“The law’s comin’!” – “Tombstone” on 4K

4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS

(1) Kurt Russell at his best as lawman, gambler, gunfighter, and saloonkeeper Wyatt Earp. “You tell ‘em I’m comin’! And Hell’s comin’ with me, you hear?” (2) The Earp brothers, left, Virgil (Sam Elliott), Morgan (Bill Paxton), and Wyatt, arrive in Tombstone, where Marshal Fred White, played by legendary Western actor Harry Carey Jr., greets them. 

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4K screenshots courtesy of Disney/Sony Pictures - Click for an Amazon purchase

“TOMBSTONE”

4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 1993; R for strong western violence and profanity; Digital copy via Amazon Video (4K), Apple TV (4K), Fandango Home (4K), Movies Anywhere (4K), YouTube (4K)

Best extra: The three-part “Making of” featurette

OVER THE LAST three decades, “Tombstone” has developed into an enduring Western favorite – especially after endless rebroadcasts on cable TV, charismatic performances,  and its memorable lines.

It opened on Christmas Day with respectable box office numbers and finished the week at No. 3, making $14.4 million with a final worldwide gross of $56 million. Robin Williams’ comedy “Mrs. Doubtfire” was a surefire blockbuster, landing at No.1 (Dec. 24 – Dec. 30), and No. 2 was the political thriller “The Pelican Brief,” with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

At the time, film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert didn’t review “Tombstone” because studio executives were hesitant about its possible success and didn’t provide a screening.

Two months later, the Chicago-based critics finally gave their review as “Tombstone” had become one of the season’s surprise hits. Ebert had been tipped off by friends and passersby who told him about Val Kilmer’s performance as the tubercular but sardonic gambler/gunslinger John H. “Doc” Holliday – “I’ll be your Huckleberry.” Ebert went on saying, “When you read President Bill Clinton loved the performance, you figure you better catch up with the movie. And, Kilmer is indeed brilliant in this film.”

(1) The production budget for “Tombstone” was under $30 million and was mostly filmed in the Sonoran Desert region of southern Arizona. (2) Wyatt Earp arrives on a train in Tucson. (3) Wyatt and his brothers and their wives, left, Mattie (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), Allie (Paula Malcomson), and Louisa (Lisa Collins). (4) Val Kilmer as sardonic gambler/gunslinger John H. “Doc” Holliday. (5) The Earp clan passes Boot Hill Cemetery as they enter Tombstone.

But years later, when Ebert assembled his greatest Westerns list, “Tombstone” was not included. The same is true of the entertainment and culture website Vulture.com and its 50 Greatest Westerns, where “Tombstone” was MIA.

But 15 years ago, when Wild West Magazine selected its Top 100 Westerns, “Tombstone” was surprisingly No. 9. While Clint Eastwood’s Best Picture Oscar winner and box office smash “Unforgiven” (1992) was No. 18, which made $159 million worldwide. Topping the list were longtime Western staples: “High Noon” (1952), “The Ox Bow Incident” (1943) and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962).

It’s 1881, and Tombstone, Arizona, has become one of the last boomtowns of the western frontier, exploding from 100 to over 10,000 during the silver rush, with 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and a number of brothels. Situated on a dusty desert mesa – the Goose Flats – Tombstone was dominated by a violent gang, the Cowboys, who included gunfighters Curly Bill Brocius (Powers Boothe), Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn), and Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang).

Among the new prospectors looking for a new life is former Dodge City lawman Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), with brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott), Morgan (Bill Paxton), and old friend “Doc” Holliday.

(1&2) Dana Delany plays actress Josephine Marcus, who catches Wyatt’s eye. Later, the two ride horseback through a patch of tall Desert Agave plants. (3) Traveling actors Josephine Marcus (Delany) and Mr. Fabian ( Billy Zane) entertain the gunslingers at the Bird Cage Theater; left, Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn), Curly Bill Brocius (Powers Boothe), and Deputy Billy Breckinridge (Jason Priestley). (4) Polish actress Joanna Pacula plays Holliday’s girlfriend “Big Nose” Kate.

HOLLYWOOD vs. FACTS

October 26, 1881 – 3 p.m.

On screen, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral lasts 90 seconds, but in reality, the bullets rang out for only 30 seconds between Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil Earp, and Holliday, against the McLaury brothers, and Billy and Ike Clanton.

(1&2) The Earp brothers, with Doc Holliday, arrive for the showdown with Ike and Billy Clanton, Billy Claiborne, and Tom and Frank McLaury. (3) Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp has the Cowboys in sight. (4) Critics and fans remain frustrated that Val Kilmer never received an Oscar nomination for his performance as the tragic Doc Holliday. Nathan Rabin of The Dissolve writes, “Kilmer’s Holliday wields sarcasm like a six-gun.”  (5-8) The shootout at the OK Corral begins - and ends.

EXTRAS

All the bonus features are ported over from the previous 2010 Blu-ray edition, including the nearly 30-minute “Making of” with interviews from the huge ensemble cast. The script from writer/director Kevin Jarre (“Glory” (1989), “The Mummy” (1999) included 85 speaking roles.

But after a turbulent first month of filming, first-time director Jarre was fired. Italian B-director George Cosmatos (“Rambo: First Blood Part II,” “Cobra”) took over, who says during the featurette, “Every actor had built their own character.”

