The opening scene of Tombstone is a classic Western moment, and it dispelled a rumor that was circling about the genre in the 1990s. Westerns are among the most iconic and oldest movies in cinema history, but they haven’t always been the most popular. From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, and again in the early 2000s, Westerns became a niche genre that was mostly outshone by other films. As a result, there were some common misconceptions about Westerns in the 1990s, and Tombstone undid one of them in its opening moments.
Tombstone starts with a recap of some of the history of the Arizona territory around 1880, then quickly transitions into a classic shootout scene. The main antagonists of the film, Tombstone’s Cowboys gang, which was inspired by a real-life group of outlaws, then wander into a Mexican wedding, seeking retribution for the local law enforcement killing two of their members. A massive gunfight ensues, and the settling smoke reveals just how brutal and deadly the Cowboys were. It was a great way to start Tombstone, and a great way to set the record straight about the Western genre.
Tombstone’s Opening Scene Felt Like A Classic 1960s Western, Proving The Genre Wasn’t Outdated
Tombstone Features A Classic Good Vs. Evil Shootout That Felt Perfectly Modern
The Cowboys’ Mexican shootout at the start of Tombstone feels quite like a scene from a classic Western from the 1960s. Not only did it feel like a classic Western, it was so good that it proved the Western genre still had some life in it. Everything about the scene, from its clear sense of good vs. evil to the anticipatory wait before the bullets flew, evoked the style of Sergio Leone. It also has all the trappings of a great Western scene: intense action, plenty of bodies, and some great one-liners, like “You go to hell,” followed by “You first.”
Tombstone’s opening scene showed viewers that a classic shootout could be just as thrilling in 1993 as it was in 1963.
In many ways, Tombstone’s opening scene felt like a direct contradiction of a popular myth at the time: that the Western genre was dead. The movie essentially took a shootout that could just as easily have happened in a classic movie like High Noon or A Fistful of Dollars and modernized it. Tombstone’s opening scene showed viewers that a classic shootout could be just as thrilling in 1993 as it was in 1963. It was such an effective scene, and Tombstone was such a great movie, that it actually combated the very reason audiences thought Westerns were outdated in the first place.
Why Westerns Stopped Being Popular (& How The 1990s Briefly Revived The Genre)
Science Fiction, Real-World History, & Oversaturation Led To The Western’s Decline, But New Takes On The Genre Revitalized It
After the highs of the 1960s and early 1970s, the Western genre stopped being popular in Hollywood. For the next decade and a half, classic Westerns were few and far between, and many people considered the genre dead and outdated. There were many reasons Westerns lost their popularity. Perhaps the biggest reason is that Westerns outdid themselves to an extent. There’s a huge catalog of Western films and shows that were made during or before the 1960s, and by the mid 1970s, it was nearly impossible for new films to compete with icons like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood.
On top of that, by the 1970s, science fiction had replaced Westerns as the most dominant genre. Films like Star Wars and Westworld had also found success by translating Western esthetics into the far-future. Beyond the film industry, there was also a large cultural shift at the same time. Historic events like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War undermined the American people’s optimism about the country, and the Western genre was seen as an overly-naive view of a very complicated period of American history. Classic Westerns were just too simple, in terms of their morality and opinions of America, to resonate with more jaded audiences.
Classic Westerns were just too simple, in terms of their morality and opinions of America, to resonate with more jaded audiences.
Then, the 1990s brought a temporary rebirth for the Western genre. Revisionist and neo-Western films gained popularity, and the best Westerns of the 1990s breathed new life into the genre and reinvigorated audiences. A large part of the decade’s popularity was how it reinterpreted the classic Western. Dances with Wolves flipped the morality of classic Westerns on its head, and painted the traditionally villainous Native Americans in a more realistic and sympathetic light. Unforgiven took it a step further and introduced the idea that there really were no black and white lines between heroes and villains – they were all killers.
Even the ending of Tombstone flipped the genre on its head, by taking the once-heroic Wyatt Earp and depicting him as a broken man hell-bent on revenge. Those darker, more realistic Westerns helped revitalize the genre’s themes, but lighter Westerns like Bad Girls, Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead, and Desperado, made the genre fun again. That, coupled with better practical effects that made shootouts more visually interesting than they had been in decades, helped the 1990s revitalize the genre. In short, Western films in the 1990s experimented with the genre’s themes and visuals enough to make them fresh and appealing to modern audiences.
Tombstone’s Opening Scene Is Still Impressive Today
Even After Over 30 Years, Tombstone’s Opening Is Just As Thrilling
Even though Westerns would mostly fall out of popularity again in the 2000s, Tombstone’s opening scene has stood the test of time. Even now, over 30 years later, it’s still a great example of how well a classic shootout can build suspense and deliver action-packed scenes. It’s also a perfect example of something Westerns can do better than almost any other genre: melodrama. From Curly’s theatrics to the apocalyptic warning given by the priest, the opening scene of Tombstone is just as dramatic now as it was in 1993.