Tombstone (1993)
Tombstone is an American western directed by George Pan Cosmatos from 1993. Kevin Jarre wrote the screenplay . The story is about Wyatt Earp and his brothers, who move to Tombstone, Arizona, where they and Doc Holliday meet a gang of criminals called 'Cowboys'.
action
Wyatt Earp , a highly respected police officers in retirement, comes in Tucson ( Arizona ) again with his brothers Virgil and Morgan together, from where they after Tombstone break, a small growing mining town to settle there. There they meet Wyatt's old friend Doc Holliday , a villain from the south who hopes for relief from his tuberculosis in the arid region of Arizona .
Wyatt's wife regularly uses laudanum for her headaches and has since become addicted to the opium tincture. Just as Wyatt and his brothers begin to benefit from the renovation of a saloon - albeit below the general expectation - they meet the 'Cowboys', a criminally organized gang, led by "Curly Bill" Brocious for the first time . The gang members wear a red sash around their waist to show their affiliation.
Conflict is barely avoided due to the persistence of Wyatt, who has retired and seems no longer interested in continuing his career as a law enforcement officer. This is also where Doc Holliday's first rather unfavorable encounter with his counterpart, the psychopathic Johnny Ringo, takes place, during which they have a tense conversation in Latin .
The theater actors Josephine Marcus and her acting companion Mr. Fabian have also just arrived in town . Although Wyatt is no longer a man of the law, he cannot ignore his sense of justice, and in a city flooded with cowboys, tension doesn't take long to build.
After Curly Bill visits a Chinese opium house, he shoots around under the influence of drugs in the middle of the city. The town Marshal Fred White approaches Curly Bill to remove his weapons, before someone gets hurt. Curly Bill shoots Marshal White and is knocked unconscious from behind by Wyatt shortly afterwards. Tensions are fueled when Ike Clanton and other 'cowboys' plan to save Curly Bill and are held up by Wyatt, his shotgun-hauling brothers, and Doc. Curly Bill is later on trial but is acquitted and released.
Wyatt also has arguments with Josephine, who, unlike other ladies of her time, is pretty straight forward to Wyatt. Although their meetings look harmless, there is a spark between them that no one can deny.
Virgil, who cannot tolerate the lawlessness in Tombstone, later becomes the new Marshal (replacing Fred White) and imposes a gun ban within the city limits. Further disputes with the 'Cowboys' are the cause of the legendary shooting at OK Corral . Virgil and Morgan are wounded, three 'cowboys' are killed and County Sheriff John Behans' collaboration with the' cowboys' is exposed. In retaliation for the death of the 'Cowboys', Wyatt's younger brother Morgan is shot, with Virgil being shot in the arm and rendering it unusable. Wyatt and family decide to leave Tombstone and take a train back to Tucson. Followed by the 'Cowboys', Wyatt sees his family safely escaped while he grapples with them.
Wyatt announces that he has become a US Marshal and that he intends to kill any man he sees with a red sash. He lets Clanton return to deliver the news, and begins the vengeful period in his life when he, Doc, an ex-'cowboy' named McMasters and friends Jack Vermillion and Turkey Creek's Jack Johnson team up over the Wipe out 'cowboys'.
In another altercation, Wyatt is ambushed by the 'cowboys' in the woods on a river bank, and Wyatt kills Curly Bill.
At one point, Doc's health is so bad that they are tied to Henry Hooker's care. You learn that Mr Fabian was shot by the 'cowboys' who tried to steal Josephine's watch. Because of his distant relationship (geographically and emotionally) with his wife, Wyatt realizes what and who (Josephine) he wants in life.
Ringo sends Wyatt a message proposing a trial of strength to end the hostilities. Wyatt agrees. Although Doc would be a better opponent for Ringo, he is in no health condition for a gunfight at the time and cannot join Wyatt.
Wyatt gets ready for the showdown, but doesn't know that a sane doc is stealing the show from him when he performs. Doc faces the surprised Ringo and says to him "I'm your huckleberry" (figuratively: "I'm the one you've been waiting for."). Ringo gets nervous and says he doesn't want to fight him, but Doc replies that they were just ending the "game" of a previous encounter.
