In the early 1990s, the Western would revive and gain an important voice at the Oscars. After Kevin Costner won a total of seven golden boys in 1990 with ‘Dances with Wolves’, Clint Eastwood followed in 1992 with ‘Merciless’ and won four trophies. After that, interest in what was probably the oldest genre in film history would noticeably decrease.
Kevin Costner had a pretty bad time with the 1994 epic “Wyatt Earp – The Life of a Legend,” which was not only due to the film’s running time (182 minutes), but also to the fact that the visually stunning Western plagued by a rather lexical rigidity. If you want to see the better Wyatt Earp movie, go to “Tombstone“ from the director of “Rambo 2”. George Pan Cosmatos from 1993.
Even though the action-packed and beautifully photographed western was more successful at the box office than Kevin Costner’s ‘Wyatt Earp’, the film is completely forgotten today. Wrongly, because “Tombstone” is really good! If you haven’t seen it yet, you can easily find it at Stay up to date with Disney+:
That’s what “Tombstone” is about
The year is 1881: Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) comes with his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) to the gold mining town of Tombstone, where they want to retire with their wives. Here they meet Wyatt’s old friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), who is seriously ill with tuberculosis and hopes for relief in the arid environment of Arizona.
The Earp brothers soon manage to take over part of the local gambling business and thus secure their livelihood. But the peaceful retirement life does not last long: the cowboys, an organized gang of greedy outlaws, keep the town in suspense with their unscrupulous crimes. Only the Earp brothers stand in the bandits’ way. When Morgan is shot, Wyatt and Doc prepare for revenge…
Exciting Wild West entertainment
In the official FILMSTARTS review, “Tombstone” received a strong 4 out of 5 possible stars. In his conclusion, our author Andreas R. Becker writes: “’Tombstone’ is a modern Hollywood western made to measure. Despite the relatively low budget, it delivers Wild West entertainment at a high level. To create legends, historical events were sometimes treated very liberally, but an ideal mix of action, romance and dialogue humor was achieved.
In the case of ‘Tombstone’, you shouldn’t be too picky about historical accuracy. Instead, the very classic good-evil dialectic is used here, which clearly divides likes and dislikes from the start. This may bother viewers who demand a historically accurate view, Ultimately, however, ‘Tombstone’ is primarily a western that speculates on entertainment as a genre film – and it succeeds!
It is not just the cast led by Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer that is responsible for this. The stylish images (captured by cinematographer William A. Fraker of “Rosemaries Baby” and “Bullitt”) and George Pan Cosmatos’ wonderfully rustic action staging are also enjoyable. The director already proved in ‘Rambo 2’ that he can really take a punch – and ‘Tombstone’ is no different. When it comes to this, it is with a clear toughness that is all too often lacking today.