The story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had been told so many times before that in the early 1990s, attempts were being made to tell it like it really happened. Earp himself dabbled in acting before his death at 80 nearly 95 years ago. And early filmmakers weren’t really consumed with telling the truth as much as telling a good story. So, Wyatt mostly fudged the facts. Most of the people who had been in Tombstone, Ariz., or Dodge City, Kan. were long dead so it didn’t matter if someone raised questions.
However, despite the spectacle there was some criticism mainly from Cochise County Dep. Billy Breckenridge, who was no fan of the fellow lawman. Much of the stories of Wyatt’s life has been now disregarded as exploits. Yes, he may have also been a gambler and a buffalo hunter as well as a boxing judge. But there were also rumors that Wyatt and the Earp brothers were also “pimps” as prostitution was common in the Old West.
Tombstone, released on Christmas Day in 1993, avoids most of the checkered history of Wyatt’s life in favor focusing mainly on his time in the Arizona boom town. The movie itself had a checkered history from conception to completion involving its intended star, Kevin Costner, leaving to make his own movie. Kevin Jarre, the initial director disagreed with Costner and was later fired and having to be replaced to get the film released months ahead of Costner’s Wyatt Earp. And since the director, George P. Cosmatos, has passed, Kurt Russell, who stepped in as Wyatt, also said he functioned as the real director.
Because of regulations from behind the scenes turmoil on another western, The Outlaw Josey Wales, the Directors Guild of America requires a third party to be brought in as a director. Jarre, who is only credited the screenwriter, was fired by producer Andrew Vajna about a month into the shooting schedule. Michael Biehn, a good friend of Jarre’s, and plays outlaw Johnny Ringo, considered quitting but stay on the movie. Supposedly, Willem Dafoe had been considered for the role of John “Doc” Holliday but Disney, who distributed the movie through the now defunct Hollywood Pictures label, was still upset with his controversial role as Jesus Christ in the The Last Temptation of Christ and kept him from being cast. Val Kilmer was cast as Holliday in a memorable role.
Russell would later say that he and Vajna got Cosmatos because the filmmaker was known as a “ghost director.” Russell had worked with Sylvester Stallone on Tango & Cash, another movie with a troubled production and said Stallone had recommended Cosmatos. Incidentally, Stallone’s brother, Frank, has a role as a gambler. Russell said he and Cosmatos would work together on how each scene should be directed the night before they were shot and he would give Cosmatos certain hand gestures. To show that he wasn’t playing favorites, Russell also said they cut a lot of scenes out of Jarre’s scripts that would’ve given Russell more screentime.
Whatever happened behind the scene, the movie is a far better retelling compared to Costner’s bloated and dull three-hour plus character study. The story here revolves around Wyatt, his brothers, Virgil (Sam Elliott), and Morgan (Bill Paxton), moving to Tombstone with their respected wives and partners to strike it rich as gamblers. Doc and his partner, Big Nose Kate (Joanna Pacula), have also arrived in the town.
Initially, they are met with little resistance from the Cowboys, aka Clanton Gang, which is led by Curly Bill Brocious (Powers Boothe). But after he fatally shoots Marshal Fred White (Harry Carey Jr.) by accident, tension arises even though Wyatt and the brothers, keep Curly Bill from a lynch mob. However, the gang with the rowdiness of Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang) and others, gets out of hand causing Virgil and Morgan to become the town marshals. Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan (Jon Tenney) is portrayed as being corrupt and rather in cahoots with the Cowboys.
When Virgil implements a town ordinance barring people from carrying firearms inside the town limits, tension rises between him and the rest of the town. Even Wyatt objects to Virgil getting too involved. The tension rises leading to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral where Billy Clanton (Thomas Haden Church), Tom McLaury (John Philbin) and Frank McLaury (Robert John Burke) are fatally shot.
This results in retalliation as the Cowboys target the Earps leading to Virgil being wounded and Morgan being fatally shot in the back. However, it’s implied both incidents occurred on the same night. Virgil was shot with a double-barrel shotgun at around 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 28, 1881 leading to one his arms being amputated from the wound, while Morgan was shot on March 18, 1882 shortly after 10 p.m. as he was playing billiards, which is portrayed in the movie. In real life Fred White was in his early 30s and he was shot in the groin area and died from his injuries two days later. In the movie, Carey was 72, more than twice White’s age. And in the movie, White is shot in the abdomen and dies almost instantly.
