Short Review: One of the best westerns made.


Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Charlton Heston, Stephen Lang, Thomas Haden Church, Dana Delany, Michael Rooker and Billy Bob Thornton - All of them and you toss in Robert Mitchum doing the narration for good measure? This is how you cast your Western.


This is a film that others in Hollywood movies should emulate. Directors George P. Cosmatos and Kurt Russell explore the familiar tale of the shoot-out at the OK Corral . Following his famed stewardship of Dodge City, Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), retires to Tombstone, Arizona where he hopes to live a quiet existence with his brothers and their friend Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer).

Earp's idyllic dreams are ruined by the Cowboys, a band of outlaws, who threaten the small town. The Earp Brothers, along with Holiday, face down the brutal outlaws. The conflict leads to the final shoot-out that made all of the men legends.

While the cast is impressive, it is Val Kilmer who makes the movie. His turn as Doc Holiday is one of the great performances in the genre and one of the best film performances of the 1990's. His sly, fatalistic Holiday is reason enough to see the film.

Doc Holiday is presented as an ominous gunslinger who has the capacity to bring quick death to anyone. His ever present danger is undercut by terminal illness. He is racked with tuberculosis and is physically fading. The duality of a dying man who is forced to summon the skills of his healthier days is fascinating to watch.

Kevin Jarre’s script is perfectly paced and full of so many brilliant lines I can’t decide where to begin my praise. The dialog in this script puts most screenwriters to shame. Characters should always have heightened speech. The best way to elevate your characters is through the words that flow from their lips. Jarre offers his characters great lines that perfectly match their personalities. Not once does the elevated language feel imposed. Another example of this use of grand language is Pirates of The Caribbean series (written by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio.)

Jarre’s wise use of language meshed with Kurt Russell’s confident performance give credence to the fear that Wyatt Earp puts into those around him even though he doesn’t use his gun until the midpoint of the film.




Children, that is how you write dialog.

This is how you make a movie.


Cautions: Obviously, since this deals with the shoot-out at the OK Corral, there is violence. In comparison to what you see on TV these days, the violence is not out of hand.


Worldview: Men are fallen and their hunger knows no bounds. This hunger for power, sex, wealth drive many to commit atrocities. These horrors can happen on large and small scales. The immediate threat the Cowboys pose to the peace of Tombstone is an interesting moral problem that replicates the one found in war zones. When is it acceptable for a man to pull the trigger? To kill another man?

The sixth commandment states "You shalt not murder". Murdering is different than killing. Murder assumes no moral right is promoted by the act. Murder is wasteful and hateful. One is permitted to kill as the need arises however. But where does that moment come?


Self-defense is one of the central human rights. The ability to be free is centered on this concept. Wyatt Earp tries to shirk the concerns over the Cowboys, up to the point where violence is visited upon his family.

Wyatt refuses the role of Sheriff only to have his brother Morgan take up the position. Morgan is the calm soul, the thoughtful brother who says at one point "God made all this and He remembered to make a little speck like me." He is not the one to confront the evil of the world alone. That is Wyatt's calling. Wyatt's hesitation to stand up to evil costs both him and Morgan dearly.

I find questions about where these important lines are drawn to be fascinating. I also find that they cause a boatload of arguments as well. I would say that it proves the potency of this film that a simple Western can prompt such thoughts in the first place.



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Labels: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Charlton Heston, film, Kurt Russell, Michael Biehn, movie review, Powers Boothe, Sam Elliott, Stephen Lang, Thomas Haden Church, Val Kilmer, western

It is fair to assume that most people walking into this movie would expect a quirky, humorous satire of the ineffectual, bureaucratic heart of the United States military. The trailer, available below, certainly forwards this message.

The military decides to begin a program designed to create super soldiers through the use of telepathy, telekinesis and other odd, unproven mental skills. George Clooney fronts the film which seems to have been made with a Coen Brothers vibe.

That vibe isn't there. Neither is the story.

Yes, some aspects of the story are true. The government did have a time when it delved into alternative concepts like remote viewing. Unfortunately, being true doesn't always translate into being watchable.

In all of its attempts at being zany and too cool for the room, this film commits one of the unforgivable sins: it is dull. It is open-mouthed, broadly announced yawn kind of dull. Start daydreaming about the household tasks that remain undone kind of dull. Kevin Spacey ten years past when he gave up trying kind of dull.

Have you ever seen a Coen Brothers movie like Burn After Reading or The Hudsucker Proxy where they just can't make it work? Their cobbled together plot is too creaky and loose to function properly? This leaves them with a bunch of scenes that feel under-worked? This whole movie is one of those scenes. Quirky jokes that aren't amusing. Not good.

Skip this one. It wasn't done cooking before they served it up.




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Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, movie review, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Stephen Root

This is a very good trailer. It does a wonderful job of selling the film and the performances. George Clooney does have a goofy comedic side which doesn't get utilized enough. As this trailer displays, he has a particularly good knack for double-takes.






Screenwriters: Jon Ronson (How to Lose Friends & Alienate People)
Director: Grant Heslov
Actors: George Clooney (Burn After Reading), Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting), Jeff Bridges (The Fisher King), Kevin Spacey (21), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Robert Patrick (Terminator II: Judgment Day), Stephen Root (Office Space) and Waleed Zuaiter

Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, movie trailer, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Stephen Root

Screenwriter: James Cameron (Rambo: First Blood Part II)
Director: James Cameron (The Terminator)
Actors: Zoe Saldana (Star Trek), Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Michelle Rodriguez (Girl Fight), Stephen Lang (Gods and Generals), Giovanni Ribisi (Saving Private Ryan) and CHH Pounder (Orphan)

Labels: CHH Pounder, film, Giovanni Ribisi, James Cameron, Michelle Rodriguez, movie trailer, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana

Screenwriters: Ronan Bennett (The Hamburg Cell), Michael Mann (Miami Vice) and Ann Biderman (Primal Fear)
Director: Michael Mann (The Insider)
Actors: Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), Billy Crudup (Watchmen), Marion Cotillard (A Good Year), Stephen Dorff (Blade), Giovanni Ribisi (Boiler Room), Rory Cochrane (Right at Your Door), Stephen Lang (Gods and Generals) Lily Taylor (Household Saints) and Matt Craven (Jacob's Ladder)

Labels: Billy Crudup, Christian Bale, film, Giovanni Ribisi, Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard, movie trailer, Rory Cochrane, Stephen Dorff, Stephen Lang

If you’re going to wade through a 231 minute film, this is the one.

As epic as it is long, this film presents the rise and fall of “Stonewall” Jackson through the praise worthy performance of Stephen Lang in the lead role. Lang at times overplays his hand as the devout Christian Jackson, but still gives the man an impressive faith and sense of Christian servitude that is rarely seen in film. His aggressive faith is not mocked but accepted. It enhances his character when he sits quietly with his wife and more so when he is shot and lies dying.

The film itself, while seemingly endless, is an ambitious marvel. It seriously looks at the South and its conflicting motives during this time. We are shown The Civil War with a detail and affection that is lacking in previous productions. Too bad the film is nearly as long as the actual war.

There are other fine performances to be found in the film. Jeff Daniels and C. Thomas Howell revise their roles as Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain and Sgt. Thomas Chamberlain, which they both played in Gettysburg (1993). Daniels offers a sober and nervous man in his Chamberlain. His performance is earthy when compared to the mythic stature of Lang’s Stonewall Jackson.

Obviously, this film could have stood for a massive trimming of unneeded scenes. On the other hand, it is a massive film that presents some fascinating characters and battles. This is not the kind of film you watch over and over, however you will remember it after one viewing. Again, this film is four hours long – you may want to get up every once in a while to keep yourself from getting bedsores.


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Labels: film, Jeff Daniels, Mira Sorvino, movie review, Robert Duvall, Stephen Lang, war