Few figures from the Age of the Old West are adored more than Wyatt Earp. The legendary frontiersman was a criminal’s biggest nightmare, and he is best remembered for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral against the Clanton and McLowry brothers. Apart from maintaining law and order in the regions of Kansas and Arizona, Earp had many other talents. It is reported that at various stages of his life, he served as an itinerant saloonkeeper, a professional gambler, and a security guard, among other occupations.
Over the years, Earp has been the subject of several movies and television shows, which have boosted his standing as the toughest and most skilled gunman of his day. Thanks to his reputation, he has also become the prototype for the fictional Old West lawman, with many Western movie crimefighters crafted in his image and mannerisms.
From Wild Bill Hickok to My Darling Clementine, there is no shortage of Wyatt Earp movies to consume. However, detractors have consistently pointed out that most films about the celebrated lawman rely on rumors rather than facts. Well, the same cannot be said of Tombstone, a spellbinding tale that easily merits its near-universal recognition as a coup de maître and a classic.
Tombstone Covers the Most Famous Moments of Wyatt Earp’s Life
As poignant now as when it came out, Tombstone presents Arizona’s extraordinary naturalistic beauty in counterpoint to the barbarity of its outlaws. It isn’t a straight biopic. It rides on the one-last-job trope. We see that Earp (Kurt Russel) is looking to hang up his boots and settle for a life of tranquility only for bandits to disturb his peace.
The film begins in 1879 when members of a gang known as The Cowboys (led by “Curly Bill” Brocius) raid a Mexican town and interrupt a police officer’s wedding reception. They then massacre all other lawmen as revenge for the deaths of two of their fellow criminals. Shortly before they kill a priest, he warns them that they will face judgment day for their sins. He then references the biblical Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse. That’s where Earp comes in.
Now retired, Earp, together with his brothers Virgil and Morgan, heads to Tombstone to settle down. There they meet Earp’s long-time friend, Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), who is also looking to live in the same town because he suffers from tuberculosis and the area’s dry climate is ideal for managing his condition. Soon, The Cowboys arrive and begin murdering everyone who doesn’t bend to their maniacal will. Events quickly spiral out of control, resulting in a gunfight at the O.K. Corral, in which the notorious Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers are shot dead.
Quick retaliation follows the shooting. Morgan gets killed, while Virgil gets wounded and is left handicapped. Feeling defeated, Earp and his family leave Tombstone on a train but are followed by the gangsters. He easily deals with the pursuers before forming a new posse that also includes Doc. Earp later kills Curly Bill, only for his lackey, Johnny Ringo, to take over as the new head of The Cowboys.
Thankfully, Doc’s worsening health seems to have endowed him with unusual poise and resilience. He easily battles conditions that would wilt healthy individuals, and in the end, he manages to kill Ringo by himself. The movie ultimately ends with Doc being admitted to a sanatorium in Colorado, where he succumbs to his illness.
Tombstone Mostly Sticks to the Facts
Tombstone — arguably the best Western of the ‘90s — marks the creative highpoint of one of Hollywood’s most inspiring partnerships: Director George P. Cosmatos (famous for Rambo First Blood: Part II and Cobra) and head writer Kevin Jarre. The duo exercises a few creative liberties, but unlike other studio takes on the tale, they stick to real-life happenings, crafting an intelligent, enthralling re-enactment of the historical O.K. Corral gunfight, while including many great human stories that preceded or followed the confrontation.
Much of the dialogue — like when Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday says “You’re a daisy if you do” — is plucked from actual newspaper reports. Other elements stand out too. Take the scene where Bill misses Earp a shocking three times at point-blank range before the lawman dismantles his body with a shotgun.
Undoubtedly one of the movie’s most dramatic moments, the sequence sees Wyatt Earp charging directly into Curly Bill’s line of fire, and by watching, it is easy to conclude that there is no way shots would fail to hit the target like that, especially shots fired by a notorious outlaw. However, this is no Hollywood invention. In the real story, a member of The Cowboys, Johnny Barnes, briefly survived the shootout before dying a short while later while tending to his injuries in a nearby farmhouse. Before dying, he narrated the story of Earp’s miraculous feat.
The shootout at the O.K. Corral also plays out exactly as described in courtroom proceedings. On top of that, The Clantons and the McLaurys were indeed deadly rivals of Earp and his men.
In the audio commentary for the movie’s DVD release, we learn that director George P. Cosmatos’ commitment to authenticity extended to him crafting props, costumes, and scenery, the way they were. Additionally, all the mustaches were real, except for Jon Tenney’s Sheriff Behan, who had shaved for an earlier project, so he had to wear fake facial hair.
Val Kilmer truly savored the role of Doc, delivering a radiantly intense, even terrifying performance not far removed from his real-world persona. He is said to have practiced a genteel Southern accent for months to ensure he sounded exactly like someone from the era and area.
Why Tombstone is the Best Wyatt Earp Movie
It’s worth remembering that a mere six months after Tombstone premiered, Wyatt Earp, starring Kevin Costner, was released. The newer version of the same tale impressed neither fans nor critics.
With a running time of over three hours, it was criticized for being too long and not offering anything worth discussing. Consequently, it performed dismally at the box office and appeared in many “worst movies of the year” lists. Even Costner, who normally impresses, got a Razzie nomination for his work.
Wyatt Earp isn’t the only Wyatt Earp movie that Tombstone strangled to submission. Except for My Darling Clementine, every other film about the lawman ranks lower on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, including 1923’s Wild Bill Hickok, which was made when Earp was still alive and opened the floodgates for more flicks of the same kind to come out.
Arguments can thus be made about My Darling Clementine being the better movie because critics loved it more. However, Tombstone still beats it in the most important area: accuracy. My Darling Clementine is adapted from the biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart Lake (written in collaboration with Earp himself), as were a few other movies about the lawman. According to History.com, most authors and researchers haven’t found any proof of the stories documented in the biography. It is now considered imaginative, and the consensus is that Earp cooked up stories to make himself look cooler than he was.
Given these circumstances, the crown for the best Wyatt Earp movie goes to Tombstone.