Also, another thing the movie gets incorrect is that Wyatt was actually serving as a Pima County Deputy Sheriff at the time of the White shooting. Wyatt is portrayed as not wanting to get involved in law enforcement while in Tombstone. White had already stopped some other Cowboys who were being rowdy before he confronted Curly Bill who was surrendering when he handed White his pistol barrel first. Despite being from both sides of the law, Curly Bill actually had a mutual respect for White. And the marshal told everyone he didn’t thinl Brocius intentionally shot him. Wyatt also testified that the shooting appeared accidental. However, Wyatt was unaware that Brocius had dropped his pistol when he went to White’s aide and pistol-whipped Curly Bill. This is believed to be one of the reasons tensions arose between the Earps and the Cowboys.
However, the shoot-out at Iron Springs, Ariz. did actually happen as it’s portrayed here with Wyatt walking through the water firing at Curly Bill, killing him. Wyatt, Doc, Sherman McMasters (Michael Rooker), “Turkey Creek” Jack Johnson (Buck Taylor), and John “Texas Jack” Vermillion (Peter Sherayako) were with him. However, the youngest Earp brother, Warren, was also riding with Wyatt and Doc. His exclusion here is probably because the movie already has a huge cast so why hire another actor.
It is a basic shoot ’em up western that harkens back to the olden days of western but still has the revisionist image that had become common during the late 1960s through the 1970s and early 1980s. The movie benefitted for being released during a period where Westerns had a resurgence in the early 1990s. While Young Guns had brough the genre to the MTV generation, Dances With Wolves and Unforgiven had been big hits at the box office as well as winning Oscars. Clint Eastwood even credited Billy Crystal with his western comedy City Slickers as helping revitalize the genre to new audiences.
The movie seems more akin to Young Guns than it does Unforgiven. It seems Costner was trying to make his own Unforgiven with Wyatt Earp, even though I’d say he did that with Open Range. The filmmakers here have such a problem with squeezing so much into about two hours that a lot of the real-life characters are reduced to background extras. So much is built up for Ike Clanton, but after the Gunfight at O.K., he barely appears. Big Nose Kate just disappears. A deleted scene shows her leaving as she and Doc get into a fight.
Wyatt’s partner, Mattie Blaylock (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), becomes irrelevant after Wyatt becomes smitten with Josephine Marcus (Dana Delaney). Other cast members like Billy Zane, Billy Bob Thornton, Terry O’Quinn (who plays Tombstone mayor John Clum) and Jason Priestley (as Breckenridge) pop up in a few scenes before they’re no longer seen again. You have to give Russell and Cosmatos credit for keeping it all together that it doesn’t slow down the pace. However, an image of a burning building in the background as they walk on to the O.K. Corrall feels like a deleted scene that probably should’ve stayed in. Charleston Heston appears in a glorified cameo as real life rancher Henry Hooker and Robert Mitchum narrates the beginning and the end. However, I wish they cut out the line, “Tom Mix wept” when he refers to Wyatt’s funeral.
Despite all this, Tombstone actually turned a nice modest profit of $73 million off a $25 million budget. The movie had the misfortune of being released during the 1993 Christmas season which was over-saturated with a lot of movies. The Pelican Brief, Schindler’s List, Beethoven’s 2nd, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and Mrs. Doubtfire had also been released and made more money. This led to the highly anticipated Wayne’s World 2 failing to be the big success the first movie was. Even many film critics said that Tombstone got lost somewhat in the bigger movies but they recommended it.
In some ways, it would be the last ride of Westerns for a while following the release of Wyatt Earp in the summer of 1994 and the lackluster City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold. This might be why Sony pushed Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead from a Fall 1994 release to the middle of winter 1995 where it received mixed reviews and barely made much over its $35 million.
There’s only so much you can do with a genre before people lose interest. But what makes Tombstone stand out now 30 years later are the performances. Kilmer’s role as Doc is so good you got to side with Disney for refusing Dafoe, even though it’s a silly reason. Not to say Dafoe isn’t a good actor, but it made Kilmer a star. Russell is good as always and Elliott seems perfectly cast as Virgil. It’s also a reminder of how great Paxton was and Boothe is devilish as Curly Bill.
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