Review of Tombstone (1993) by Mike O — 04 Oct 2014

Tombstone stands as one of the great classic spaghetti westerns of the 90s. It has great bad guys, lots of action, wonderful sets, A-list casting, honest Hollywood heroes, and most of all - Val Kilmer is truly amazing in this film.

The weak spot might be the romance subplot (Kurt Russell in general is a little off, but is a contrast to Kilmer so it kind of works). Some of the actors to mention include Sam Elliott as his usual self and never disappoints.

Bill Paxton is good as well for what role he was given. Also, a cameo role by a younger fatter Billy Bob Thornton is fun to see. Although again everyone is outshined by Kilmer as Doc Holiday and Michael Biehn as Ringo - that dueling chemistry on screen is enough to see the film alone.

The music is sweeping and cinematic enough, and the set design is top notch. The shots are nice too, complimenting the same style, very Sergio Leone, but in the 90s (meaning more medium shots and medium long shots).

The film also touches on some social issues like drinking with men, and opium with women during the hard days of the west to name a few, but that is fine as it is a plot device as well within the story.

Unfortunately, saying that points to the main problem, that the plot does feel a little awkward, predicable, and weak at some moments. For example, some of the dialogue can be lame, but if you let yourself just go with it, I think a good time can be had for sure.

Mainly because not too many westerns are made anymore, let alone good ones from that era. That said it delivers on all of the great expectations for what it is: An action packed spaghetti western. In modern times comparing it to say Django offers a unique perspective on how this film delivers today.

It's not as ambitious as Django, but its a totally different story and team too. From that time compared to say Unforgiven (a realistic western), as far as pure character and story go, its not as good, but in the genre I believe it was meant to be in, it stands as a good film, and a great popcorn movie.

If you liked this film, I also recommend another western from that era Quigley Down Under, it is less serious like Django, (although Django is very serious sometimes), but still spaghetti with meatballs.

I rate this 4 stars because of movies like, The Quick and The Dead! Short Review by Movie-Mike.