Summarizing Tombstone

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 1998)

Aside from reading a lot about Doc Holliday, I have also been in touch with the Doc Holliday Society in Griffin, Georgia, which hosts the Doc Holliday Days every August. Tombstone was a highly accurate depiction of the characters and events. Except for some blatant fiction (ie, Doc and Johnny Ringo finally shooting it out in the end), most of the other events -- large and small -- actually happened. Val Kilmer did the best job ever done of portraying Doc, who was a charming, educated, well-bred southern aristocrat, was witty and fun to be around, was supremely deadly when aroused, and was an absolutely fearless gunfighter and killer. However, his cousins in Griffin insist he killed only one man, and that was in the OK Corral. I have to check that out. Although he was not a good shot, which Wyatt Earp was, Doc was lightning fast on the draw, which Wyatt Earp was not. At 5'10", 160 pounds, he usually carried a nickle-plated revolver, a derringer, and a small knife slung down his back on a string. He was a splendid figure of a man, went impeccably dressed and groomed at all times, wore well-tailored suits, and sometimes carried a cane. Dennis Quaid in Wyatt Earp LOOKED more like the Doc of the 1880's -- emaciated, tubercular, alcoholic; but Val Kilmer captured Doc's three-dimensional personality.