They might be close, but it could be time to admit that Kurt Russell’s brutal Bone Tomahawk is slightly better than Tombstone. The early 1990s saw Russell and Kevin Costner make competing Wyatt Earp biopics, and in the battle of Tombstone vs Wyatt Earp, the former ended up the clear winner.
That’s not just in terms of box office and reviews, but cultural legacy; Wyatt Earp is all but forgotten now, while Tombstone is considered one of the best Westerns of the past 30 years. Kurt Russell Westerns are a subgenre unto themselves, but while he hasn’t fronted that many, they’re almost all bangers.
This includes Quentin Tarantino’s pitch-black The Hateful Eight and the vicious Horror Western Bone Tomahawk. This cast Russell as a sheriff leading a posse to rescue a kidnapped school teacher from a clan of cannibals. Bone Tomahawk became infamous for one repulsive scene of violence, but there’s so much more to it than that.
Kurt Russell’s Bone Tomahawk Is Better Than Tombstone
Much as I love Tombstone, from Val Kilmer’s iconic performance to the fantastic dialogue, it does bear scars from its messy production. The original director Kevin Jarre was fired a month into filming, with Russell essentially acting as the ghost director to get it finished.
This resulted in the star literally ripping pages out of Tombstone’s screenplay. The original script has been dubbed a “Western Godfather,” but a тιԍнт budget and schedule forced the production to compromise that vision. The result is a fantastic movie that features some rough edges.
The story leaps around, key characters disappear with no explanation and the epic Earp Vendetta Ride is condensed to a scrappy montage. Bone Tomahawk, on the other hand, had a tiny budget but feels like a more complete story. If nothing else, the low budget adds to the grimy, naturalistic feel of the movie.
Bone Tomahawk feels like a dark remake of The Searchers, taking the traditional setup of a classic Western and then subverting every expectation. It takes time to develop the relationships between the posse so when the violence hits, it hits like a sledgehammer.
Bone Tomahawk is teeth-gnashingly bloody and visceral, but it still features fantastic dialogue and moments of warmth between the leads. Even those who hated the film have to admit that the experience of the 2015 Western is a hard one to shake.
Bone Tomahawk & Tombstone Occupy Different Corners Of The Western Genre
It’s not quite fair to pit Tombstone against Bone Tomahawk, since they’re both doing different things. The latter belongs to the rarely seen Horror Western genre, usually reserved for outings like The Burrowers or Ravenous. While it plays out like a classic Western in some respects, the injections of gore give it a unique tone.
Bone Tomahawk also offers more complex characters than a traditional “Oater.” Matthew Fox’s cocky, bigoted gunslinger says and does repellent things – but he also proves himself brave and reliable when things go bad. The movie is lacking in the traditional heroics of the genre too, with Patrick Wilson’s dweeby cattleman being forced to save the day.
Tombstone feels like a throwback to the glossy, all-star Westerns of Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” Every time the door opens, an incredible actor walks in (Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, etc). Despite being a (reasonably) accurate take on Earp’s clash with the Cowboys, it’s got all the trappings of the genre.
Before Val Kilmer was cast, Willem Dafoe was set to play Doc Holliday in Tombstone.
There are quick-draw duels, scenes of the villains being suitably nasty, the badᴀss hero reluctantly picking up his gun again, and so on. The movie happens to be a superior example of a certain type of crowd-pleasing Western, but most of Tombstone’s characters lack the depth of Bone Tomahawk’s leads.
Wyatt Earp himself is something of a stoic, internal figure, and outside of Kilmer’s Holliday, the story doesn’t have time to dive deep into its protagonists. That’s a consequence of having so many characters, whereas Bone Tomahawk’s ensemble consists of only four people, giving the film time to flesh them all out.
Kurt Russell’s Legacy As A Western Actor Is Deeply Impressive
Kurt Russell had a pretty amazing Western run in 2015, fronting both Bone Tomahawk and The Hateful Eight. When Tombstone is added to that list, he’s made three shining examples of the genre, with each offering him very different characters.
Russell has also been acting since he was a boy, fronting Western shows like The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters and The Quest, in addition to guesting on shows like Gunsmoke. It could even be argued his futuristic outings like Soldier or Escape From New York are Westerns dressed up as sci-fi adventures.
He may not get mentioned in the same breath as Eastwood or John Wayne, but Russell has had a rich history with Westerns. He has a smaller selection than other genre icons – but when each movie is a gem in its own right, that’s an acceptable ratio.
It’s just a shame Russell never got to make a Western with regular collaborator, John Carpenter. There’s some Carpenter DNA in Bone Tomahawk and Russell reportedly considered his old friend for Tombstone, but they never found a Western of their own. It probably won’t happen now – but a man can dream.
