TOMBSTONE

TOMBSTONE was never supposed to be the definitive Wyatt Earp movie.

Kevin Costner, at the height of his fame and star power, was cooking up WYATT EARP, a much bigger and more expensive production that treated the story like American mythology. TOMBSTONE got there first. It costs far less money, had a far more chaotic production and somehow became the version people kept quoting, rewatching and returning to.

Kurt Russell plays Wyatt Earp, arriving in Arizona with his brothers Virgil and Morgan to start a new life and leave law enforcement behind. That plan falls apart almost immediately. The town is dominated by the Cowboys, a violent gang led by Curly Bill Brocius and Johnny Ringo, and Wyatt is pulled back into the kind of life he tried to leave behind.

Russell is excellent, but the film really belongs to Val Kilmer.

His Doc Holliday is sick with tuberculosis and constantly drunk, yet somehow still the most dangerous man in the room. Kilmer plays him with a kind of bored amusement, as if everyone else takes life way too seriously. Nearly every great line in the film belongs to him, and he delivers them like a man who has read the writing in the wall. Kilmer takes what could have been a flamboyant supporting role and turns it into the film’s centre of gravity.

The production itself was famously difficult. Screenwriter Kevin Jarre began as director but was fired early on in the shoot. George P. Cosmatos replaced him, while Kurt Russell later claimed he took a much larger role in shaping the finished film than the credits suggest. Despite all the chaos the film is remarkably confident.

TOMBSTONE also has something WYATT EARP never really had. Pace.

It's violent, funny, sentimental and endlessly quotable. And unlike Costner's take, it doesn't treat the mythology too heavy-handedly or with too much reverence. It wants you to enjoy the hats, the gunfights, the insults and the fact that Val Kilmer appears to be having more fun than anyone else in the film.

That is probably why TOMBSTONE won the long game. The bigger prestige version may have looked more important on paper, but this is the one people still want to watch.