Classic Review - Tombstone

Today's review is another of my all-time favorite movies: Tombstone.

Written by Kevin Jarre and directed by George P. Cosmatos (although the rumor is it was ghost-directed by Russell himself), Tombstone tells the story of the Earp brothers - Wyatt (Kurt Russell), Virgil (Sam Elliott), and Morgan (Bill Paxton) - and their attempts to settle down in the mining town of Tombstone, Arizona after a life-time of rough riding and gun slinging, on both sides of the law. They are joined by Wyatt's old friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer, criminally overlooked for a best supporting actor nod).

Unfortunately, as so often happens in movies and in real life, things take a turn for the worse. It turns out the town is under siege by a gang calling themselves the "Cowboys." After the kindly town Marshall is killed by the gang's leader, Curly Bill Brocius (a scenery-chewing Powers Boothe), and the local judge fails to convict Curly Bill, Virgil decides to restore some much needed law and order by having himself sworn in as a replacement. With his younger brother Morgan deputized, Virgil begins passing laws that the Cowboys find offensive. After breaking up a drunken brawl between one of the cowboys and Doc, Virgil finds himself on the wrong side of a Cowboy vendetta. Events escalate and lead up to Wyatt breaking his oath to himself to stay out of any trouble and becoming a Deputy Marshall himself.

What happens next is probably the best known gunfight in history: a showdown between the Earps and Doc Holiday, and a few of the Cowboys known as "The gunfight at the OK corral." However, this is only the first half of this epic western masterpiece. What follows is Wyatt's charge against the Cowboys, arguably less well known but much more impressive than the one gunfight. Russell is superb as the world-weary once and future lawman, conveying both an uncertainty in his every day life and a decisiveness in action that bring depth to what could have been a very one-dimensional character. Also excellent is the perpetually underrated Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo, second-in-command of the Cowboys, and the second fastest gunslinger in the west.

The major theme running throughout the movie is fate. It begs the question, are certain people born to do certain things? Were the Earps born to be lawmen, destined to move from place to place, cleaning out towns full of thieves and murderers?

And what is Doc's place in the world? He seems to care about nothing but drinking and gambling, even going so far as to continue both, while chain smoking, despite his terminal tuberculosis. But as soon as Wyatt and his brothers get themselves into trouble, Doc is there to pick up the slack, fighting along side them, guns blazing.

While the questions are never fully answered, it would seem as though this was these men's lot in life. Virgil in particular seems burdened with a heavy conscience, as though he, in his inaction, is as responsible for the crimes committed by the Cowboys as Ringo and Brocius.

All-in-all, this extremely well written, amazingly acted, and expertly paced film deserves a spot on any movie-lover's shelf. I would highly recommend it to any action or western movie fan.
Grade: 10
(All movies are graded on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being cinematic perfection, and 1 being anything Jean-Claude Van Damme has crapped out on DVD in the past ten years.)