Twenty-Six years before his son made “revolutionary” acid slasher films with red filter lenses, which the snob-twitteratti proclaimed as groundbreaking works of art in a world where the alternatives were pixels fighting each other, George P. Cosmatos directed what is probably the most definitive and comprehensive recounting of the Earp-Canton/Cowboys feud that occurred in Tombstone, Arizona Territory in 1881, noted for the “Shootout at the OK Corral”.
Eminently quotable, with fantastic dialogue, and impeccably shot action scenes which service and forward the plot (what a concept!) the film features a cavalcade of great performances by an amazing cast:
Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott as Virgil Earp, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Charlton Heston, Jason Priestley, Stephen Lang, Thomas Haden Church, Dana Delany, Billy Bob Thornton, Terry O’Quinn, and Robert Mitchum as the Narrator.
And a tour de force by Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday.
The film was also notable for using many location shoots throughout Cochise County, AZ, where the events actually occurred. My daily commute when I was a resident of Bisbee and worked in Cochise County for the gubment took me past many of the locations (the Hooker Ranch site, the San Pedro River Ambush site, to name just a couple) frequently.
If you haven’t seen it, you probably should.
The Forty:
The Sixty:
The Eighty:
The Hundred:
Navaronegun used to have this view every day from his back porch.
The One Twenty:
Yes, the screen was black. Included for completest reasons. Cosmotos probably inspired his “genius” son with this frame.
“Go ahead, skin it! Skin that smokewagon and see what happens, @charmtrap!”