A Truly Epic Western

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2014)

The story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers taking on the Clantons at the OK Corral gunfight has been done on film numerous times. "Tombstone" came out before "Wyatt Earp" which was Kevin Costner's version of the Earp saga. I've never been able to sit through the entire thing, although I'm a fan of the earlier westerns. Maybe it's because I'm not a fan of Costner in dramatic roles. In fact the only thing I really care for him is playing the smart ass jock as he did in "Bull Durham" and "Tin Cup." Russell on the other hand may be the most versatile actor of his time. He can do comedy, action, drama or play the romantic lead. In "Tombstone" there isn't much comedy, but he gets to use all his other skills as Wyatt Earp, the legendary Kansas lawman.
Russell's Earp is at a crossroads of his life, call it a mid-life crisis although no one used that term back in the 1880's. He and his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) have come with their wives to the booming silver mining town of Tombstone to make a new life and hopefully their fortunes. Wyatt is tired of law enforcement, they want to try their hand at being the house in one of the numerous gambling establishments in town. However they find themselves getting caught in the middle of the lawlessness that is rampant in Tombstone. The town is controlled by Cowboys, their leaders being Curly Bill Brocious (Powers Boothe), Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) and Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang) and his clan. A great western is only as good as the bad guys and this trio is superb. Curly Bill is a calculating, clever and opportunistic leader, who has a trace of likability and humor. Ringo is their gun. He's a sadistic cutthroat who truly enjoys killing. Ike Clanton is a vicious bully who turns coward when cornered. Gradually, against the advice of Wyatt, both Virgil and Morgan become Marshals and Wyatt is again brought back into it, along with his loyal friend, Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) Kilmer is excellent and really steals every scene he is in, whether it is at the poker table or with his woman Kate, or with a gun, something he can do better than anyone, except perhaps Ringo, as they move toward an inevitable duel. Doc is a man who knows his time is limited, he's dying of tuberculosis. It also makes him a dangerous foe.
Wyatt has also had an unanticipated love relationship come to him in Tombstone, when he meets Josephine Marcus (Dana Delany) a lovely actress in a traveling theater troupe. There are both smitten almost immediately,although Josephine is also being pursued by the corrupt and cowardly Sheriff Behane, while Wyatt is still trying to maintain his marriage,although his wife Mattie is suffering from a drug addiction and neither seems to have any affection left for each other. Their love story is really secondary to the war between the Earps and the Cowboys although the film ends on an uptempo note, with Wyatt and Josephine getting ready to begin their lives together.
So many great actors and performances in this. Kilmer is at the top, but Russell is very good as Wyatt Earp, a conflicted, flawed but fearless hero. Sam Elliott always plays the same character, but nobody does it better, especially in a western. Boothe and Biehn jockey back and forth as a pair contemptible outlaws, truly unconscionable. Billy Bob Thornton has a great bit as a local bully who has managed to bully and intimidate one of the towns faro games, until Wyatt Earp calls him down. Some legendary actors also have small parts-Chuck Heston as a local rancher who offers refuge to Wyatt and Doc, Bob Mitchum who is the narrator, and Harry Carey, Jr, the veteran of many great westerns who plays Sheriff Fred White.
"Tombstone" has plenty of gunfights, some great action and riding scenes, excellent cinematography and a rousing musical score. If you enjoy westerns it's one you can sit and continually watch, picking up something new every time.