Tombstone (1993)
The Cast
Kurt Russell ... Wyatt Earp
Val Kilmer ... Doc Holliday
Sam Elliott ... Virgil Earp
Bill Paxton ... Morgan Earp
Powers Boothe ... Curly Bill Brocious
Michael Biehn ... Johnny Ringo
Charlton Heston ... Henry Hooker
Jason Priestley ... Deputy Billy Breckinridge
Thomas Haden Church ... Billy Clanton
Dana Delany ... Josephine Marcus
Michael Rooker ... Sherman McMasters
Billy Bob Thornton ... Johnny Tyler
Billy Zane ... Mr. Fabian
John Corbett ... Barnes
Terry O'Quinn ... Mayor John Clum
Robert Mitchum ... Narrator
After the release of Unforgiven to great critical acclaim in 1992, movie studios were tripping over themselves in attempts to make the next big epic Western movie. Most of them were forgettable films that were miscast from the very start, plugging in name actors to parts that should only be played by grizzled character actors. Some of them actually turned out pretty decent, and Tombstone is probably the best of that bunch. If only the production on the movie wasn't rushed thanks to Kevin Costner's competing Wyatt Earp movie, Tombstone could have been almost perfect.
Kurt Russell basically ghost-directed the movie after writer and original director Kevin Jarre was fired, allowing George P. Cosmatos to serve as the credited director and to ensure things ran smoothly. For the most part I'd say it was a successful endeavor, with Russell actually attempting to slide the focus of the film from his Wyatt Earp performance to the Earp Brothers (Elliott and Paxton) and Doc Holliday (Kilmer). True, there aren't too many parts of the movie that Wyatt Earp isn't actually in, but apparently it could've been much worse.
Tombstone tells the tale of the Earp Brothers and their stay in the town of Tombstone, with the subsequent shootout at the OK Corral playing a very limited role in the film. It almost surprised me when the shootout occurred, barely 80 minutes or so into the film. Leaving about an hour left in the running time, the rest of the film focussed on the aftermath of that shootout on the principal characters. It's a very slick and drawn out Western vendetta film, not nearly as gritty as the afforementioned Unforgiven. A lack of Clint Eastwood will do that to you though.
The cast of the movie is huge, populated with up-and-coming stars (at the time), fading names and legends, and a few grizzled character actors. Michael Biehn has always been a favourite actor of mine, just because he never seems to win I guess. I'm a sucker for the underdog. Powers Boothe does some tremendous over-acting, and everyone else gives passable performances. I would like to point out that many feel Val Kilmer was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Doc Holliday. I doubt he would have won it that year (Tom Hanks won for his performance in Philadelphia, Daniel Day-Lewis, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Fishburne and Liam Neeson were also nominated), but it would have been nice to see such a great performance rewarded with more than MTV Movie Award nominations for Best Male Performance and Most Desirable Male.
My only major gripe with Tombstone is that it just doesn't feel Western at points. Far too slick of a production, not enough real Western feel to it. It's an intangible thing that's hard to describe, but you don't get that Western feel in a movie just by putting Sam Elliott and his tremendous mustache into your movie. Although, he did have a huge Western impact on The Big Lebowski, but I'm going to tip my hat to the Coen Brothers on that one, since they know exactly how to set a movie's tone.
4 / 5