Oh, Tombstone for alla the above, and more.
But Russell’s best best bit in the movie isn’t even a line of dialogue. It’s when the youngest Cowboy shows him the pistol in his belt, out on the porch of the saloon. He grabs it and pistol-whips the kid so fast you’d miss it if you blinked.
“Because Wyatt Earp is my friend.”
“Hell, I got lots o’ friends, Doc.”
“I don’t.”
Skeezix took my line – IMO the thesis statement of the film.
Tombstone is better, of course. Tighter, better written and faster moving. Shorter – a three hour movie has to be tight and the COstner film just wasn’t. And Kilmer was wonderful. I didn’t like Dana Delany as Josie, only because she was too old for the role (Josie was a teenager when she met Wyatt Earp). But still.
That said, I’ll put in a word for Dennis Quaid’s Doc. Quaid was quite good, I thought. Kilmer was so brilliant that Quaid was overshadowed. I’m sure he’d have received better notice for his good work if the two films hadn’t been released so close together.
The Costner movie was ruined for me early on, BTW. Costner (whom I have actually liked in some things and who I don’t think was a bad choice of actor as Wyatt Earp) was just too damn old in the first quarter of the film. They should have hired a young look-alike for the earlier scenes and had Costner come in after the death of Earp’s first wife. I never got into the film at all because I started out thinking, “Whoa! Costner’s supposed to be 18 here?” This problem was much more egregious than the Dana Delany/ Josie thing, which I noted, but which didn’t alter my enjoyment of Tombstone in any way.
Tombstone by far.
That said, the Dennis Quaid performance “saved” Wyatt Earp from total drivel. And, as others have said, I’m not all that anti-Costner (Field of Dreams, Dances With Wolves, No Way Out, and even Silverado), but Russell’s Earp was more convincing.
Have to admit, though, that I kept drawing comparisons to the Lancaster/Douglas portrayals in Gunfight At The O.K. Corral, which, for its era, was some high-class entertainment.
Well I maybe alone in this but I preferred Wyatt Earp.
Tombstone, to me, was just another beef-cake western along the lines of Young Guns. Yes Val was great as Doc Holiday but Dennis Quaid was a great Doc Holiday as well.
W.E. was written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. IMHO a much better director than George P Cosmatos and a much better writter than Kevin Jarre (who did write the excellant Glory though).
Another Tombstone. That movie has approached Caddyshack in quotability among my crowd.
Tombstone was by far the better movie, but my ideal movie would have been Wyatt Earp up until they reached Tombstone and then Tombstone from that point on, with Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp, Kilmer as Holliday and the rest of the cast from Tombstone.
Wyatt Earp was THE most frustrating movie for me because I read the novelization before I saw the movie and that book was the most authentic Wyatt Earp story told in fiction…and then they totally changed it in the movie and screwed it up. As things turned out, neither Wyatt Earp nor Tombstone was spectacularly accurate historically (though they did better than any other Wyatt Earp movie to date) but Tombstone was better.
BTW, the last time I was in Tombstone I asked around and the people there preferred Tombstone as well—apparently the people filming Tombstone actually went to the town and did a lot of research, whereas the Wyatt Earp people did very little.
Tombstone all the way.
" Look darlin’! That’s Latin. It appears Johnny Ringo is an educated man. Now I really hate him! "
Val Kilmer got so many great lines, but my favorite came from Kurt Russell:
“Are you gonna DO something, or just stand there and bleed?”
One of the best non-Doc Holliday lines is from Johnny Ringo:
“Smell that, Bill? Smells like someone died.”
Zing!
And Virgil Earp’s touching line to his wife, which was used in both movies (making me think it was historically accurate):
“Don’t worry, I still got one good arm to hold you with.”
Sam Elliot’s delivery was so poignant and so loving in that scene.
That line is indeed historical, as is Doc Holliday’s line at the OK Corrall: “You’re a daisy if you do.”
~giggles~ Dear lord, was I smokin’ crack or what.
Thanks for the correction. I knew who I meant, honestly. I shouldn’t post when I’m tired.
Zebra, I think Tombstone was supposed to be somewhat beefcake, and it was OK because no one was expecting Clint Eastwood or John Wayne style. And I loved Young Guns I and II. So many gorgeous men dressed like cowboys. ~sigh~
Reiterating what I said and what others stated, Sam Elliot was GREAT.
~J
Tombstone.
Of course, I’m biased. I never saw Wyatt Earp. 
God DAMN, though, I got the hots for Kilmer when I watched that movie. I tend to like Southern accents, and his voice is just HEAHVEHNLEH…
I really need to see that movie again…
Actually, several of the scenes of gunplay in both movies used the statements recorded in the Tombstone Epitaph. The dialogue at the gunfight at the OK Corral is widely reported and was used in both films, as were the dying words of Morgan Earp. (Wyatt Earp choreographed the OK Corral a bit closer to the historical, although neither film showed the outright murder of the Clantons perpetrated by the Earps quite the way it happened.)
Another line is historical—unfortunately I can’t remember which one. I believe it was the exchange “I’ve had a dozen people come up to my room to tell me that the Clantons and McLaury’s were coming for me.”
“This isn’t your fight, Doc.”
“That is a hell of a thing for you to say to me.”
God, the more I think about this movie, the more great lines I remember.
“Hey, where’s Wyatt?”
“He’s down by the river–walking on water.”
“Why you involved in this? This isn’t your fight.”
“Wyatt Earp is my friend”
“I’ve got lots of friends.”
“I haven’t.”
That’s because it didn’t happen that way. It was not outright murder by any stretch of the term.
Yes! By all means, get the Vista Series “Tombstone”. It’s fantastic! I have over 100 DVDs and this is easily one of the better ones in my collection. It looks GREAT and sounds excellent and it has so many wonderful extras. I know I sound excited but the truth is…it’s worth it. Run and get it. You won’t be disappointed.
I don’t go along with the term “outright murder,” but it’s fair to say a lot of people in Tombstone at the time DID see things that way. To put it mildly, not everyone saw the Earps as heroes- many viewed the conflict between the Earps and the Cowboys as a war between two rival gangs, not a simple showdown between lawmen and bad guys.
The only thing that bothers me about Tombstone, which I do prefer. Is the las half hour just rushes events alog. The first part of the movie was wonderfully paced and then they decide that they had to wrap up the movie soon so the revenge is mostly a montage. I could have easily sat through another hour with this movie showing them picking off the cowboys. They could have kept the pace and been just as entertaining.
“I don’t sit around all day laughing like an idiot if that’s what you mean.”
"Everyone is dressing awful Tony for a mining town. We’re growing. Be as big as San Francisco in a few years, and just as sophisticated. "
(Gun fight breaks out in the street as two men are gunned down in broad daylight)
Doc Holliday: Very cosmopolitan.
I’d have to say Tombstone as well.
WE was good in that it tried to cover most of Earp’s life.
Tombstone basically took the climax and made it into a feature length flick.
And what can be said about Doc that hasn’t already been said:
“Make no mistake, it’s not revenge he’s after. It’s the reckoning.”
and
“One last ride for Wyatt Earp and his Immortals.”
The “Fredrick fucking Chopin” quote was just too good. I still laugh out loud when I see that scene.