Tombstone (1993) - Movie Review

If I were to list my all time favorite Westerns, Tombstone would definitely be at the top. I even love the director's cut that was release not to long ago that explained some missing pieces. Some critics have compared Tombstone with Wyatt Earp, which came out a year later. I believe this is an unfair comparison since Tombstone dealt with the events that happened in Tombstone, AZ and Wyatt Earp spanned more of Wyatt Earp's life before Tombstone, his life in Tombstone, and a little of his life after Tombstone.

I love this movie because everything was made to look authentic. The facial hair was real, which is awesome... no fake hair on these guys faces. There is a scene with a thunderstorm that roles in and... it's real.

One of my favorite scenes is when Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), Morgan Earp (Bill Paxton), and Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) first meet Curly Bill Brocious (Powers Boothe), Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang), and Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn). In this scene Wyatt is dealing a faro game and he has just signed an autograph for a patron. Curly Bill grabs the autograph out of the man's hand and reads it. Ike jumps in and says that "law don't go round here." Wyatt informs him that he is retired. Johnny Ringo joins the conversation by looking at Doc Holliday and saying that he must be Doc Holliday. An exchange between the two ensues that could have gone wrong when Ringo draws his gun and begins spinning it. However, Doc uses a cup to diffuse the situation by spinning it in the same manner Ringo did.

Another favorite scene is when Ike and Frank Stilwell (Thomas Arana) follow Wyatt and the rest of his family to Tucson to take Morgan's body to California. Ike and Frank are tasked to kill Wyatt and Virgil. Before they can complete their task Wyatt kills Frank. Wyatt walks up to a cowering Ike and takes his spur and cuts him at the corner of the mouth. Wyatt informs Ike that he is now a U.S. Marshall and that he is going to hunt down every Cowboy and kill them.

The scene at the OK Corral is amazing. It is as close to what really happened as the film could get it without going back to October 26, 1881. I won't describe it because I wouldn't be able to do it justice and I want you to watch the movie if you haven't or again if you have.

There are other scenes I liked as well. The movie itself is very good. This would have to be my absolute favorite Western movie of all time. I like this movie so much that I have remembered many of the various lines. Many of the lines Val Kilmer spoke as Doc Holliday are great, including, "I'm your Huckleberry".

I give this 10 stars out of 10. I love this movie. I also recently read an article that told a story in which the original director was let go from this movie. A new director was hired and the production company whittled the script down significantly. Kurt Russell is also responsible for rallying the other actors and crew to finish the movie, said the same article.