Tombstone

MOVIE: Tombstone (1993)

LENGTH: 130 minutes and 134 minutes for the director’s cut

GENRE: Western, Drama, Romance

WARNING: There is violence, language, and sexual content.

PLOT SUMMARY 

This movie is inspired by the actual events that took place in Tombstone, Arizona in the 1880s. The events of note include the gunfight at O.K. Corral and Wyatt Earp Vendetta Ride. This movie gives you a peak at the gunslingers involved in these events such as: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, William Brocius, and Johnny Ringo.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS MOVIE 

I’ve got to be honest with you, with a movie called “tombstone,” I was expecting a horror movie. I was definitely not disappointed with this being a Western film, I was had misguided expectations.

This film has a great cast, not to mention that Robert Mitchum, a Hollywood legend in his own right, does the narration for the film. It’s an appealing story, and is really the basis of most Westerns, if we are being honest. Only they don’t make these character invincible, and invulnerable to bullets like they may do in other Western films. I mean you have a character slowly dying of consumption (tuberculosis) the entire film, Doc Holliday. Just know that isn’t a spoiler, it’s a fact. The main characters in this film were real people that were alive in the late 1800s and early 1900s, so saying anything about this film wouldn’t be a spoiler; it would just be your fault for not knowing a story that is over a century old. Now that we cleared that up, not onto the juicy stuff.

I can’t talk about this movie without mentioning Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. It is because of the way Val Kilmer played Holliday, that Doc Holliday from this movie is one of my all-time favorite movie characters. Now, I won’t say I adore Val Kilmer as an actor and I definitely wouldn’t say I loved him as Batman. It’s just that Doc Holliday is kind and smooth as silk, not to mention a great marksmen. He is loyal to his friends to his dying day. I can’t watch this movie without being drawn to Doc Holliday, he is just so cool. Kilmer made that role his through-and-through. He improved a lot of his parts for the role; I can’t imagine a better Doc Holliday than him. They did right when they casted him for this film.

Kurt Russell, who I actually love as an actor, is also brilliant in this film as Wyatt Earp. I previously talked about Russell when I talked about the movie The Thing. Well, this film is a whole other side to Kurt Russell. Wyatt Earp is a fickle man in the love department, but loyal to his friends, and honest at heart. He is an easy protagonist to stand behind, because he has good intentions. Earp is smart and definitely doesn’t set out to be violent, violence just seems to be attracted to him. Earp is honorable and can’t shy away when bad things are afoot.

I’m not a gigantic Western movie fan, but I love this movie. I admire the bond between the Earp family, and the allies had Wyatt Earp’s back. That kind of loyalty is priceless. You have those close-up shots in the gun fights, and even though the outcome of the entire movie is done and gone, the movie still had me hanging in suspense.

What makes this Western film different from others? Well, like I said, it is based on history. The characters are appealing enough that every choice they make is oddly satisfying, and makes you understand them as people. There is a sad, but oddly sweet love story in there. You have Doc Holliday in this movie! No other Western film has a cool character like Doc Holliday.

I won’t insist that the real guys were great people; everything I say is about how I viewed them in this movie. It’s also worth noting that Kevin Costner originally had the rights to Kevin Jarre’s story (the screenwriter for Tombstone), but ended up selling them so he could make his own story; that ended up being the film Wyatt Earp. That film is much longer, and Costner’s Earp doesn’t touch Russell’s Earp. Dennis Quaid played a really good Doc Holliday, but it is nowhere near as good as Kilmer’s Doc Holliday. I have seen both movies in their entirety, and it’s an easy choice as far as which one I like more. If you ever have a choice between Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, I would recommend Tombstone every time.

 

LAST THOUGHTS 

My mother watched this so many times when I was growing up, I managed to watch it that way. I have seen this movie several times now, and I still enjoy it.

FUN MOVIE FACTS 

1.) Kurt Russell hired director George Cosmatos to be his on-set figurehead director while Russell more or less secretly directed Tombstone himself. Russell promised Cosmatos that he wouldn’t reveal the secret as long Cosmatos was alive. Russell eventually admitted to the ruse nearly ten years after Cosmatos’s passing.

2.) The part of the film where an outlaw challenges Doc Holliday, saying, “I got you now, you son of a bitch!” And Holliday responds “You’re a daisy if you do.” That phrase was actually uttered by Holliday, and even made it into the local newspaper, The Arizona Weekly Citizen, at the time of the fight.

3.) Wyatt Earp’s real life fifth cousin was cast in the movie as the role of Billy Claiborne. How is that for authenticity!

 

 

Sources

1.) Movie poster for Tombstone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombstone_(film)

2.) https://movieweb.com/tombstone-movie-facts-trivia-list/

3.) http://newravel.com/pop-culture/film/behind-the-scenes-secrets-about-tombstone-val-kilmer-and-company-didnt-want-you-to-know/

 

Dances with Wolves

 

MOVIE: Dances with Wolves (1990) 

LENGTH: 181 minutes (236 minutes for the alternate version)

GENRE: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, Epic Western

WARNING: There is some nudity in which you see Kevin Costner’s butt, and some violence. So if you don’t mind seeing a butt and some warfare, then you’ll be okay to watch this film.

