Haden Church, Stephen Lang and Frank Stallone.

The year after tombstone was released, Kevin Costner starred in the title role Wyatt Earp (1994), which I would like to discuss here together at a later point in time Shootout at the OK Corral (1957).

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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Laura can be found on her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she has been writing about film since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film buff, Laura loves classics like Disney, film noir, musicals and westerns. She regularly reports on classic film festivals in Southern California. Laura will be writing all about westerns at the Western RoundUp for CMH.