We\u2019ll start with Tombstone.\u00a0 It\u2019s a thoroughly entertaining movie but with a major flaw.\u00a0 Namely, Kurt Russell does not have the gravitas to portray Wyatt Earp.\u00a0 So, while I enjoy watching Tombstone more than Kevin Costner\u2019s \u201cWyatt Earp\u201d I think he made a much better Wyatt than Russell did.\u00a0 So much so that whenever Russell is speaking I\u2019m annoyed.\u00a0 Whenever someone else is in the spotlight I\u2019m happy again.\u00a0 It\u2019s very distracting.\u00a0 So, there it is.\u00a0 I\u2019m conflicted about this movie.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the other portrayals.\u00a0 Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday is the true star of the movie.\u00a0 Almost every scene, almost every spoken line he has is memorable and immensely entertaining.\u00a0 Almost all of my favorite scenes in the movie are his.\u00a0 His interaction with Michael Biehn\u2019s Johnny Ringo is pure gold.\u00a0 His mockeries of Ike and Billy Clanton are extremely funny, each in its own way.\u00a0 And all of it together with this portrayal of a deadly gunfighter who is also a highly complicated dying man is a fascinating character to watch.\u00a0 I keep wishing the movie was called Doc Holliday and that it would flashback to Doc\u2019s earlier life and extend the movie far beyond the Tombstone chapter.<\/p>\n
After Kilmer\u2019s Holliday, I think Powers Boothe\u2019s Curly Bill Brocius is my next favorite character.\u00a0 The first time I saw this movie I did not recognize Boothe at all.\u00a0 He seems much thinner than I ever remember him in even earlier movies.\u00a0 And he is a jolly villain.\u00a0 Always laughing and joking even as he is committing murder and mayhem.\u00a0 When he is finally dispatched by Wyatt during the famous creek battle I was sorry to see him go.\u00a0 I think I was secretly hoping that he\u2019d get Russell somehow.\u00a0 After these two I\u2019ll lump all the rest of the cast together and call out just some of the fine performances.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lang Played Ike Clanton as a vicious killer who would cower and run if the fight turned against him.\u00a0 My favorite scene with Ike is his card game with Doc Holliday.\u00a0 Holliday\u2019s long winning streak makes Ike question his honesty.\u00a0 Holliday suggests maybe the better game for Ike was a spelling bee.\u00a0 This didn\u2019t make Ike very happy.<\/p>\n
Thomas Haden Church plays Billy Clanton to great comedic effect.\u00a0 In one scene Doc Holliday pulls a gun on Billy and tells him to put his hands up.\u00a0 When Billy says that Doc is so drunk that he\u2019s probably seeing double Doc pulls out another gun and tells Billy he\u2019ll shoot both of them.<\/p>\n
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Sam Elliot and Bill Paxton play Virgil and Morgan Earp and provide workmanlike portrayals.\u00a0 The rest of the large cast provide varying levels of interest to the story.\u00a0 Charlton Heston has a small part as the rancher Henry Hooker who comes to Wyatt\u2019s aid.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good moment and ties the movie to the old western tradition.\u00a0 For me the weakest part of the story is Wyatt Earp\u2019s romantic life.\u00a0 His common law wife with the laudanum addiction and his girlfriend the actress don\u2019t seem to really add much to the story.\u00a0 The feud with the Cowboy gang doesn\u2019t really seem to mesh with the other parts of Wyatt Earp\u2019s life and the ending just seems tacked on.<\/p>\n
For me the reason to watch Tombstone is the sequence from the \u201cGunfight at the OK Corral\u201d through the \u201cLast Charge of Wyatt Earp\u2019s Immortals.\u201d\u00a0 And the high point of the whole movie is the duel between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo.\u00a0 The two deadliest pistoleros square off and settle the outcome of the war.\u00a0 And of course, Kilmer\u2019s dialog here is very amusing.<\/p>\n
So, I\u2019ll have to remain conflicted by this movie.\u00a0 It is full of scenes and lines that I greatly enjoy.\u00a0 My greatest criticism is that it should have been titled for and based on Doc Holliday.\u00a0 He is the star and he provides all the thunder.\u00a0 Poor Wyatt is completely eclipsed and left limping along once Holliday leaves the frame.<\/p>\n
Next, I\u2019ll look at the true story of Wyatt Earp.\u00a0 That\u2019ll be Kevin Costner\u2019s film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ll start with Tombstone.\u00a0 It\u2019s a thoroughly entertaining movie but with a major flaw.\u00a0 Namely, Kurt Russell does not have the gravitas to portray Wyatt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[279,280,43,38,281,278],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-doc-holliday","tag-kurt-russell","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-val-kilmer","tag-wyatt-earp"],"yoast_head":"\n