Wyatt Earp arrives with his wife Mattie in the town of Tombstone during the silver boom. He meets with his brothers Virgil and Morgan and their wives. Shortly after taking over work in the local saloon running the poker table, his friend Doc Holliday shows up.
The town has an uneasy relationship with the gang known as the Cowboys. Things escalate when Cowboy leader Curly Bill shoots the Sheriff Fred White. As much as Wyatt pushes against going back into the law business, he gives in when Virgil and Morgan feel they just cannot turn their backs on the town. In fact, Virgil feels that making money off a fearful and oppressed citizenry is pretty awful.
Things mount between the Earps and the Cowboys, culminating in a bloody ride.
Tombstone has a stellar cast. I mean, if you tell me you have a movie with Kurt Russell, Sam Elliot and Bill Paxton, I am ready to hand you my money. But this film has Val Kilmer, Powers Booth and Terry O’Quinn. It features early performances from Billy Bob Thorton, Stephen Lang and Michael Rooker.
Although credited to George P. Cosmatos (Leviathan, Cobra) as director, the majority of the film was directed by Russell after writer and original director Kevin Jarre was fired. This is, of course, according to Russell. If this is the end result, one wonders why Russell has not tried his hand at directing since.
Now, Tombstone is not a historical document. The film ignores Earp’s legal troubles, and glosses over the fact that his wife Josephine and he were not star crossed lovers (she having a gambling problem and he having affairs). The film also ignore aspects of Mattie’s history, only noting that she eventually died of a drug overdose.
But Tombstone is, admittedly, much more a love letter to the traditional western than Unforgiven only a year before. While violence begets violence here, it is made to feel far more justified. In real life, Curly Bill was not merely freed on a technicality. He claimed it was accidental and Earp even testified to this. So, in the film, it seems to lean more towards flat out murder by Curly Bill. The good guys are good, through and through. The bad guys are largely unredeemable. But if you are able to look past the loose play with history, Tombstone is full of rewards.
Grant, Biscuit and Milo are three young punk rockers who decide to drive cross country to California. But on the way, a gang robs them and kills Milo. When the police blow them off, Grant is determined to get revenge on the gang.
A peaceful planet called Akira is visited by the conqueror Sador. He promises to return with an armada that will overrun the planet if they do not willingly submit to them. A young man named Shad goes on a mission to get weapons and warriors to fight off Sador and his forces.
Being set in sixteenth century Japan, some might question including this film in my series on westerns. But having run through the Magnificent Seven films, not looking at the film that inspired them, that created one of the most memorable western motifs seemed downright criminal.
Senator Ransom Stoddard and his wife have come back to their home town to pay respects to his late friend Tom Doniphon. Some wonder why a famous senator is attending the funeral of a man who seems not to really be of any note.
A quiet stranger rides onto the land of Joe Starrett and his family. After initially trying to rush him off (believing him to be trouble), the stranger backs him up with a local rancher tries to strong-arm the Starretts off their land. Only giving the name Shane, the stranger starts to work for Joe in exchange for a place to sleep.
Originally called a Fistful of Dynamite, Duck, You Sucker is Sergio Leone’s fourth Spaghetti Western, the first without Clint Eastwood. While a certainly more “poetic” title, Fistful of Dynamite suggests a tie to the Man With No Name films when one does not exist.
It is 35 years since the first Blade Runner. Agent K is a blade Runner and also a modern replicant. He is given a mission after the bones of a replicant are found that indicate she died in childbirth. Replicants should be unable to conceive, let alone carry a child to term.
The third film in the Man With No Name trilogy finds Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef returning. Interestingly, Van Cleef is playing a different character in this film. This time around he is the untrustworthy villain Angel Eyes.
Eastwood returns for another round as the Man With No Name. For a few Dollars More finds him living the life of a bounty hunter.
Tripping Through Gateways 