A successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona, are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.A successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona, are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.A successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona, are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
- Directors
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSome years after the death of Doc Holliday, Wyatt was quoted in an interview as saying, "Doc was a dentist, not a lawman or an assassin, whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long lean ash-blond fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skillful gambler and the nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun that I ever knew."
- GoofsSome scenes show electrical lights over the pool tables. Light bulbs were invented in 1878 but Tombstone did not have electricity until 1902. Furthermore, pocket billiards as we know it today (using striped, numbered object balls) would not have been played in the American West of the 1870s, having only been developed in the early decades of the twentieth century; the immediate forerunner of pocket billiards (using solid-colored, unnumbered balls) wasn't invented until around 1900.
- Quotes
Johnny Ringo: My fight's not with you, Holliday.
Doc Holliday: I beg to differ, sir. We started a game we never got to finish. "Play for Blood," remember?
Johnny Ringo: Oh that. I was just foolin' about.
Doc Holliday: I wasn't.
- Crazy creditsFor Birgitta C.
- Alternate versionsA "Vista Series" director's cut was released in February 2002. Just under five minutes of never-before-seen footage were restored. The most noticeable are:
- a scene showing the depths of Mattie's addiction to laudanum and her jealousy over Josephine;
- a somber soliloquy by Doc quoting Kublai Khan;
- a scene explaining Kate's sudden disappearance from the film, with Doc stressing the importance of friendship;
- a scene with McMasters and the Cowboys meeting one last time. A small scene showing the graphic result of that meeting has been re-inserted, with the line "They got McMasters!" being moved into this small insert.
Featured review
First of all, I love the movie. Now some may say, "What a moron..." and others will undoubtedly agree with me. But I think it's great. When I first saw the film as it debuted in theaters eleven or so years back, I came away thinking, Men doing a man's job. Sounds a little chauvinist, I'll admit, but there you are. The movie is a tribute to men being men, living their lives on their own terms. The fact that the story is about the Earp saga is almost secondary to the film. To enjoy this movie, I don't think that it's so important for it to have historical accuracy to the letter or even have rain falling consistently through the shots. I would only advise viewers to let this Remington-painting-come-to-life wash over them and just go along for the ride. As long as we remember that this is Hollywood, all is well.
Then there's reality. As real aficionados of Tombstone history will see, the movie sacrifices or distorts some of the facts and compresses time. In the end it's a shame, really, because the film never realizes its full potential. I'm convinced that if this movie was true to history, it could only have been better. Previous reviews talk about and compare with Costner's Wyatt Earp. I think elements of both films combined would have made a great movie. For instance, I would have lifted much of WE's script from when Wyatt arrives in town (the story, not the dialog) and used it in Tombstone. And then get the rest of the facts straight. The true story is compelling on its own, and would still be entertaining.
The special edition DVD includes deleted scenes, that for the life of me, I can't figure out why they were deleted in the first place. But the scene when Wyatt and Josie rest after their spirited ride still has the payoff of the scene cut out - Josie and Wyatt getting it on. I get tired of directors thinking that the audience is sophisticated so we'll just let them figure it out on their own. Come on George, some of us didn't know that Wyatt was cheating on Mattie.
Finally, I've got to say that the movie was cast well. And the costumes were true to life - men liked to be colorful and unique in that time and place. The guns were accurate, as were the holsters (low slung and quick draw is a Hollywood invention). As for the scenery, I lived in Arizona for a while, and I do miss the big sky.
If you want to be entertained, this is the movie for you. If you want a history lesson, better hit the library...
Then there's reality. As real aficionados of Tombstone history will see, the movie sacrifices or distorts some of the facts and compresses time. In the end it's a shame, really, because the film never realizes its full potential. I'm convinced that if this movie was true to history, it could only have been better. Previous reviews talk about and compare with Costner's Wyatt Earp. I think elements of both films combined would have made a great movie. For instance, I would have lifted much of WE's script from when Wyatt arrives in town (the story, not the dialog) and used it in Tombstone. And then get the rest of the facts straight. The true story is compelling on its own, and would still be entertaining.
The special edition DVD includes deleted scenes, that for the life of me, I can't figure out why they were deleted in the first place. But the scene when Wyatt and Josie rest after their spirited ride still has the payoff of the scene cut out - Josie and Wyatt getting it on. I get tired of directors thinking that the audience is sophisticated so we'll just let them figure it out on their own. Come on George, some of us didn't know that Wyatt was cheating on Mattie.
Finally, I've got to say that the movie was cast well. And the costumes were true to life - men liked to be colorful and unique in that time and place. The guns were accurate, as were the holsters (low slung and quick draw is a Hollywood invention). As for the scenery, I lived in Arizona for a while, and I do miss the big sky.
If you want to be entertained, this is the movie for you. If you want a history lesson, better hit the library...
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Los justicieros
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $56,505,065
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,454,752
- Dec 26, 1993
- Gross worldwide
- $56,505,065
- Runtime2 hours 10 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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