Rewriting Tombstone

tombstone.jpgVery few Westerns jingle my spurs. The short list of favorites includes, of course, "Unforgiven," "Barbarosa," and "High Noon." However, my very favorite Western is "Tombstone." No, it's not historically accurate. In fact, it plays so loosely with history that decendents of certain figures in the movie have built websites to try and correct the factual errors and clear their names (particularly the Clantons - get a life, folks. It was 150 years ago). But you'd be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable Western. The screenplay, credited to Kevin Jarre before he was fired by the studio, plays like a "greatest quotes in movie history" list; I don't know if Doc Holliday actually said, "You're a daisy if ya do," or, "I'm your Huckleberry," but after hearing Val Kilmer's drawling southern delivery, I kinda hope he actually did. Now, a year and a half after the death of director George P. Cosmatos, Kurt Russell has begun to spill some of the stories about the troubled making of this modern classic. The entire article can be found at True West Magazine. The most interesting assertion by Russell concerns director Cosmatos, who was brought on board during filming to finish up what Jarre began before his dismissal. It seems that Cosmatos functioned as a puppet director for Russell, who actually called the shots from the shadows. Russell said the following... '"... we brought in a guy to be a ghost director. They wanted me to take over the movie. I said, €œI€™ll do it, but I don€™t want to put my name on it. I don€™t want to be the guy.€ I said to George , €œI€™m going to give you a shot list every night, and that€™s what€™s going to be.€ I€™d go to George€™s room, give him the shot list for the next day, that was the deal. €œGeorge I don€™t want any arguments. This is what it is. This is what the job is.€' If this is true then Kurt Russell deserves credit for what I consider one of the greatest edits in movie history: his screaming monologue, "Hell's comin' with me!" which cuts to a brilliant shot of the vengeful riders rising up out of a bloody red sun. Man I get the chills every single time on that one. Even more interesting than that is the startling revelation that Russell still has quite a bit of footage IN HIS GARAGE that never made it into the final cut and has never been seen by the moviegoing public. When asked about the possibility of recutting an extended edition of "Tombstone," Russell replied, "Well, I don€™t know what they€™ve got, but all that stuff is put away in my garage, including an interesting scene that shows a deeper relationship between Wyatt Earp and the cowboys. Who knows?€”maybe sometime....€ Note to Russell: You're not doing anything else. Get off your ass and do this immediately!
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All you need to know is that I love movies and baseball. I write about both on a temporary medium known as the Internet. Twitter: @rayderousse or @unfilteredlens1 Go St. Louis Cardinals! www.stlcardinalbaseball.com