Tombstone



"All right, Clanton, you called down the thunder, well now you've got it! You see that? It says United States Marshal. Take a good look at him, Ike, 'cause that's how you're gonna end up. The Cowboys are finished, you understand? I see a red sash, I kill the man wearin' it. So run, you cur. Run! Tell all the other curs the law's comin'. You tell 'em I'm coming, and Hell's coming with me, you hear? Hell's coming with me!"

- Wyatt Earp, Tombstone

Tombstone is a 1993 Western starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, and Bill Paxton. Set in the 1880s in Tombstone, Arizona, it centers on Wyatt Earp, his two brothers, and Doc Holliday facing off against the criminal Cowboys. The film had a large ensemble cast, with 85 speaking roles. The main Cowboys were played by Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Stephen Lang, and Thomas Haden Church. Charlton Heston cameos as a ranch owner.

Wyatt Earp, the legendary former lawman, moves to Tombstone, Arizona looking to begin a prosperous new life with his two brothers, Virgil and Morgan, and their wives. Also in town is an old friend of his, Doc Holliday. After Wyatt establishes himself as a dealer in a local saloon, and rejects many requests to help maintain law and order in the town, the town marshal is murdered by Curly Bill, the leader of a band of criminals known as the Cowboys. Their ire is raised when Wyatt insists that Curly Bill stand trial. With the town now lacking respectable law and order, Virgil and Morgan volunteer to become marshals and enforce a new policy banning wearing guns into town. The tension between the lawmen and the criminals reaches the breaking point when a group of illegally-armed Cowboys gather at the OK Corral. Virgil insists that they must be confronted and the infamous shootout takes place, resulting in several dead Cowboys.

The Cowboys later seek revenge for the fight by shooting at the Earps' wives, shooting Virgil in the street, and fatally shooting Morgan in the back. Virgil, who loses the use of his left arm, and the wives take the train out of town while Wyatt remains behind and forms a band of marshals to eliminate the Cowboys. The posse is ruthless in hunting down anyone wearing the red sash of the Cowboys, shooting them on sight. In a big showdown at a creek, Wyatt rushes at them with guns blazing, killing Curly Bill and several others. The Cowboys are not yet finished, however, as their new leader is the psychotic gunman Johnny Ringo, who challenges Wyatt to a duel. Doc Holliday duels Ringo instead, making good on an earlier challenge that never led to a fight, and expertly shoots Ringo in the head. The last of the Cowboys eliminated, the film ends with the quiet death of Doc in a hospital bed and an epilogue describing Wyatt's life, happily ever after.

The film is somewhat accurate, although it does portray an idealized version of the Earps while also making the whole story a lot more dramatic. In reality, the conflict between the Earps and the Cowboys is not entirely clear-cut; the Earps are generally regarded as the "good guys" only because they happened to be the ones wearing badges at the time. the exact sequence of the events at the OK Corral remains ambiguous. Critics of the Earps point out that many of them were veteran gunfighters (at least Civil War veteran Virgil was; Wyatt had been in one gunfight in Dodge City at that point, and Doc's reputation as a gunfighter is questionable to say the least), while for the Cowboys the shootout was their first (and last) and that it was therefore unlikely that they would have been the aggressors. However, as the film depicts accurately, some of the unarmed cowboys were allowed to flee unscathed, highlighting that the Earps weren't there to massacre the Cowboys. Also, Earp's defenders point to the testimonies of the unbiased witnesses H.F. Sills (whose testimony backed up Wyatt's, and who earlier heard the Cowboys threaten murder) and Addie Bourland (who testified that just before the fight, no one had their hands up). Johnny Ringo's death in particular is shrouded in mystery and originally ruled a suicide. Some other examples are the idea that both Morgan and Virgil were shot the same night, when they weren't, or the notion that the ex-Cowboys eventually joined Wyatt's posse (which was never confirmed).

The Other Wiki has articles of interest here and here if you want to see the differences between Real Life and film. IMDB has a fairly complete compilation of differences here

While the film largely focuses on Wyatt Earp, most find Doc Holliday--as portrayed by Val Kilmer--to be more memorable.

