American Myth - Tombstone (1993)

"You tell 'em I'm coming. I'm coming, and
hell's coming with me."

I grew up on this movie. I watched it on TV. I rented it from Blockbuster. I owned the VHS. I bought a DVD of it, when that finally dropped. I was reluctant, then, to go back and revisit it. So much of one's childhood is amazing in the moment, but, upon reflection, weaknesses and faults start to show. It's been a long time since I saw Tombstone all the way through: conservatively, maybe 15 years. The American Myth series gave me an opportunity to add it to my list, and, after watching John Ford's My Darling Clementine, Ford's own telling of the shootout at The OK Corral, its addition to the list of famous westerns became imperative. While watching My Darling Clementine, I couldn't help but compare it to Tombstone. So, did Tombstone live up to nostalgia's weighty expectations?

Summary:

The Earp brothers, and their wives, are headed for new fortunes. Fresh off legendary runs as lawmen in infamously lawless towns, they are looking for some easier money. They arrive in Tombstone, AZ, and immediately begin putting roots down. Wyatt, the de-facto leader of the family, sternly refuses many offers to badge up for the town. In Tombstone, the Earps run into an old friend, Doc Holliday. An early, feisty encounter with the infamous gang, The Cowboys, will light the match on an explosive tale of kill and be killed, of family vengeance, and the violence one must do to escape a life of violence.

Pros:

The Cast: The star of the show is Val Kilmer: his Doc Holliday steals every scene with drunken swagger, and a southern twang. His performance holds up, and will almost certainly be the definitive Doc Holliday for ages to come. But don't let Kurt Russel catch you nappin. His Wyatt is stoic, when he needs to be, dangerous, when the situation calls, but also cocksure and fun-loving. Russel brings his easy charm and quintessential bad-ass-ness to bear. And he has one of the best mustaches in the movie. Second, maybe, to Sam Elliott's epic upper lip. Elliott brings all of his gravel and gravitas to a smaller role, Virgil, but makes it work. Bill Paxton, as Morgan, plays the brash younger brother to the hilt. And then we have the baddies: Powers Booth staggers around the screen, chewing the scenery with manic energy, juxtaposed nicely with Michael Biehn's quietly intellectual but homicidal, Johnny Ringo. Stephen Lang is in this movie: he is unrecognizable under the dirt, grime, and scraggily beard of Ike Clanton. The cast is full of famous day-players and character actors: Billy Bob Thornton has a tiny role, Thomas Haden Church, Michael Rooker, Jason Priestly, Terry O'Quinn, and Billy FUCKING Zane! Everyone brings their A-game, and elevates a slightly scattershot script.

Epic: My Darling Clementine sufficed itself to telling the simple story of The OK Corral. Tombstone goes further and shows the infamous Earp Vendetta Ride, which happened after the shootout. I liked that we get the vengeance plot, because it cements the idea that violence only really begets more violence. And a man as good at it as Wyatt Earp can't simply walk away. It makes the movie perhaps longer than it needs to be, but the story feels wider, and more epic for its inclusion. Also, we get Wyatt Earp putting the barrel of his dragoon pistol into the mouth of an opium addict and coldly pulling the trigger.

Straddles a Line: Tombstone straddles a line between the revisionist western, and the golden era westerns of yore. Revisionist westerns wanted to reveal the humanity, and the ugliness of the Wild West. Old School westerns got all caught up in heroics. Tombstone attempts a bit of both. There's the idea of escalating violence: can the circle, once it's started, ever be broken? The film doesn't shy away from showing us the ugly reality of people dying in gunfights: Morgan Earp, drenched in his own blood, slowly dying on a pool table as a local doctor tries to pull the bullet out of his body; Billy Clanton's body, made up in crude face paint, being born down the street in a pine box; Johnny Ringo staggering forward after a bullet to the head, wobbling, dribbling blood, while Holliday coaxes him on. People die, and then other people die in retaliation, and then other people die in retaliation of the retaliation. Obviously, Earp walks away the "winner," and the film shows him in a heroic light, but he does outright murder people in grisly ways. Doc Holliday, for example, is little better than Johnny Ringo, he just happens to be a friend of Wyatt's, and, thusly, a "good guy." At heart, he is bitter, sarcastic, and just as quick to use his iron as anyone wearing the dreaded red sash of The Cowboys. The music swells when it needs to, and bears a resemblance to the classic westerns of yesteryear, especially when we juxtapose a line of men on horseback against a beautiful frontier vista. But then, all of the good guys wear black: there are no white hats, here. Also, the make-up department made Val Kilmer look like walking death: Holliday is dying from Tuberculosis, after all. Straddling this line can sometimes make the film feel like it's being pulled in different directions, but I respected the filmmakers attempt at having their cake and eating it, too.

