So intense was Kilmer’s method acting preparation for this film, that for his death scene he slept on a bed of ice to generate the shivering effect- something that Brando also did for his death scene in Mutiny on the Bounty. Kilmer walks a tight rope between brilliant character acting and a burlesque caricature, bringing to mind some truly bizarre, yet undeniably potent performances of Kilmer’s idol Marlon Brando. He acquired the mannerisms and dressing style of an effete dandy, and has given himself an aristocratic southern accent that adds authenticity to his portrayal (Holliday was from Georgia). Kilmer, who was 33 when he did the film, and is much closer in age to the real Holliday (who was 30) immerses himself into the role with such intensity, that all traces of Kilmer disappears Kilmer’s Holliday is forever drunk and forever feverish, with red eyes and a ghostly white face – perfectly representing a man who is dying of tuberculosis. In direct contrast to Russell’s Wyatt Earp stands Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday. Kurt Russell may lack the stature and towering presence of such legendary Western stars as John Wayne or Cooper, but he makes up for it with his sincerity, his commanding voice and dialogue delivery, his spontaneous acing style and an innate starry aura that he possesses – maybe due to the fact that there aren’t many stars like him, with the major exception of Elizabeth Taylor, who has had such a long run of stardom since their childhood – that allows him to project cool machismo effortlessly. And after watching the movie, i have to say that that’s were most of the similarity ends, because Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, is less the Earp that a lot of history and revisionist history books teach us, and more of the grand ‘Western’ genre archetype : The noble, reluctant gunslinger, who hang up his spurs to live in peace, but is pulled back into the world of violence Think of Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952). Of all the actors who played Wyatt Earp on screen, a mustachioed Kurt Russell in Tombstone (1993) comes closest in appearance to the real Wyatt Earp the resemblance is uncanny when one compares Russell in the film and the real life photographs of Earp taken at the time of his activities in the town of Tombstone, even though Age wise, Russell, who was 42 at the time of making this film, was far older than Earp who was 33 at the time of the famous Gunfight near the OK corral. Cosmatos and starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, is a thoroughly enjoyable western that recounts the events leading up to, and following, the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral. Tombstone (1993), (officially) directed by George P.
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