"Doc Holliday: Look, darling, Johnny Ringo. The deadliest pistoleer since Wild Bill, they say. What do you think, darling? Should I hate him? Kate: You don't even know him. Doc Holliday: Yes, but there's just something about him. Something around the eyes, I don't know, reminds me of... Me. No. I'm sure of it, I hate him."
 * Ambiguously Gay: Billy Breckinridge, who seems to have a crush on the actor. "Curly Bill" Brocious is Ambiguously Camp Gay.
 * Surprisingly, going from Earp's recollections, this was Truth in Television. Not so for Curly Bill, though.
 * Badass Family: The Earp brothers.
 * Badass Longcoat: Particularly Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.
 * Badass Moustache: Just about everybody in the movie, especially the Earps. Especially in Real Life.
 * Batman Gambit: Doc Holiday knows Wyatt Earp can't beat Ringo, so while showing himself to be very ill he manipulates Wyatt Earp into giving him his U.S. Marshal's badge, by asking him what it's like to wear one of those..
 * Because Destiny Says So: It almost counts as a Fridge Logic moment, but the reason
 * Big No: Wyatt Earp, is wading through a river with gunshots just barely missing him; he's shouting "No!" as he shoots at the bad guys. This culminates in a long, slow-motion, "Nooo!" at the end.
 * Debatable whether this is a Crowning Moment of Awesome or a Narm that qualifies Russell as a Large Ham.
 * Considering there are eyewitness accounts of Earp actually going through point-blank gunfire unscathed and taking many baddies down, probably the former. That scene at the watering hole where Wyatt waded out and where the Cowboys' bullets were flat out missing Wyatt had eyewitnesses confirming it, including a fatally wounded Cowboy who had no reason to embellish.
 * Bilingual Bonus: The unsubtitled Latin dialogue between Ringo and Holliday. The intention is to show that these two characters are educated. Ringo calls Holliday a drunk; Holliday says he's a better gunfighter than Ringo.
 * Not explicitly he doesn't. He tells Ringo to mind his own business and dismisses him. Ringo then threatens him by saying something to the effect that fools learn from their mistakes, gesturing to his gun with Doc ending the dialogue with a line ambiguous between calling for peace and threatening death. Commentary
 * Translation of the Latin:
 * In vino veritas. [In wine (is) the truth]
 * Age quod agis. [Do what you're going to do] (bring it on)
 * Credat Judaeus apella, non ego. [May the Jew Apella, not I, believe it] (tell it to someone﻿ who cares)
 * Iuventus stultorum magister. [Youth (is) the teacher of fools]
 * In pace requiescat. [may he rest in Peace]
 * Blast Out: Portrays the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as a tense standoff before a sly wink from Doc Holiday to Billy Clanton turns it into a full blown blast out.
 * Boom Town: As stated in the prologue, silver had been discovered in Arizona making Tombstone "queen of the boom towns".
 * The Cameo: Charlton Heston.
 * Cultured Badass: Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday. (Ringo as a villain is technically Wicked Cultured.) Early in the film Ringo understands a Mexican priest's warning (in Spanish), and translates it by quoting The Bible. Holliday is described as a (former) Southern Gentleman and plays Chopin on the piano. The two hold a conversation in Latin during their first meeting.
 * Dawson Casting: Dana Delany as Josephine Marcus. Delany was 36 when she played the role of a 20-year-old actress working the towns of the Wild West.
 * Death Seeker: Arguably Doc Holliday, who suffers from tuberculosis and takes every opportunity to be a smart ass to the most psychotic Cowboys.
 * Johnny Ringo shows a reckless need to get into fights and borders this trope as a means of scaring the crap out of everyone else. This may be a Truth in Television
 * Dirty Cop: County Sheriff Johnny Behan, at least in-film where he's seen siding with the Cowboys.
 * Wyatt
 * More like Cowboy Cop. He made it clear that he was declaring war on The Cowboys, and that if he saw a man wearing a red sash, he would kill the man wearing it. At the end, he lets those who take off their sashes go.
 * Dirty Coward: Ike Clanton.
 * Ironically, the one time he does try and stay and fight, he gets himself killed.
 * He is shown in his last scene of the film ripping off his Cowboy sash while being pursued by Wyatt and the Immortals. The narrator lets us know - during the Where Are They Now closing as the credits roll - that Ike was later killed during a robbery in New Mexico.
 * Drugs Are Bad: As evidenced by Mattie Earp, Wyatt's laudanum-addicted wife. She died later of a drug overdose.
 * Dueling Movies: Dueled with Wyatt Earp (1994) with Kevin Costner.
 * Where Costner's film focused on a more thorough (over 3 hours!) and historically-accurate telling of Wyatt's life, Tombstone focuses mostly on the events in Tombstone and the immediate aftermath.
 * Tombstone was also the clear victor at the box office, more than doubling its modest $25 million budget with a domestic take of $56m (the equivalent of just over $80 million today). Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, had more than double the budget ($65m) of Tombstone but wound up with half the gross, with a meager $26m domestic total, one of a string of flops in the mid-90s for Kevin Costner.
 * Establishing Character Moment: Doc Holliday's first appearance.
 * For Virgil, it's when he sees that the Cowboys have even injured the town's schoolmarm and terrorized innocent children. His conscience will not rest until he gets sworn in as a deputy.
 * Wyatt's blunt handling of a bullying faro dealer (Billy Bob Thornton) that was ruining a hotel's business, throwing him out (literally) on his ear and negotiating a sweet job with the owner in return.
 * The cowboys shoot up a wedding in the opening scene, executing the bride and groom and terrorizing the guests. They purposefully avoid killing the priest, who continues to shout verses from Revelation at them, until Johnny Ringo shoots him on an impulse. Now, who do you think will turn out to be the sociopath of the group?
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Oneo of the Cowboys--Mc Masters--drops his red sash and falls in with the Earp brothers after someone fires a gun into the Earp household, nearly killing one of the brothers' wives; he flatly states that attacking defenseless women was something he simply couldn't stomach. (This is foreshadowed during the implied rape scene at the Mexican wedding in the introduction.) He even joins Earp in his vendetta against the Cowboys.
 * Though he laughs about it immediately afterwards, Curly Bill is visibly shocked when Johnny Ringo shoots the Mexican priest at the beginning.
 * Evil Counterpart: Johnny Ringo, to Doc Holliday. Both educated men, both death-dealers (and in their own ways, death-seekers). Ringo is The Dragon to Curly Bill, with Doc The Lancer to Wyatt.

"Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Doc, you're short of bein' dead. What the hell are you doin' out here? Doc Holliday: Wyatt Earp is my friend. Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Hell, I got lotsa friends. Doc Holliday: ...I don't."
 * Fanfare: Just really on the dramatic end.
 * Firing One-Handed: Wyatt Earp blows away a fleeing enemy with a double-barreled shotgun... one-handed, while riding on a horse, at full gallop. Granted, since it's a shotgun, you don't have to be precise, but...
 * Gotta Kill Them All: After Wyatt Earp's family is attacked by the red sash-wearing Cowboys, he declares, "From now on, I see a red sash, I kill the man wearing it."
 * Grave Humor: Seen in Boot Hill. "Here lies Lester Moore, took four slugs from a .44. No Les, no more." In fact, this is a real gravestone at the cemetery.
 * Guns Akimbo: Doc Holliday confronts one of the Cowboys and pulls a pistol on him. The man says that Holliday is so drunk (which he clearly is) he's probably seeing double. Holliday then pulls out a second pistol with the other hand, points both of them at the guy, flips each one in a different direction, and says, "I have two guns... one for each of ya."
 * Gun Twirling:
 * Johnny Ringo. And then memorably parodied by Doc Holliday with a tin cup in place of a gun.
 * Also done memorably by Doc later on, with two guns. One clockwise, one counter-clockwise.
 * Happily Married: Virgil and Allie Earp. According to numerous biographies and eyewitness accounts, this was Truth in Television.
 * Subverted all to hell with Wyatt and Mattie. Whatever reasons they married were soon lost the second Wyatt saw Josephine and Mattie found the laudanum.
 * And then played straight with Wyatt and Josephine at the end.
 * Hair of Gold: Allie, Louisa, and Mattie Earp; Louisa even comments when they first meet Mattie that the three of them could be sisters.
 * Heel Face Turn: McMasters decides the Cowboys organization have crossed it and quits in protest.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: A number of actors in small roles have this effect, some of them famous from older films, others having gone onto greater fame later. Robert Mitchum, Charlton Heston, Thomas Haden Church, Billy Bob Thornton (pre-Sling Blade), Jason Priestley, John Corbett, Billy Zane (pre-Titanic), Terry O'Quinn (pre-Lost), and Stephen Lang (pre-Avatar).
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Dana Delany, the main female presence, later went on to voice Lois Lane on Superman and Justice League.
 * The Narrator is Robert Mitchum. He was scheduled to appear as Old Man Clanton (the Real Life leader of the Cowboys) but suffered an accident during production.
 * Historical Villain Upgrade: Johnny Ringo. While the film shows Ringo as a remorseless killer, historic research can only point to him committing one murder. It's his awesome name (Johnny Ringo) plus that has the various movies on the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral boost his status as a lethal counterpart to Doc Holliday.
 * I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Tombstone, Arizona.
 * Immune to Bullets:
 * Incurable Cough of Death:
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: 85 speaking roles.
 * Kurt Russell claimed he cut his own role down to allow other cast members more screen time.
 * Love Triangle: Wyatt, Mattie (his wife), and Josie (the actress).
 * Mistaken for An Imposter: When the famous Wyatt Earp introduces himself to the owner of the bar where he and his brothers will run a gambling operation, the bar owner snorts and says "Yeah, right."
 * Opening Narration: Introduces the setting, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and the Cowboys. (Narrator played by Robert Mitchum.)
 * Opium Den: Appears twice: First when Curly Bill gets high and murders accidentally shoots the marshal, and then later in a Montage when a Cowboy is shown absentmindedly trying to smoke from Wyatt's gun barrel (and yes, it does go off in his mouth).
 * The Piano Player: Doc has fun with this at the bar in one scene.
 * Poker: Doc Holliday says it's an honest trade. Faro, however, isn't.
 * Power Walk: The Earps with Holliday walking towards the OK Corral.
 * Truth in Television: They did make that walk in Real Life. Nearly every movie on the OK Corral includes such a scene. It's so Awesome that this movie replays the Power Walk during the end credits.
 * Precision F-Strike: The music lover apparently hasn't heard of "Frederic fucking Chopin". This is the sole F bomb in the film.