Exciting: The gunfights, and there are lots of gunfights, are exciting. The OK Corral lines our heroes and their villains up in a traditional gun-slinging, high-noon set up, only to scatter them to the wind, once the shooting starts. It doesn't even look like anyone wants it to start in the first place, but, once bullets let loose, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. I liked that there was the macho bravado involved with "calling someone out," but also the mounting dread that comes with actually having to unholster a killing machine against someone just as good with that machine as you are.

Gorgeous Period Piece: This movie is beautiful to look at. The costumes are lavish. The sets feel lived in and complicated. From crowded saloons, to gambling halls, and a raucous theatre, Tombstone feels like a real place, and not just a movie set. Holliday gets some of the flashier get-ups (his vest game is on point), but the Earp brothers look damn sharp in their black dusters. And the mustaches! Lordy, the make-up department gets a giant thumbs-up for some accurate facial hair.

Cons:

Straddles the Line: Remember how I said the film feels like it's being pulled in too many directions at once? I liked the idea of blending old school western glory and new school revisionism, but the film never really makes a definitive statement either way. It is HARD to celebrate Earp as a hero, when we know he went around killing dudes on sight. It is HARD to cheer for Doc Holliday, who is little better than the "bad guys" he cuts down. Especially (unintentionally) hilarious, is the final voice-over narration that lets us know that Wyatt's throwaway drug-addled wife dies of a DRUG OVERDOSE, and that he gets to live happily ever after with the woman he flirted with the entire movie. Look, I get it: Earp's life was problematic. But this is a movie: you could have cut the wife and just let him fall in love with the pretty actress. Or attempted to show us more depth between Mattie and Wyatt. Of course, that would have made the movie three-plus hours, and I sympathize with the editing conundrum. You wouldn't be wrong to criticize this movie as "overstuffed," and many reviewers upon its release did. This movie wants to be revelatory and feel-good, and you can't really do both.

In Conclusion:

I was worried that one of my favorite movies as a kid wouldn't hold up to my modern sensibilities. But it did. It isn't perfect, by any stretch, but I was still entertained. Personally, I think Tombstone  is a better movie than My Darling Clementine. That is, of course, a matter of perspective, and probably symptomatic of differing eras of movie-making. I thought Tombstone told its story more boldly, and with more life than John Ford did, even if Ford framed his images better, and had the better filmmaking panache.

Should You Watch It?

Yes, you should. This western is iconic, and it has aged rather well.

Miscellany:

- Wyatt Earp's fifth cousin, Wyatt Earp, plays the character Billy Claiborne in the film.

- Kevin Jarre, who wrote the script, was originally hired to direct the movie. He was fired, and George Cosmatos was brought on to fill in. But, in an interview, Russel stated that he actually directed most of the film himself.
- Originally, Willem Dafoe was cast as Doc Holliday, but lingering controversy from his role in The LastTemptation of Christ caused the film's distributor to protest his casting.
- There is some debate about Doc Holliday's infamous line, "I'm your huckleberry." It is believed that "I'm your huckleberry" is miquoted, due to Holliday's deep southern accent (he was from Georgia). Many believed that he, the actual historical Doc Holliday, actually said "I'm your huckle bearer" which is a reference to the tradition of pallbearers wearing huckleberry branches on their lapels. "I'm your huckle bearer" thusly means "I'll carry you to your grave." Of course, "I'm your Huckleberry" is also a phrase that references Mark Twain's character, Huckleberry Finn, and is meant to mean "I'm the right man for the job."