Tombstone

George P. Cosmatos's high-octane retelling of the Wyatt Earp story helped give the moribund Western genre a shot in the arm. In one sense, it's an action movie in Western costume, but on the other, it's a well-acted, extremely well-made, remarkably accurate and highly entertaining film. It might not be on the level of Unforgiven or The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford as a great modern Western, but despite some cheesier passages, it's a fun ride.

Legendary Western lawman Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliot) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) and their wives are fed up with the law enforcement game and turn up in the mining town of Tombstone, Arizona, looking to make a quick buck off the prospectors. They find the town a lawless settlement run by the Cowboys, a vicious gang of rustlers and gunfighters led by Curly Bill Brocious (Powers Boothe), Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) and Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang). Earp becomes infatuated with actress Josie Marcus (Dana Delaney), leading to tensions with his wife (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) and crooked Sheriff John Behan (Jon Tenney). As tensions with the Cowboys escalate, Virgil becomes Town Marshall, much to Wyatt's dismay. Along with tubercular gunslinger Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer), the Earps march to the epochal showdown at the OK Corral - setting off a long and bloody range war.

Tombstone is a straight retelling of the Wyatt Earp myth embodied by John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946), and works very well as such - and certainly better than Kevin Costner's bloated revisionist would-be epic of the following year. There isn't much moral ambiguity here: Earp and his brothers are established as money-grubbing opportunists, but quickly turn into righteous avengers blasting away the sleazy Cowboys (introduced gunning down a wedding party). Still, the film can hardly be faulted given that it makes each of its characters - even seemingly minor parts - distinct personages. The Earp brothers are broadly drawn but clearly distinct - conflicted Wyatt, righteous Virgil, hot-headed Morgan, and the colorful Doc Holiday. Ringo, Curly Bill, Ike Clanton and their henchmen (Michael Rooker, Thomas Haden Church, Robert John Burke, John Philbin) have enough screentime to register individually - at least until the later scenes, when we run into a boatload of interchangable bullet fodder.

Despite its trappings as an action film for the 1880s, Tombstone is perhaps the most accurate film on the Earps to date. The first hour or so is effective build-up and stage-setting (aside from the trite Wyatt-Josie romance), before exploding into violence at the mid-point. The OK Corral gunfight in particular is far more accurate than any of its counterparts (though still too long by a minute or two), and the movie rightly shows it as merely one skirmish in a lengthy range war. Wyatt Earp would do a more in-depth (if not better) job of addressing the moral ambiguities involved - both sides were deputized and technically legal in their actions - but given the nature of the film, this is forgivable. It isn't the first film to explore the vendetta - that would be John Sturges's Hour of the Gun (1967) - but it certainly is the best to date.

George P. Cosmatos (he of Rambo II) is the director of record, but screenwriter Kevin Jarre (who also penned Glory) and star Kurt Russell reportedly had their hands on the director's reins at times. Regardless, the film is excellent to look at. The shootouts and confrontations are generally exciting and well-shot, particularly the OK Corral centerpiece and the chillingly-staged ambush of Virgil and Morgan - the only exceptions are the over-the-top massacre intro and the predictable montage of the Vendetta ride. Jarre's script is wonderful, full of witty, colorful dialogue, and does a good job of maintaining his large cast of characters. Bruce Broughton provides a rough, violent score that nicely complements the proceedings.

Kurt Russell plays Wyatt Earp conventionally as a conflicted straight-arrow lawman. He's pretty good (though I prefer Kevin Costner's portrayal personally) although his colorful co-stars blow-him off the screen. Val Kilmer's colorful, flamboyant performance as the eccentric Doc predictably steals the scenes; some might criticize Kilmer for being too flamboyant, but he's just plain fun to watch. Just as impressive are the trio of main villains: flamboyant Powers Boothe (who seems to be channelling Lee Marvin in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), cold-blooded Michael Biehn (The Terminator), snivelling Stephen Lang (Public Enemies) all make distinct impressions and nearly steal the film. The movie has a great many then-up-and-coming actors in the cast, including Michael Rooker, Terry O'Quinn, Jon Tenney, Thomas Haden Church, Billy Bob Thornton and Billy Zane. On the other hand, Dana Delaney's Josie is little more than a perfunctory love interest (albeit based on a real figure), Jason Priestley of Beverly Hills 90210 is ridiculously out-of-place and the cameos by Charlton Heston and Harry Carey Jr. are pretty useless.

Tombstone is an entertaining Western despite its handful of flaws, and it gives My Darling Clementine a run for its money as the best Earp film to date.