TOMBSTONE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: The story of the Gunfight at the
O.K. Corral is told with some OK performances, OK
photography, and for once nearly OK attention to the facts.
As a piece of storytelling, it has some problems. Rating:
high +1 (-4 to +4). Following the review is a discussion of
the historical accuracy of the film that may contain minor
spoilers.
So many films have been made about Wyatt Earp and the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral that it almost qualifies as its own subgenre of the Western. Films such as TOMBSTONE, THE TOWN TOO TOUGH TO DIE; MY DARLING CLEMENTINE; GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL; HOUR OF THE GUN; and DOC have reenacted the gunfight with little respect for the truth. Almost none agree on what happened and each is certainly correct that all the others got the facts wrong. It may come as a surprise to some that the Earps were no paragons of virtue any more than the Clantons were and that there were no crew members of the Starship Enterprise present. In fact, this dirty little gunfight lasted under three minutes and was no more dramatic nor much different in character than gang gunfights that take place in the streets of New York City frequently. However, somehow this particular gunfight has become legend and has been dramatized inaccurately many times. One of the problems that films have had is that the gunfight itself is most famous part of the Earp-Clanton conflict, yet it happened toward the middle of the proceedings, and it settled very little. That makes it difficult to build a film around. Kevin Jarre has written a script that gets a lot of the facts right, a lot of the facts wrong, and almost nearly accurately tells what happened leading up to the gunfight. Unfortunately, from there on it plays even more fast and loose with even what is known happened after the gunfight. Or at least it gives way to legend, speculation, and to its own outright fictionalizing.
The early 1880s was a time of colorful gunfighters in Arizona. This is a story that involves some of the most famous. The plot begins with Curly Bill Brocius (Powers Booth) and his gang including Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) shooting up a Mexican wedding. At the same time three Earp Brothers are settling down in Tombstone, Arizona to find peace. Wyatt particularly wants to live peacefully, so he waits until he is in town for at least ten minutes before he starts making enemies. One of the ways Wyatt makes enemies is by renewing his friendship with Doc Holliday and thereby inheriting Holliday's numerous enemies, but Wyatt was talented at making enemies all by himself. Wyatt also meets and falls for Josephine Marcus, a free-thinking Jewish actress from San Francisco, stealing her from her lover, the County Sheriff Johnny Behan. Though under-stressed in the film, this was also a cause of much of the trouble that was to come.
Kurt Russell is only a moderate actor but under George Cosmatos' direction he gives a reasonable and even understated performance as Wyatt. That means he brings to the role less baggage than does Val Kilmer in the somewhat more flamboyant role of Doc Holliday. Holliday was sickly, but Kilmer is a bit too close to death for a bit too much of this film. Kilmer starts being too hard to believe. Dana Delany is less attractive than the real Josephine Marcus, based on available photos, but she does exude a charming spontaneity. Powers Booth as Curly Bill Brocius and Michael Biehn as the Latin-spouting Johnny Ringo are colorful but have little opportunity to be engaging. Charleton Heston and Harry Carey, Jr., are around as a tip of the hat to classic Westerns, but neither has a very important role. Perhaps for the same reason Robert Mitchum narrates the film.
Moments of this film are genuinely exciting, though more because of style than plot. The opening has films of the old West, mixed with footage of the original THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, and a fake shot or two of Kurt Russell as Earp, all in scratchy prints and on narrow screen. Jumping from that to wide screen and color is an impressive touch very similar to one at the beginning of ROAD WARRIOR. It will, however, lose that impact on video. And the film does have a few dramatic scenes internally like the requisite sunsets. But it takes more than style to tell the story and in some ways the storytelling is muddled. At times perhaps it sacrifices dramatic effect for accuracy. For example, it has not concentrated on the Clantons and McLaurys until the famous gunfight, so it is not clear why they are so important as to merit the shoot-out when it comes.
This is an entertaining retelling of the story, often with insight into the principal participants. Director Cosmatos only occasionally raises the story to actual excitement. Overall, I would give the film a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
FURTHER COMMENTS ON HISTORIC ACCURACY: (Some spoilers follow.)
A great deal has been written about the event covered by this film and while the Old West is not a particular interest of mine, I did do some reading about this famous gunfight and about Wyatt Earp during and after a recent trip to Arizona. Similar interests served me well in reviewing the recent GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND.
Jarre's script gets as much wrong as right in this story. But still that is a far better average than most films about Tombstone. Wyatt is shown to be a peaceful man who just wants to retire in Tombstone. Sheriff Behan does not even know he is coming. In truth Earp played either side of the law that suited his fancy. He had been a horse thief, a bunco artist, a card cheat, and worse. At the time he went to Tombstone it is true that he had recently basked in a reputation as a lawman. Actually he was more a sort of hired thug for the law in a number of cow towns, usually using his fists more than guns. But he had little respect for the law itself except as a meal ticket and was occasionally thrown out of jobs for taking bribes. The script is correct in that he had been in only one real gunfight before the events of the story though many were to come. The film has Wyatt making the unlikely decision to settle in Tombstone and Sheriff Behan surprised that he has come. Actually Wyatt came to Tombstone invited by Behan. He came actually hoping to replace Behan as Sheriff, could not, and took the job of deputy (not just before the gunfight as the film says). If he could not steal Behan's job he could and did steal Behan's lover, Ms. Marcus.
Wyatt more or less abandoned his own common law wife, Mattie, who was loyal and *not* a drug addict. She, however, did have to become a prostitute to support herself after being abandoned and committed suicide shortly thereafter at the age of 30. Incidentally, Wyatt himself was part owner of several whorehouses, as were other members of the Earp family.
The major historic failure of the film was that there was no mention of the Wells Fargo stagecoach robbery that Earp accused the Clanton's of and the Clanton's accused Doc Holliday of. For that matter the importance of the Clanton family was understated. Brocius and Ringo were only loose allies of the Clantons who were the Earp's main enemies.
Holliday's lover is called Kate so I presume that she was intended to be Big Nose Katie Elder. Apparently they got a much more attractive woman for the role than the actual person. That is probably true for all the women but Josephine Marcus, who was the one woman of the story who really would still be attractive by today's standards.
I have been in the Birdcage Theater, now a tourist museum, and they obviously had a VERY accurate reproduction. I doubt those scenes were shot in the real theater, but the reproduction is so accurate it is difficult to tell. Similarly the Corral itself looked just about perfect. This film had as accurate a dramatization of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral as I remember. The dialog is taken from court testimony. When I get the film on video I will run it in slow motion and see if the action follows the court testimony also.
It is a little difficult to get hard facts on what happened after the famous gunfight due to the prevalence of liars on each side of the conflict. That is what makes legends, I suppose. Many people believe that Johnny Ringo committed suicide and that was what the court ruled, though there is good evidence he was murdered. (Wyatt, years later, claimed he had killed Ringo, but Wyatt lied *a lot*.)
So overall, the accuracy could have been *a lot* better and could have been *a lot* worse.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzfs3!leeper
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
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