LogFAQs > #957343020

#13. Tombstone 104 points

KBM 10
Inviso 12
Karo 12
CoolCly 14
Pokewars 14
Stifled 18
Johnbobb 24

Very poor plot synopsis:
My Darling Clementine without the Clementine.

Why it was included:
One thing I enjoyed doing with this list is having comparison pieces. The two True Grits, for example, are fascinating to compare for subtle differences, cast performances, and other such things. Tombstone is especially fascinating in comparison with My Darling Clementine. It takes the Earp Bros/Doc Holliday/OK Corral story and goes in a different direction from its predecessor. MDC inserted a love story into the wild west tale, whereas Tombstone sidelines the love story a bit and focuses more on revenge. The main reason I chose Tombstone in particular was to go for the older vs modern comparison. You wont find Tombstone on any GOAT lists for westerns, but it was a financial and critical success. Particularly, Val Kilmer was heavily praised for his performance as Doc. It has also been revealed that Kurt Russell was basically the acting director of the film. During production, there was a director replacement, but Russell claims the new director was there in name only and he was in charge. Val Kilmer has been quoted saying Russell basically was the director, so perhaps the story is true? If the star inmate was truly running the asylum, then I would say the end product is twice as impressive.

What Stifled thinks:
It was interesting to me that Val Kilmer was the big talking point of Tombstone, because I thought he was the strangest part of the film. I enjoyed his performance, but I am undecided as to whether it was good or bad. At times I found myself laughing because of how fucking weird his take on the role was. Other times I was impressed by the depth he brought to the character. Is this by design or because of the aforementioned directing conflicts? Regardless, I cant argue with Kilmer being memorable. In fact, the cast was pretty great in general. I could have done without Earps wife, however. Im not blaming the actress necessarily, but the character herself brought nothing to the proceedings. The movie would be virtually the same if Earp went to Tombstone single and met his new lady.

I definitely enjoyed this more than Clementine overall, mostly because there was no Clementine and the love interest was given appropriate screen time instead of far too much. I will say I think I preferred the Earp/Doc bromance a bit more in Clementine, particularly the scene they are introduced. However, the final scene between Doc and Earp in Tombstone is far more emotionally driven and dwarfs their endgame in MDC. Hmmmaybe that one is a harder choice than I thought! But otherwise, pretty much everything else was upgraded in some way. This is especially true of the action sequences, and the treatment of Earps brothers being killed. I felt Russells performance more accurately reflected a character who lost family. The actor in MDC seemed like he operated on a revenge vs boner light switch the director flipped at will. Russell, on the other hand, executed fools with a fiery passion. I will take the latter every time.
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Bear Bro
The Empire of Silence