Tombstone (1993)

Marshal has one "L" & Val robbed of recognition by peers & reviewers...
First of All to Amazon all writers: United States Marshal is spelled with one "L", or seen as US Marshal, and Wyatt Earp was a Deputy US Marshal, as the region or federal US Marshal is and was a Presidential appointee who hires Deputy US Marshals. The olde West would be the time in history that saw the highest death rate of some 50-70 Deputy US Marshal per year. The US Marshal Service is in charge of ALL federal prisoners once they have seen a US Judge and/or are incarcerated in prison or escaped Federal prisoners, they do Witness Security (not the FBI--as portrayed in "My Blue Heaven"), they have a 15 Most Wanted List (not a mere 10 of the FBI), they do all duties pertaining to the Federal Court system--including the security of all the Supreme Court Judges, and they have arrest powers in all 50 states plus all the US territories as well as working with Interpol. They took Noriega into custody, did everything from John Gotti trials, Timothy McVeigh trial, Assassination attempt on Pope trials to the Twin Towers trials of 1990's.

Secondly--Val Kilmer truly was robbed of an academy award nomination and soared in every scene he appeared in, to the enjoyment of this viewer. His portrayal of a diseased with TB, highly educated former dentist, now card-whiz at poker, gun-toting crack shot was masterful & perfect. I would align Val's performance in the same category of scene-stealing-memorable performances as Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow but also to the Academy nominated Dustin Hoffman for his portrayal of a crippled petty thief named Ratzo Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy"(1969). The 1998 Academy evidently had blinders on while preferring to nominate movies like: "Shakespeare in Love" (the Winner for Best Picture), "Elizabeth", "Life is Beautiful" or "The Thin Red Line"--hardly a memorable movie to be found; only redeeming themselves with the final nomination of: "Saving Private Ryan" which as we all know was the one that should have won.
And to those few that did not like this movie...I direct you to the huge number of of pages (37) of reviews that whole-heartedly adore, admire and recommend this film to others. Try to find another movie with this much input. "Tombstone" ROCKS and the only thing missing was more scences with Doc Holiday by Val Kilmer!

Buy This Movie Now!
Wyatt Earp has one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the American West. While this may take some artistic liberties (more than Costner's Wyatt Earp) it is still one of the greates westerns of all time. Russell and Kilmer are phenominal in their best performances and the entire ensemble cast is perfect. You feel like they had the best time of their lives making this wonderful movie. Tombstone and Wyatt Earp may be about the same subject but both are vastly different, nearly equally great films and while I love Costner's film I will give the slightest edge to Tombstone and rate it as one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time.

One of the best
This is one of, if not the best western I have ever seen. It surpasses Wyatt Earp (with Kevin Costner) by far. Love Val Kilmner the most.