 * Professional Gambler: Doc Holliday. The degree to which his Real Life counterpart corresponded to this trope is debatable.
 * Psycho for Hire: Johnny Ringo. Firmly established within the first few minutes when he guns down a priest, something the other Cowboys had avoided during a massacre moments prior.
 * Punch Clock Hero: Wyatt Earp starts the film not wanting to be a lawman anymore. He helps keep order after the marshal is murdered killed, but then tries to convince Virgil and Morgan that being a marshal is a bad idea. Near the end of the film he says that all he ever wanted was a normal life.
 * Retired Gunfighter: Wyatt Earp, a well-known peace officer, settling down in Tombstone. He refuses to get into any trouble saying he's retired. Of course, things soon get messy as.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Wyatt Earp swears to wipe out the entire band of Cowboys after they ambush his brothers.
 * The film shows Wyatt and his allies wiping out a mass army of Cowboys, but in the real vendetta ride Wyatt killed
 * Saloon Owner: Milt
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the stage coach rolls up with, the actress in the coach Shames the Mob by.
 * Shout-Out/To Shakespeare: Fabian performs the Saint Crispin's day speech from Henry V.
 * Showdown At High Noon: Duel between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo. They stand an arm's length from one another, circle slowly, and draw. Slightly subverted though in that the duel was supposed to be between Wyatt and Ringo, and at seven o'clock.
 * Smart People Know Latin: Doc and Ringo have a whole conversation of death threats in Latin.
 * Stock Footage/Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: A cowboy near the beginning of the film shoots at the camera/audience. The footage is straight from The Great Train Robbery; the actor is Justus D. Barnes.
 * The Stoic: Virgil Earp
 * Stuffed Into the Fridge: Johnny Ringo tempts the heroes into a duel by torturing and killing a secondary character and sending his body to the heroes.
 * Token Romance: Wyatt's thing with the actress serves little more than to expand on his inner conflict
 * Torches and Pitchforks: Not literally pitchforks, but pickaxes. A lynch mob, including miners with pickaxes, appears after Curly Bill kills the town marshal. Wyatt disperses the mob by saying there will be a trial.
 * Troubled Production: From the start, Kevin Costner was placing pressure on studios not to finance the picture (Tombstone and Wyatt Earp were two halves of the same project that more or less split off due to Creative Differences between Costner and writer Kevin Jarre), with Buena Vista (Disney) stepping up at the last minute. Disney refused to have anything to do with the original choice for Holliday, Willem Dafoe, due to the controversy still surrounding The Last Temptation of Christ. Jarre was originally set to direct, but was fired due to his refusal to cut the screenplay (both Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer have stated the original shooting script was about 30 pages too long). Disney hired George P. Cosmatos to finish the film; Kurt Russell (who had significant pull behind the scenes with both cast and crew) has in recent years made the claim that he directed the picture with Cosmatos as a front (he was the same guy who did Rambo: First Blood Part II, so he was at the very least agreeable to actor input), and at least some of Jarre's directoral work is still in the film. As a cherry on top of all of this, the actor playing Old Man Clanton, Robert Mitchum, was injured in a horse-riding accident, which led to the part being cut entirely (although Mitchum was able to do the beginning and ending narrations).
 * Undying Loyalty: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.


 * Unwanted Spouse: Wyatt Earp's laudanum-addicted wife. Treated as part of the Token Romance plotline.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: The narrator describes what happened to various characters later in life.
 * Who Will Bell the Cat?
 * You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: "Why, Johnny Ringo, you looked like somebody just walked over your grave."
 * Young Gun: Wyatt Earp's younger brother Morgan, to some extent. This is mostly in his portrayal as the least experienced of the four heroes at the OK Corral and in Wyatt's disapproval of his participation.
 * You Remind Me of X: Doc Holiday does the Deadpan Snarker version, saying how Ringo reminds him of himself... which just means that Doc really hates Ringo.