PLOT SUMMARY 

Lt. John Dunbar (played by Kevin Costner) is an honorable member of the Union Army during the Civil War and requests to be stationed at the Western frontier before it disappears. He is sent to Fort Hays with a very depressed and cynical major.

Eventually, Lt. John Dunbar is left to fend for himself – partly of his own volition and partly due to external circumstances. Lt. John Dunbar makes the best of the solitude at the fort and befriends the local Sioux Native American tribe with the help of Stands with Fist (played by Mary McDonnell), who is the white adopted daughter of the tribe’s medicine man Kicking Bird.

However, trouble brews when other soldiers stumble onto the fort Dunbar manages. They are not as welcoming and accommodating to the Sioux tribe as Dunbar is.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS MOVIE 

First of all this movie is not your run of the mill pioneer type movie. It shows Native Americans as human beings, unlike the 1950 Western movies where they just showed Native Americans as violent savages. You get a glimpse of a very old Native American tribe of the United States in a way that isn’t offensive, which is wonderful. There is controversy with the portrayal of Pawnee Native Americans, since they are seen as purely bad against the Sioux, when history has shown that the Sioux were much stronger than the Pawnee and more of the aggressors, but they are all still seen as humans at least.

 

The cinematography in this film is excellent (as seen above). This movie was filmed in Wyoming and South Dakota. If you are not familiar with those states, they have a lot of beautiful land which is featured in this movie. You may think “wow that’s some computer-generated imagery (CGI),” but you would be wrong. That is an honest, raw shot of 3,500 buffalo stampeding and it only took 8 days, 20 wranglers, a helicopter, and 10 pickup trucks with mounted cameras. But they got it done and the result is extraordinary. Also the movie includes real wolves, the ones you see in the film that are so enamored by Lt. Dunbar. After all, where did you think the title came from? Yes, there are wolves in the movie.

I mean I understand if you’re not a big fan of Kevin Costner as an actor but I have a lot of respect for him because of his directing endeavors such as this film. Kevin Costner had a big part in why this movie even existed. He didn’t write it, that credit goes to Michael Blake who originally wrote a spec script of the film, but was later encouraged by Kevin Costner to make it a novel. Once it was made a novel, Costner bought the rights to it and ended up directing it. No film studio would finance the movie, Costner went to foreign investors to help finance the film until eventually Orion Pictures (the producers of The Terminator), stepped up and paid $10 million for it. Even with the money Costner was able to get for the film, it still went $3 million over the budget, so he paid for it out of his own pocket. That’s dedication people.

Last but not least, there is a sequel to Dances with Wolves. Not a sequel of the movie, but of the Dances with Wolves novel. Michael Blake, the author of the first book made a second book called The Holy Road. There is talk about a film being made for the sequel, but nothing has been confirmed. Kevin Costner said he would not have any part in the movie if one were made. You will just have to settle for the second book if you love the first book and the movie.

LAST THOUGHTS 

I just really like that the Native Americans were humanized and not seen as mindless savages as seen in previous Western films and even movies today. It is a very long movie, so whether you watch the 181 minute one or the 236 minute one, just have your own intermissions, watch a little bit at a time over a week, or do whatever it takes to get through the whole film, because it is worth it.

FUN MOVIE FACTS 

1.) Dances with Wolves was chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the United States National Film Registry in 2007.

2.) This is the highest grossing Western film of all time.

3.) The film was marketed differently to men and women. When it was marketed to women, they emphasized the love story, but when it was marketed to men it emphasized the gun-slinging and the Wild West parts of the film.

4.) The Sioux nation adopted Kevin Costner as an honorary member, but a few years later Costner lost that admiration when he bought several hundred acres in South Dakota’s Black Hills as a plan to build the resort. The problem was that a lot of that land was considered sacred by the Sioux, Costner abandoned that plan in 2013.

5.) This film was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and won seven of them.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture – Jim Wilson and Kevin Costner

Best Director – Kevin Costner

Best Actor – Kevin Costner

Best Supporting Actor – Graham Greene

Best Supporting Actress – Mary McDonnell

Best Adapted Screenplay – Michael Blake

Best Original Score – John Barry

Best Film Editing – Neil Travis

Best Cinematography – Dean Semler

Best Art Direction – Jeffrey Beecroft and Lisa Dean

Best Costume Design – Elsa Zamparelli

Best Sound – Russell Williams, Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton, and Gregory H. Watkins.

Academy Award Wins:

Best Picture – Jim Wilson and Kevin Costner

Best Director – Kevin Costner

Best Adapted Screenplay – Michael Blake

Best Original Score – John Barry

Best Film Editing – Neil Travis

Best Cinematography – Dean Semler

Best Sound – Russell Williams, Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton, and Gregory H. Watkins.

 

Sources

1.) Movie poster of Dances with Wolves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dances_with_Wolves

2.) Shot from Dances with Wolves: http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2014/04/

3.) http://mentalfloss.com/article/71556/18-epic-facts-about-dances-wolves