Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8247 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-07-26
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This Western has become a modest cult favourite since its release in 1993, when the film was met with mixed reviews but the performances of Kurt Russell (as Wyatt Earp) and especially Val Kilmer, for his memorably eccentric performance as the dying gunslinger Doc Holliday, garnered high praise. The movie opens with Wyatt Earp trying to put his violent past behind him, living happily in Tombstone with his brothers and the woman (Dana Delany) who puts his soul at ease. But a murderous gang called the Cowboys has burst on the scene, and Earp can't keep his gun belt off any longer. The plot sounds routine, and in many ways it is, but Western buffs won't mind a bit thanks to a fine cast and some well-handled action on the part of Rambo director George P Cosmatos, who has yet to make a better film than this. --Jeff Shannon

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

The Making of featurette
Letterbox 2.35:1
Dolby Pro Logic

Synopsis
Based on the actual events that led to the showdown at O.K. Corral, this is an exciting and old-fashioned western populated by colorful, hard-living heroes and ruthless, black-hatted outlaws.

Customer Reviews

Tombstone vs Wyatt Earp
Tombstone is an immensely enjoyable western. And this version - the Vista series / Director's Cut - is the best one to get. I ordered it from the USA and it came in immaculate condition in an amazingly short time; but what's on it?

There are 3 bite sized featurettes (about 10 mins each): An Ensemble Cast; Making An Authentic Western; The Gunfight at the OK Corral. There is an Interactive Timeline of the actual events as they took place, Director's Storyboards, an Actual Newspaper Account (which you navigate around to read in your own time), a DVD-Rom featuring the game of Faro (the game Wyatt Earp runs in the film), also a fold out map of the actual layout of Tombstone including the OK Corral, an Insert booklet and not least - a director's commentary by Goerge P Cosmatos.

These extra features are well worth it, and the director's commentary fills you in on a lot of details about the filming of the piece and the problems inherent in making such a film. It is not the best commentary I've heard, but it is good for fans to listen to (but watch the film without the commentary first). The featurettes are a bit fluffy and TV filler-ish but fun none-the-less. The real detail of the Map, The Original Newspaper story and the Timeline are the real quality extras here. I can't comment on the DVD-Rom because I haven't tried it.

The Director's Cut - This is just 14 minutes longer than the original theatrical cut (and from the commentary it sounds like some nice things were actually lost so couldn't go back in). Fans of the movie will notice the new scenes and these do fit right into the film and never really feel like padding, but are extra character and plot points which add to the whole piece. There is a more lyrical quality to the picture now with more atmospheric scenic shots (Cosmatos calls "candy-floss shots"), now not hampered by a push to shorten the picture or a pressing release date. But the flaw of the original film is still there.

Tombstone's authenticity is not in question. The costumes and fashions are all realistic and it is never less than beautifully shot. But with the director's cut I expected a more protracted ending to the picture. The montage, unfortunately, is still in there exactly the same as the theatrical cut. This is obviously a script matter, where we are given a montage instead of showing vignettes of Earp et al bumping off The Cowboys one by one as we did in the Kevin Costener/Lawrence Kasdan epic, Wyatt Earp. And so, as opposed to Kasdan's revenge seething amoral Earp, we have the Disney version (literally, this was made by Disney) in which we are told in dialogue that Earp doesn't want revenge but "the reckoning" as Doc Holliday calls it, namely - justice. So for all of the director's labouring the point of the film's realism it does fall away from the unsightly side of any part of the Earp story. This is also true of his "wife" Maddy, whom in Kasdan's Wyatt Earp was his common-law wife by virtue of the fact that he just didn't try too hard to be rid of her. Her addiction to opium is also glossed over somewhat. It does feature, but is never really ugly. The Director's Cut of Tombstone does however feature a few more revealing insights into Wyatt's character in relation to this than the theatrical cut. But Kurt Russell's Wyatt is not the rock solid son-of-a-bitch that Costner plays, he is altogether more vulnerable and unsure of himself and so his legendary status as a lawman is slightly stretched here.