Ringo agrees, and both men stare at each other as they circled. When both men raise their guns, Doc shoots first and fatally hits Ringo in the head. Wyatt runs when he hears the gunshots, and all he finds is his allegedly ailing friend, safe and sound. They urge to finish their job and eliminate the 'Cowboys', but Clanton escapes their vengeance by throwing away his red sash.
Doc later goes to a sanatorium in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he dies shortly after a visit from Wyatt. Shortly before his death, Doc looks at his feet and the condition of the bed he's lying in and mumbles, “I'll be damned. Oh, this is funny "(approximate translation:" I want to be damned. Oh, that's weird ") and dies (Doc notes that he" dies without his boots "(as opposed to" dying in his boots "that is in a shootout)).
Wyatt chooses to follow Josephine, and the film ends with scenes depicting some events in the following years.
production
In 1989 Kurt Russell got the script for Tombstone . At the time, Kevin Jarre and Kevin Costner wanted to shoot the film together, but couldn't agree on a common focus. Costner said the main focus should be on Wyatt Earp and decided to produce his own film, Wyatt Earp: The Life of a Legend , with fellow screenwriters.
Russell pledges and agreed with producer Andrew Vajna to fund the film with a film budget of $ 25 million.
Jarre and Russell originally planned to cast Willem Dafoe as Doc Holliday, but Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group refused to distribute the film if it was cast.
Since Costner competed with the Wyatt Earp film, he used his influence (which was considerable at the time) and convinced the vast majority of the most important film studios except Buena Vista not to loan Tombstone . Jarre and Russell turned to their second choice, Val Kilmer .
I ran into some issues while shooting Tombstone . In an article by Henry Cabot Beck in True West magazine, there is talk of screenwriter Jarre being fired from director at the beginning of production and being replaced by George P. Cosmatos . One reason given for resignation is that he refused to shorten his script. Based on the work that Cosmatos had done in Rambo II - The Assignment, Sylvester Stallone recommended Kurt Russell to Cosmatos. According to Beck's article, Russell made an agreement with Cosmatos that Cosmatos would pretend to direct the film. Every night Russel Cosmatos gave a list of camera settings for the next day.
Both Russell and Kilmer said the script was too long (Russell estimated about 20 pages total). Kilmer said that “every virtual main character, cowboy z. B. had a subplot and told a story and none of it stayed in the film ”. He said that over 100 people, actors and staff, either quit or were quit during the entire production. Russell even went so far as to cut his own scenes to lengthen other actors' playing time.
Others
- Tombstone was filmed at the same time as Wyatt Earp - The Life of a Legend . Tombstone was the first film released on December 25, 1993, Wyatt Earp followed on June 24, 1994 six months later. None of the films achieved great success, but the Wyatt-Earp film, with a huge $ 63 million film budget and meager domestic box office revenues of $ 25 million, is viewed as a failure, while Tombstone, with a budget of $ 25 million, is considered a failure. Dollar achieved gross income of over $ 56 million in the US.
- Robert Mitchum was initially supposed to play Old Man Clanton , but Mitchum had a riding accident that made it impossible for him to play the role. In the end, Mitchum accompanies the film as a narrator, his role was removed from the script. Much of Old Man Clanton's dialogue is voiced by other characters, including Curly Bill, who became the gang leader instead of Clanton.
reception
It is estimated that Tombstone grossed over $ 56 million in the United States. Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc Holliday has been widely acclaimed. Some critics said it deserves an Oscar nomination. In 1994 he was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards in the Best Actor and Most Desirable Actor category.
"An excessively long, staged and dramaturgically unassailable Western that navigates between historical reality and the myth of 'Wyatt Earp' and succumbs to the fascination of its many scenes of violence."
Web links
- Tombstone in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Tombstone at rotten tomatoes (English)
- Tombstone at Metacritic (English)
- Tombstone in the online movie database
- Tombstone in the German dubbing file
- Comparison of the cut versions theatrical version - Director's Cut by Tombstone at Schnittberichte.com
- A look at the historical inconsistencies in Tombstone , especially when it comes to Faro gambling
- A general look at the historical errors in tombstone
- An interview with Kurt Russell about Tombstone (PDF file; 467 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The 'Western' Godfather" (PDF; 478 kB)
- ↑ Filming & Production in the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ gross amount on Boxofficemojo.com
- ^ Awards in the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Tombstone. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .