Tombstone (1993)

Film: Tombstone (1993)

Stars: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Jason Priestley, Dana Delany

Director: George P. Cosmatos

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Sam Elliott: click here to learn more about Mr. Elliott (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Sam Elliott's career, honestly, could've just continued in the same mold it had throughout the 1980's for the rest of his time in Hollywood.  In the 1990's, he continued to take small (but steady) parts in more westerns & war pictures, including our film today, one of the more profitable traditional westerns of the 1990's.  But in 2015, Elliott started to have something of a resurgence.  He had a terrific supporting role in the film Grandma opposite Lily Tomlin (for my money, this was the role that should've won him an Oscar nomination), and got cast in The Ranch opposite Ashton Kutcher & Danny Masterson on Netflix (at the time this would've been a big deal given Kutcher's recent success on Two and a Half Men...now the call list feels like it should come with a subpoena).  He got a lead role in The Hero, playing a faded cowboy star, and then came the moment that it seemed like would never come: Elliott's part in A Star is Born.  In the film, he plays the much older brother of Bradley Cooper's lead, and Elliott informed not only his own performance, but that of Cooper (who was clearly imitating the actor's distinctive gravely voice).  The film, at the age of 74, won Elliott his first Academy Award nomination.  Asked for comment at the time, Elliott said "it's about fucking time."

(Spoilers Ahead) We've already reviewed and discussed at length A Star is Born, so we're going to go back to the 1990's when it wasn't clear this was something that was in Elliott's future, and review the film Tombstone.  In 1993-94, two films (this and Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp) were released basically with the same premise, focusing on the lives of Wyatt Earp (Russell) & his brothers Virgil (Elliott) and Morgan (Paxton).  The movie covers a lot of ground, including the Gunfight at the OK Corral, which would make the Earp Brothers true legends, and the ensuing revenge that took place after that would injure Virgil and result in Morgan's death.  Along the way, they are joined by Doc Holliday (Kilmer), and Josephine Marcus (Delany), the former their compatriot who is dying pretty much the entire film, and the latter the romantic partner of Wyatt Earp throughout most of his life.

If you're wondering why I'm writing that plot summary like a history lesson rather than our "deconstruct the plot" approach we usually do, it's because Tombstone is not a good movie, and has very little actual connection to these characters.  The film feels so formulaic as to be reading a history book (albeit one with a lot of fallacies about what actually happened, as forgotten brother Warren Earp is lifted entirely out of this narrative despite being there for key parts of this story in real life).  Russell, Elliott, & Paxton don't have much connection to one another as brothers-there's little camaraderie, with Elliott in particular badly miscast as a stoic figure (Elliott's at his best when he's playing something of a rascal, not a stern disciplinarian).  Even Golden Age western star Charlton Heston shows up for a "why's he here?" cameo with little fanfare.

The one saving grace of the movie is Val Kilmer, who is not as good of an actor as the other three men in most films, but here steals the entire movie wholesale.  His Doc Holliday, with an affected accent & covered in sweaty makeup, is delicious.  He flirts with everyone, he clearly is competent even while his body shuts down, and you spend the entire film rooting for him even though you he's not going to make it.  At the time, there was some Oscar buzz for Kilmer for this role, and while 1993 is hardly a year to complain about the Academy's lineup (one of the finest Supporting Actor sets that AMPAS ever assembled), watching this you definitely wish Kilmer had been able to get some accolades.  At least after this he got to be Batman.

And with that, we're going to end our month devoted to Sam Elliott, an actor who still works in film & television with such regularity there will hopefully be more shootouts & galloping in his future.  Next month, we're going to ride this season into the sunset, with our final Hollywood cowboy, a man who saw acting as a second career...a second career that brought about the final chapter of the Golden Age western.