This is a Great Western by anyone's standard! It isn't a revisionist western however, so know what you are buying. Kurt Russell is amazingly watchable as a western lead, easily as watchable as The Duke. And Val Kilmer's pantomime version of Doc Holliday just chews up the scenery and spits it at you with a nudge and a wink. He is superb. Let's not forget the supporting cast, which is equally to thank for this superb picture: Sam Elliott is the best actor to play an old west cowboy for decades, I only wish he had more to do in this film; Bill Paxton is fine in the supporting role here; with Powers Booth and Michael Beihn also in full riotous pantomime mode as the villainous Cowboys. Notable mentions also for Michael Rooker, Jason Priestley and the hammed-up and glammed-up Billy Zane as a travelling actor. Also making cameos are Charlton Heston and Robert Mitchum (voice over - although he was due to be in the film he was unable to due to health issues.)

Highly recommended old fashioned Goodies Vs Baddies Western!

The film is presented here in the original 2.35:1 panavision widescreen ratio (enahnced for 16x9 TV's) with DTS, THX, Dolby Digital surround sound. There are also Frensh and Spanish subtitles. A small note about the commentary - for some reason you cannot toggle between the film sound and the commentary as you can with most DVD's, you have to return to the Menu and put it on/off as needed. When you press Play again you will return to where you left the film though.

"Tell them I'm coming, and hell's coming with me!"
If not as good as John Sturges' under-rated and rarely revived masterpiece Hour of the Gun, the first film to follow the aftermath of the O.K. Corral, Tombstone is far from the spoiler for Kevin Costner's ill-fated Wyatt Earp that it was first made out to be. Rather than follow most of the lawman's life, this concentrates on his days in Tombstone and is much more of an old-fashioned western, with Russell's Earp no embittered misogynist but a man forced against his domestic and financial instincts into a reckoning with the forces of evil.

Where the build-up to the gunfight is a bit rushed and confused in Costner's film, here it carries more weight thanks to a literate and relatively accurate script that convincingly develops the characterisation, despite the large cast, and doesn't get in the way of the extremely well-handled action. There are some great atmospheric moments, such as Wyatt's effectively staged warning to Clanton at the railway station ("Tell them I'm coming, and hell's coming with me!") or Doc's first meeting with his malicious mirror image, Johnny Ringo. There's pulp poetry a-plenty here, and of the highest grade; when Earp asks why men like Ringo do what they do, Doc explains they are motivated by revenge. "For What?" "For being born."

Aided by a striking resemblance to the real Wyatt Earp, Kurt Russell is surprisingly at home in the western genre and if Kilmer may not be as stunning as Quaid in the role of Doc Holliday, his larger than life performance never crosses the line into parody and compliments him well.

Powers Boothe makes a good villain in the Gregory Peck Duel in the Sun mode, Stephen Lang is a much more convincing Ike Clanton than Jeff Fahey's wild-eyed central casting looney tune but Michael Biehn tops them both with his chillingly educated Johnny Ringo, trading Latin quotations with Doc and his soul with the Devil. By comparison, Dana Delaney seems so clumsily grafted in on the narrative, disrupting and diluting every key scene she's in, that it's a genuine surprise to find out that her character is not an invented one. The rest of the cast is terrific, although Charlton Heston's part is so small (some extras have more lines) that you do wonder why he took it and Michael Rooker is completely wasted.

Director Cosmatos (whgo replaced writer and original director Kevin Jarre early in the shoot)has a great eye for the Scope format, with a beautiful use of the frame that makes no concessions to panning and scanning and conveys a sense of community going about its business without stopping the film to do so (note the tracking shot through the walls of a telegraph office as the brothers are reunited at the beginning of the film).

The costumes, sets and facial hair seem much more authentic than Costner's picture, for which original director Kevin Jarre must take most of the credit: this time when they take their walk to the O.K. Corral they don't look like a quartet of pissed-off Amish farmers. The visual design is also impressive, as with Russell and Delaney's meeting while out riding where one wears white on a black horse, the other black on a white one, with Bruce Broughton's much criticised score complimenting the film perfectly.

Of the versions available, the best is the 2-disc US NTSC director's cut, which boasts a slightly extended version of the film and a good selection of extras - audio commentary by George Pan Cosmatos, three featurettes, storyboards for the gunfight, trailers and TV spots and even the Tombstone Epitah newspaper coverage. By contrast the UK PAL DVD is the shorter theatrical cut in a decent widescreen transfer (although the first and last chapters are 'locked' so you can't fast-forward or reverse) with only a trailer and a brief featurette.

THE DOC STEALS THE SHOW !!
Quite a good western.Certainly not a classic though.VAL KILMERS portrayal of Doc holliday was worthy of an Oscar.He was nothing short of brilliant with his wit and poignant moments.I could watch this film over and over again for his performance alone.