Years later, Russell insisted he was the “ghost director,” and dictated the daily shot list to Cosmatos. Most of the cast and crew back him up. Russell was drawn to Earp and felt Jarre’s script suggested that, “This is the real Wyatt Earp,” he said. Russell read everything he could and had numerous conversations with grandson Wyatt III, a hired consultant and secondary actor on the production. “Everyone agreed to do this because they wanted to recreate the history the closest…to how it actually happened,” says the grandson, who plays Billy Claiborne.

Plus, you get the original storyboard drawings of the dramatic O.K. Corral sequence, and trailers and TV spots.

(1) An uneasy Virgil Earp patrols Tombstone’s streets after rumors persist that the Cowboys are planning revenge. (2&3) The Cowboys’ retribution is quick and deadly. Virgil is shot, his arm disabled forever. Morgan, ambushed in the brother’s saloon, is killed. Afterwards, Wyatt and his family depart from Tombstone before another family member is hurt. 

VIDEO

Disney scanned the original 35mm camera negative (2.35:1 aspect ratio) captured with anamorphic Panavision lens, and mastered every frame in TRUE 4K. Compared to the previous 2010 Blu-ray, the increased resolution is most evident with the wonderfully composed wide shots from six-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer William Fraker (“Bullitt,” “WarGames”). Film grain is much more refined in 4K, even though it was sadly encoded onto the smaller 66 GB disc, which consistently runs from 50 Megabits per second to the mid-70s Mbps.  

It’s time for Disney/Sony to automatically encode every film with a running time of two hours or more onto a 100 GB disc. “Tombstone” runs 130 minutes; the four-minute longer ‘Director’s Cut’ is not included.

The added HDR10, Dolby Vision grading and Filmmakers Mode settings provide a richer, warmer color palette, while keeping facial toning natural. Plus, overall, it’s slightly darker, with more detailed shadows and controlled highlights to extract the noticeable billowing clouds over Tombstone. The 15-year-old Blu-ray, basically ported over as the second disc in this stylish Steelbook set, was acceptable at the time with decent clarity, but at times faced crushed blacks, overblown highlights, and ugly edge enhancement, a common practice during the early HD mastering days.

AUDIO

Sorry, no Dolby Atmos upgrade, just the carried-over and very good six-channel DTS-HD soundtrack featured on the 1080p disc. The overall volume is down a couple of notches from the 2010 disc, which is fixable with your remote. And, the dialogue is front and centered and it never gets lost during the enveloping gun blasts and sweeping orchestral score from composer Bruce Broughton (“Silverado”), a last minute replacement for composer Jerry Goldsmith (“Chinatown” (1974), “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Air Force One” (1997).

(1-3) The Cowboys reign of assault, robbery, and murder begins after the Earps leave. Townsfolk and the Earps reach a turning point when the outlaws rob a stagecoach, killing Mr. Fabian as he tries to protect Josephine Marcus. The Cowboys threaten the Earps, and go after their friends and allies, Wyatt, Doc, and their posse, begin to hunt them down. (4) Wyatt and his men stop at Henry Hooker’s ranch so Doc can rest after his tuberculosis flairs. Charlton Heston had only a few scenes as Hooker, bringing even more dignity to the film. It’s difficult not to take “Moses” seriously. 

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(1&2) “Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave.” Doc Holliday takes on Ringo before the gunslinger can duel with Wyatt. (3) Wyatt appears after the showdown to find Ringo dead, and Doc’s badge on the corpses’ chest. Doc explains, “My hypocrisy only goes so far.” (4) Wyatt pays his final respects and quiet affection to his friend as Doc lays dying in Glenwood Springs, Colo. His last words, in the film and real life, were “This is funny” as he looked at his bootless feet. He always thought he’d be killed one day with his boots on. 

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DISNEY/SONY AGREEMENT WORKING?

For most of the 2020s, Disney 4K Ultra HD catalog titles (20th Century, Searchlight, Marvel, LucasFilm, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures) have been nonexistent, except for a sprinkle of animation classics “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) and “Cinderella” (1950), which are both top 4K remastering works. The same first-rate treatment was given to favorites “Home Alone” (1990), “Hocus Pocus” (1993), and the pulsating “Speed” (1994).

But, when Disney inked a distribution agreement with Sony Pictures in 2024, 4K fans were hopeful that the 100-plus catalog films already mastered in 4K and sitting in Disney’s vaults would begin to see the light of day.

Last year, we got James Cameron’s sci-fi wonders “Aliens” (1986) and “The Abyss” (1989), which were already scheduled under Disney and controversially remastered by Peter Jackson’s AI software. Later, we got M. Shyamalan’s mystery thrillers “The Sixth Sense” (1999) and “Signs” (2002), and Ron Howard’s ‘80s fantasy wonder “Willow” (1986).

So far in 2025, it continues to be a slow trickle with only the striking and cinematic “Tombstone” in hand. But in the next four weeks, they are releasing the charming animated “Lilo & Stitch” (2002) and Ridley Scott’s sword and sandal epic “Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut” (2005). Reportedly in the 4K pipeline for later this year: Best Picture Academy Award winners “The Sound of Music” (1965), “Patton” (1970), plus recently announced “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975).

Disney/Sony, it’s time to pick up the pace!

— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer