Out of all the Movies made about Wyatt Earp and The O.K. Corrall, to me, Tombstone is the finest. Kurt Russell playing the stoic Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer as the tormented gunslinging Doc Holliday, really did a job in this version of THAT gunfight as they swaggered through the film both looking invincible ( as indeed they were ) and I must say looking highly credible also. Tombstone reminds me of the fifties when most good Westerns were made, full of action, romance, a dash of humour here and there, and full too of heroes showing us how to get their man, ( or men.) And, like Westerns in the fifties, Tombstone ignores some of the truths about what happened before and after the gunfight just off Fremont Street and concentrates more on what we all pay our money to see.....men doing what men had to do. The facts? Who cares. Tombstone has the right balance of history and fiction to make it work and keep us interested in the Movie, as it gives us glimpses of the truth, then decorates it with heavy doses of Hollywood and it's determination to entertain. Val Kilmer almost steals the show as Earp's loyal side kick, but Russell held on to his character well and I think it's fair to say they came out about even. My favourite part is when the Dentist gives us a rousing rendition of musical mugs in the Saloon while responding to a testy cowboy from across the table. A table also where Earp, always in control sat with his trusty shotgun pinned underneath it and aimed at the cowboy's underbelly. That scene was about as far away from the facts as night is to day, but is was riveting stuff and the thought of it ever actually happening never really crosses our minds. Tombstone is a slick Movie, well directed by George P. Cosmatos who along with most involved in the film was hell bent on giving us a story, rather than a history lesson.
