Tombstone (1993)

The key characters in the gunfight at the OK Corral were undoubtedly larger-than-life, and Wyatt Earp put a lot of effort into embellishing his own legend in his later years. Therefore there’s always the temptation to ham it up a bit in films depicting them. Tombstone really goes for it, with Val Kilmer giving a wonderfully over-the-top performance as Doc Holliday, Kurt Russell giving a slightly more restrained performance as Wyatt Earp (assisted by Kurt Russell’s moustache).

It’s all great fun to watch, and I think a moderately accurate retelling (at least compared to some of the 1940s and 50s efforts: the main events are broadly in the right order and involve broadly the right people). There isn’t a great deal of subtly present. While Hour of the Gun (for example) too a deeper look at the “extrajudicial” nature of the Earp’s revenge quest, here they aren’t really portrayed as anything other than justified heroes.

One plot thread that I thought trailed off and was largely left unresolved was Earp’s laudanum-addicted first wife who just leaves town and he forgets about. Having looked it up though, this seems to be basically was happened in real-life, so I can’t really criticise it (even if it comes across as a dramatic omission).

There’s a couple of interesting cameos from some old-school Holywood starts: Robert Mitchum does a short narration at the start of the film, and Charlton Heston playing a notable rancher.

I terms of films depicting the same events, I think marginally prefer My Darling Clementine (which is pretty fictional, but an absolute classic), and Gunfight At The OK Corral (I think is more similar in spirit to this one, but again, a bit loose with history). Tombstone comes a very respectable third though, and is absolutely worth watching alongside these two.