Tombstone

There is something really quite authentic looking about this western. Set at a time when the law was beginning to seriously impose itself on the otherwise lawless "wild" west, it depicts the story of Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) who just wanted to retire to peace and quiet in the eponymous Arizona town. Once there, he quickly realises that his fellow townsfolk are not on the same page. The arrival of his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott), Morgan (Bill Paxton) and his lifelong friend "Doc" Holliday (Val Kilmer) make a confrontation with the red-sashed "cowboys" inevitable. This film takes it's time to develop the characters and the narrative. That's not say it is dull, it isn't - it just allows the story to breathe as the tension mounts before culminating in the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral. Russell was maybe not the best choice (though at times he reminded me of Gene Hackman); but Kilmer was oddly effective as was Stephen Lang's pretty duplicitous Ike Clanton. It's narrated by one Hollywood legend - Robert Mitchum, and features the briefest of cameos at the end from another - Charlton Heston, is well constructed and paced, and rather creatively, poignantly (and violently at times) depicts the end of an era.