Who Do You Want on Your Tombstone

Even though we're not to big on Westerns, we do kind of like the Wyatt Earp stories, so we watched Tombstone (1992). Also, we wanted to see Val Kilmer say, "I'm your huckleberry."

This is a big sprawling movie with a distinguished cast, so I'll try to summarize. Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp comes into Tombstone to meet up with his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton). They settle into working as security for a saloon, but refuse to work as law enforcement. The town is under the thumb of a large gang of cowboys, called the Cowboys. They include such luminaries as Powers Boothe, Jason Priestly, Thomas Haden Church, Billy Bob Thornton, and even Wyatt Earp III, Earp's real-life grandson.

They also meet up with their old friend Doc Holliday - Val Kilmer. He is a tubercular drunk and gambler, and still the fastest gun around, and the most colorful. Whereas Wyatt, it is revealed, has only ever killed one man, using psychology first.

So, comes the gunfight at the OK Corral (or down the street from it). This seems to be as historical as possible, down to Holliday's line "You're a daisy if you do" - reportedly an actual quote. But the movie is only half over.

The rest of the Cowboys come for vengeance, sniping from the shadows, and killing Morgan. Virgil takes the women folk away, and Wyatt starts a war against the Cowboys. But this is done in montage, mostly. The pacing gets odd here, with some momentous stuff thrown away in a few shots or a montage, and some emotional stuff that doesn't really advance the story gets lingered over. I suspect they were having trouble with the length of the last act, but I don't think they got the pacing right at all.

Additionally, Wyatt Earp here is kind of inert. The problem may have been to make him a good guy, where historically he was an outlaw who happened to end up on the right side now and then. As a result, he doesn't seem particularly good or bad. He has a wife who takes opium, but falls in love with a showgirl - but won't do anything but make goo-goo eyes until his wife dies offscreen. In fact, she dies in a voice over (Robert Mitchum! I thought it was Sam Elliott). It explains that she had died a while ago. Meanwhile we get a good death scene for Doc Holliday (although, again, maybe a little long). 

But I didn't mind, because Kilmer's Holliday was the best part of this movie. He was a true bad ass, and they didn't have to compromise his colorful nature to make him sympathetic. He was a daisy, a peach, and a huckleberry,