Tombstone (1993)

The newest issue of True West Magazine has a couple of good articles on Tombstone. One is about the movie itself. ON the movie that we all know and the movie that could've been. If you read Gorch's post just above, he goes through alot of scenes that were in the original script as written by Kevin Jarre. I've read the script and there's quite abit of great stuff they either didn't use, or they left it on the cutting room floor. Besides the scenes that Gorch describes, Robert Mitchum was the narrator in the movie but, he was actually supposed to be in it and play Old Man Clanton. There are scenes of him and The Cowboys ambushing the Federales and later the Federales getting their revenge and killing Clanton. Also, the riding sequence of Wyatt and Josie goes a bit farther and alot more intimate than we actually saw. Also, a scene where Behan finds out and confronts Josie and is roughing her up till Morgan Earp intervenes and beats the crap out of Behan for abusing a lady. Curly Bill sees this and places Josie in the hit list for that fateful night. There are many others and you can read the script over at www.dailyscript.com.
The second article is about Kevin Jarre himself. He wrote the screenplay and was directing it till the studio thought he was taking too long and fired him. They were afraid that he would end up shooting a 3-4 hour movie and up the costs they didn't want to deal with.

Watched Tombstone with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer, was a fine a modern Western as iv'e seen and even had an apperance from Dobe Carey in there! Was a great story well paced and had both touching scenes and scenes of great action. Had a little bit of something for everyone in there.

Quote from The Irish Duke

Watched Tombstone with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer, was a fine a modern Western as iv'e seen and even had an apperance from Dobe Carey in there! Was a great story well paced and had both touching scenes and scenes of great action. Had a little bit of something for everyone in there.

I wholeheartedly agree. I was fortunate enough to see this at the cinema on release quite by chance and was blown away. Far, far better than I was expecting and one of the great modern westerns.

Quote from ethanedwards

My favourite non-Duke western of all time,
can watch it over and over again.
Kurt Russell was brilliant
but completely outplayed by the excellent Val Kilmer.

Couldn't agree more.
I love the start with the voiceover. and with the last line:
"They called themselves, The cowboys" the music starts and the screen fills.
This gets me every time!
I want to go and watch it now!

Sounds like I should add that to my list for sure. I haven't watched any "new" westerns much. Keith

yes i agree a classic western,non stop action.it's as close to what happen at the ok corral

OK, you clinched it........on my list up near the top! Thanks RK!

Quote from ringo kid

yes i agree a classic western,non stop action.it's as close to what happen at the ok corral

Wrote too soon. As we all know, Pappy Ford could stretch a story a bit, but he was with a couple of others and they all talked about how the REAL Wyatt Earp told them about the OK Corral and even drew pictures about how it happened...it was on film somewhere I saw. Let's see, Henry Fonda, Ward, and Victor Mature. Now, Clementine was filmed in 1946, right? And Earp was supposedly born in 1848. So, IF he told Pappy and Hank about it then, he would have been 98! If it really happened, I imagine he told them much earlier. So, I had thought that was the REAL story. Knowing Pappy as I have come to from my research, I should have known. Here is a good review that you will probably agree with. "If you're looking for a straight-forward, factual presentation of the events leading up to the 'Gunfight at the O.K. Corral', please buy 'Wyatt Earp', or 'Tombstone' from Amazon.com...But if you prefer your history more spiritual, and want to see a master storyteller paint a visual canvas of a West that may never have existed, but SHOULD have, then this film will be a treasured part of your video collection! John Ford knew Wyatt Earp, personally, and was familiar with the events surrounding the Tombstone shootout, but one of his greatest assets as a director was his ability to look beyond simple facts, and focus on legend. 'My Darling Clementine' is a story of icons, of the Loner, battling his own weaknesses, and creating something lasting, then walking away, to allow Civilization to grow. It's a classic theme in Ford's work (he would return to it in 'The Searchers', and 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'), as well as in many other directors' westerns ('Shane', 'A Fistful of Dollars', 'The Wild Bunch')." Taken from a review on Amazon.com. So, learned something today. Thanks Ringo Kid!

Both films are very different from each other, both are fantastic and high points in the genre.
I may go as far as saying I think my darling clementine is John Ford's best film, that'll get you all going on the forum!
Tombstone is a modern take on the story and has the career best performances IMO by the two main actors: Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.
Both films deserve all the praise they get.

Well, thanks there, Dooley. I am particularly found of Hank's version as you may surmise simply because Ward is in it. Probably his worst film as far as showing his acting ability, but then, there wasn't his normal type scenes to work with......and Duke was conspicuously absent, LOL! I suppose you might think that I would like to add Tombstone to my list as some of the folks I normally trust are applauding it. Hmmmm, Pappy's best film?.....you aren't going to make this your choice are you? Well, your deal. We most all thought Gorch was crazy, but it sure livened things up a bit for a while. Too bad more folks didn't participate....maybe this time.....I have been working on some, LOL! Thanks again, Dooley, KP

has anyone seen frontier marshal with randolph scott,if my memory is right my darling clementine is a kind da remake of frontier marshal,but i stand corrected if i wrong.

Quote from ringo kid

has anyone seen frontier marshal with randolph scott,if my memory is right my darling clementine is a kind da remake of frontier marshal,but i stand corrected if i wrong.

Nope, but considering I'm making my way through the Randolph Scott westerns catalogue and all of them have been good or great i'll certainly see if I can find it!

This seems to be a popular favorite, so here's a few images.