Search - Tombstone - The Director's Cut (Vista Series) on DVD

Larry N. from BEALETON, VA
Reviewed on 4/24/2015...

Very good western and very entertaining. The Director's Cut 2-disc version only has about 4 more minutes of footage and the second disc is a DVD-ROM game of the card game featured in the movie.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

John B. (FilmFanwithCat) from MENLO PARK, CA
Reviewed on 5/5/2012...

i really enJoy this Epic of Wyatt Earp and His era.
i uselly watch it a couple time a year, since the year it
came to the theaters.
Val Kilmer's "Doc" Holiday is pretty much my favorite character.
...'Nothing like the barroom scene at the Gaming Table.
I'm not retired "...I'm in my Prime!"
If You are not a Western fan,
you outta watch this, because it enhances the stereotypes
with quality performances.
( Let the film Play again, sam. ) from, San Francisco

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Marsha E. from SALINAS, CA
Reviewed on 2/16/2012...

This is one of the best Westerns I have ever seen. The cast is stellar, with Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday, one of the best portrayal's I have ever seen. A friend of mine said they were going to nominate him for a best supporting actor but they got it in too late. Damn shame, we both agreed he deserved it! That is enough to just watch the movie but there is so much more to it with Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Dana Delany as the women he falls in love and ultimately marries. It has everything a movie needs. A great script, great cast, great shootout and great love story. What else could anyone want? I wish they would remember that in Hollywood when they make more movies.

Jennifer C. from SYCAMORE, IL
Reviewed on 12/9/2009...

LOVE this version of Tombstone. Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday is the best. Good action, good storyline, guys & girls alike could enjoy.

A memorable "huckleberry"

Robert Morris | Dallas, Texas | 09/26/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
Having already seen My Darling Clementine (1946) and The Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) several times, I was curious to observe what director George Pan Cosmatos and his screenwriters would do with essentially the same material in this film. There are significant differences between and among them but suggesting comparisons and contrasts would be unfair to three different films which appeared over a 57-year period.

Now on to Tombstone. Director George Cosmatos worked with a large cast and all of the performances are first-rate. William Fraker's cinematography and Bruce Broughton's musical score are carefully integrated within the narrative and serve it well. My own opinion is that Val Kilmer (Doc Holliday) dominates each scene in which he appears. However, Kurt Russell (Wyatt Earp), Dana Delany (Josephine Marcos), Sam Elliot (Virgil Earp), and Powers Boothe (Curly Bill Brocius) hold their own.

As portrayed in the film, Tombstone (Arizona) is a western town in the last stages of being a community dominated by outlaws. The involvement of the Earps coincide with a growing local desire among residents to establish law and order. The eventual showdown at the OK Corral is a key event but by no means the only one. I was especially interested in how Cosmatos and Russell develop Wyatt Earp's character as he struggles to follow his conscience, establish some stability in his own life, and thereby complete a transition from gunfighter to private citizen.

Back to Kilmer for a moment. I do not recall a prior or subsequent film of his in which he reveals the comic timing, nuances of personality, and conflicting anxieties which he does while portraying Holliday in Tombstone. His is a masterful performance, maintaining an exquisite balance between playful humor and force of will. I recalled elements of that performance while recently observing Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. However, the Holliday character is revealed to have much greater depth and complexity than Sparrow's even as both characters demonstrate at every appropriate opportunity a unique flair for mimicry.

I do have a few minor quibbles. First, I think the pace of the plot lags unnecessarily at times. Also, the evolving relationship between Wyatt Earp and Josephine Marcos is not always in focus, even when allowing for a period of adjustment as they take each other's measure. Finally, I really don't understand the purpose of the final scene except to offer an alternative to the neat-and-tidy conclusion which so many other films offer. That said, I think that Cosmatos, his cast, and crew have created 135 minutes of generally entertaining, sometimes hilarious, and often thought-provoking material. Perhaps the more ambitious scale (e.g. timeframe and subplots) precludes the dramatic impact of its predecessors, My Darling Clementine and The Gunfight at the OK Corral. In any event, I enjoyed it.

Final point: I wish all other versions offered special features comparable with those provided by the Vista Series DVD. They include a commentary by Cosmatos, the 134 Director's Cut Edition, featurettes ("An Ensemble Cast," "Making An Authentic Western," and "The Gunfight At The O.K. Corral"), an interactive Tombstone storyline, The Tombstone Epitaph - Actual Newspaper Account, and Cosmatos' original storyboards for the O.K. Corral sequence."

A potential (cult?) classic!

John Taylor | Lewisville, NC USA | 03/17/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While this movie may never achieve the critical acclaim it deserves, there is a grassroots appreciation for this movie that points out, once again, the different worlds of professional movie critics and the movie-viewing public. For example, Leonard Maltin describes Dana Delany as 'goofy' in this production. Personally, I found her captivating, and -- for some reason -- the most attractive I have ever seen her.Kurt Russell turns in another excellent performance, proving once again that he has grown considerably as an actor over the years.The performances of Michael Biehn, Sam Elliott, Powers Boothe, Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton, Billy Zane, Jason Priestly, Joanna Pacula, even Charlton Heston, in supporting roles -- major and minor -- are carefully crafted and played to perfection.But in my book Val Kilmer steals the show as Doc Holliday. Chalk this up as another excellent performance (e.g. Thunderheart) by the oft-maligned but excellent actor.Do yourselves a favor and view this movie as a stand-alone ... don't try to compare it to the other Wyatt Earp movies; don't compare it to history. Just enjoy it as it is -- a truly well-told tale, a violent love story (think True Romance set in the 19th century if you will), full of outstanding performances.This story (as are almost all tales about Earp) is heavily romanticized. History reveals that there were no good guys or bad guys in the power struggles that took place between town authorities, Earp's crowd, and The Cowboys. Nonetheless, the director has paid close attention to period accuracy in costume, language, and props. The firearms used -- an area that is often woefully researched -- are period accurate, with only the most minor license taken for cinematic effect.My guess is that in time this movie will establish itself as an audience favorite regardless of "expert" opinion. And the cast members have every reason to be proud of a truly fine ensemble performance."

I'm your Huckleberry

William R. Graham | Rancho Santa Margarita, CA USA | 12/14/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Aside from this being a great western action adventure film, it's a true story which a lot of people forget or don't realize. The main actors do an excellent job and the movie has a fine supporting cast. Being an old west history buff, I have studied documents and accountings of this time in history and have visited the town of Tombstone 5 times. This movie not only accurately portrays the town, especially the Bird Cage Theater which is nearly exact, but the costuming is the best I've seen of 1880's style reproduction. There are a couple of inaccuracies like Marshal White being shot in the chest, (he was shot in the groin), and Virgil and Morgan being shot on the same night, (they were shot 3 months apart). Nonetheless, the events are accurately portrayed as they happened, right down to minute details like a bullet striking over Wyatt's head when Morgan gets shot in Hatch's Saloon, and the dog continuously barking afterwards. The makers of this movie did their homework and are to be commended on the fantastic result. They even used a lot of the phraseology of the time and some lines are directly from documentation of interviews of people who were witnesses to these events. Included in these is of course the best line..."I'm your Huckleberry." The source of this line is from the book "Tombstone." By the way, a Huckleberry is old west vernicular meaning, "The best man for the job." An outstanding movie about part of the life of an outstanding man, Wyatt Earp."