Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer at their Best

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2006)

Tombstone really surprised me. I am not usually a Kurt Russell fan at all but as Wyatt Earp he was quite good in this movie. This is probably his best performance. I was not expecting much so I walked away pleasantly surprised. The plot is nothing especially unique, tension between good and bad leading to a showdown, but it does have some special qualities. The characters are well-rounded; the humor is dry and wonderful.
Val Kilmer's character, Doc Holliday, is especially witty. Aside from being comic his character seems to have much more depth to it. He keeps up this persona of careless living even as he is slowly dying from tuberculosis. Maybe the fact that death was imminent encouraged the idea that he had nothing to lose. Underneath the drunken exterior Doc shows himself to be a true friend to Wyatt. Even though he is very outgoing he does not have many, if any, other true friends and that means a lot to him. I especially like the scene where Wyatt is supposed to meet Johnny Ringo for a shoot-out. He knows Ringo is faster than him and that there's no way he can beat him but he goes anyways because he feels that he must in order to get things settled once and for all. Before he can get there, however, Doc (who has a very quick hand) shows up and takes his place. Even though he was so ill at that point that he was incredibly weak he still did that for his friend because he didn't want Wyatt to die. He probably figured that since he was going to die anyways he might as well take a crack at Ringo. If he could beat him then Wyatt wouldn't have to risk his life. If not, well, at least he tried.
Dana Delany is also quite good as Josephine Marcus. She is not your average woman who was ruled by men and whose only purpose was to get married and look pretty. She does not want to settle down in one place. Rather, she wants to travel around the world and see everything and, as she put it, "live off of room service." If she happened to meet someone (which of course she did) who could meld with her idea of life then wonderful but she wasn't going to settle for any less than she believed she deserved.
This movie is definitely worth seeing. It has it all; action, romance, justice, wit and most importantly well rounded characters that you can empathize with.