The "O.K." Corral

I'd heard a few good thing over the years about the movie Tombstone. Well, specifically, I'd heard that Val Kilmer gives an amazing performance in it as Doc Holliday that was probably worth the "price of admission" all on its own. I finally decided to check it out.

On the acting front, this movie is really an embarrassment of riches. Indeed, Val Kilmer does shine in his role. But he's really only sitting at the top of a very large mountain of actors here. You have very accomplished actors giving great performances here: Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, and Dana Delaney. You have actors I can normally either take or leave, but are perfectly cast in their roles here: Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, and even a brief cameo by Charlton Heston. And then you have still more actors appearing here years before they would become more known: Billy Bob Thornton, Billy Zane, Terry O'Quinn, John Corbett, Paula Malcomson -- and yes, that's Jason Priestly, too.

Yes, it's an amazing cast, and director George P. Cosmatos either gets good work out of them, or knows enough to stay the hell out of their way and let the good work happen. Either way, the actors make a feast of this movie.

The thing is, they make it out of relatively slim pickings. The script falls very short. Perhaps I'm too jaded for this nearly 20 year old movie now, thanks to Deadwood. (It doesn't help that two of the regulars from that series are here in this movie.) In any case, the dialogue feels dull, the pacing comes in fits and starts, and the narrative awkwardly brings up a few too many subplots and then just abandons them for lack of time.

The script plays fast and loose with the actual events of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, particularly the revenge sought upon the brothers afterwards. There's a romantic subplot that feels shoehorned into the film in the way such things often feel shoehorned into Hollywood movies to "broaden the appeal" of films that draw a predominately male audience.

In short, it all feels like the right cast -- maybe the perfect cast -- making the wrong movie. I was entertained but impatient, impressed even as I was disappointed. I rate Tombstone a C+ overall.