Gunfight at the not-so-OK Corral

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2001)

The legend of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday has long been a staple of western movies time after time. But the legend was brilliantly bought back to life in the excellent 1993 movie TOMBSTONE.
Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer are excellent in their roles of the guilt-ridden sheriff Wyatt Earp and his tubercular friend Doc Holliday. They, along with Morgan (Bill Paxton) and Virgil (Sam Elliott), come to the mining town of Tombstone to seek their fortune. Instead, however, they wind up becoming not only gamblers but making a return as lawmen when the ruthless gang known as the Cowboys, led by the perpetually drunk Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang), turn the dusty streets of Tombstone red with the blood of innocent people. Frontier justice was never like this.
Well directed by George Cosmatos (who helmed the infamous RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II in 1985), TOMBSTONE, like other films based on the legend (MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL, HOUR OF THE GUN), sticks pretty close to the facts (**SPOILER**: the real shootout at the O.K. Corral lasted only about forty seconds, and the film is dead-on in accurately recreating that). TOMBSTONE is further boosted by Dana Delany's efficient performance as Wyatt's future wife Josephine Marks, the excellent Bruce Broughton score, and the expansive cinematography from master cameraman William Fraker (BULLITT, ROSEMARY'S BABY).
TOMBSTONE proves that there is still life to be had in the western genre; it is a shame that Hollywood seems to have forgotten that.