CONSIDERED BY MOST, THE GREATEST WESTERN ECER MADE.



Tombstone is a 1993 American Western directed by George P. Cosmatos, written by Kevin Jarre (who was also the original director, but was replaced early in production^[3][4]) and starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe and Dana Delany, and narrated by Robert Mitchum.
The film is based on events relating to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, along with the Earp Vendetta which followed it soon after in Tombstone, Arizona during the 1880s. It depicts a number of western outlaws and lawmen, such as Wyatt Earp, William Brocius, Johnny Ringo, and Doc Holliday as it explores crime, political corruption and law enforcement in the old American West.^[5] The film was a co-production between Cinergi Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. It was commercially distributed by Buena Vista Pictures theatrically and by Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment for home media.
Tombstone premiered in theaters in wide release in the United States on December 24, 1993, grossing $56,505,065 in domestic ticket sales. The film was viewed as a moderate financial success after its theatrical run, and was generally met with mixed critical reviews. It failed to garner award nominations for production merits or acting from any mainstream motion picture organizations. A widescreen Blu-ray Disc edition featuring the making of Tombstone, director's original storyboards, trailers and TV spots was released in the United States on April 27, 2010. The original soundtrack, composed by musician Bruce Broughton, was released by the Intrada Records label on December 25, 1993. On March 16, 2006, an expanded two-disc version of the film score was released by Intrada Records; it features supplemental musical compositions by the Sinfonia of London session orchestra.
For the Western genre as a whole, Tombstone ranks number 12 in the list of highest grossing films since 1979.<sup>[6]

THE REAL Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp is best known for his participation in the controversial "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," which took place at Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881. In this legendary Old West encounter, Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday faced off with Ike and Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury. The shootout and the bloody events that followed, combined with Wyatt Earp's penchant for storytelling, resulted in Wyatt Earp acquiring the reputation as being one of the Old West's toughest and deadliest gunmen of his day. Wyatt Earp would become the fearless Western hero in countless novels and films.

   Wyatt Earp is often portrayed by writers as a man of few words who did not like to talk about his past. Nevertheless, Wyatt Earp on several occasions, categorically and without corroboration, told interviewers accounts of his deed from the Old West. In 1896, Wyatt Earp claimed that he backed down gunman Clay Allison in Dodge City during 1878. Around 1919, Wyatt Earp told Forrestine Hooker that he killed the notorious Johnny Ringo on his way out of Arizona during 1882. Wyatt Earp later repeated the claim that he killed Johnny Ringo to at least three other people. In the late 1920s, Wyatt Earp told his future biographer, Stuart Lake, that he arrested Ben Thompson, a notorious gunslinger, in Ellsworth, Kansas, on August 15, 1873. None of these claims made by Wyatt Earp have been corroborated by contemporary documents.

   Today many writers and historians continue to view Wyatt Earp through rose-colored glasses. Neil Carmony, in his Editor’s Foreword to The Real Wyatt Earp, A Documentary Biography (2000), commented about this trend: “Typically, when all is said and done the unrealistic superstar of Stuart Lake’s 1931 biography (Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal), and the numerous Tombstone movies is the Earp who emerges from their books and articles.”</sup>