Kurt Russell’s introduction as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone is just about perfect. Despite having relatively few Western credits to his name, what Russell lacks in quantity, he more than makes up for in quality. He’s part of the titular Hateful Eight in the bleak Quentin Tarantino film of the same name, and that same year saw Russell fronting cult classic Bone Tomahawk. However, Tombstone is easily the best Kurt Russell Western and might just be one of the best Westerns of the last 30 years, period.
The Tombstone cast is an embarrassment of riches and includes a never better Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton and many, many more. The film is littered with iconic sequences and lines, though the fraught production saw original director Kevin Jarre being fired. Kurt Russell is said to have ghost-directed Tombstone himself, though the final produced is credited to the late George P. Cosmatos (Cobra). What’s inarguable is that in his role as star and producer, Russell was vital to keeping production on track when Jarre was let go.
Why Kurt Russell’s First Tombstone Scene Is Still So Good
Russell was forced to make Tombstone’s Wyatt Earp an “aura” character
Most of the characters in Tombstone get great introductions, but Russell’s first appearance as Wyatt Earp comes out on top. Earp’s arrival in the lawless town follows on from the movie’s prologue scene, where the Cowboys gang commits a massacre in a Mexican church. After killing a priest, outlaw Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) recounts to the other outlaws the priest’s dire warning that their evil acts will be avenged. Of course, the next shot is Russell’s Wyatt stepping off a train, with the camera slowly moving up to reveal his face after he steps off.
After witnessing a horse being brutally whipped, Wyatt intervenes, seizing the man’s whip and hitting him with it, before asking rhetorically “Hurts, don’t it?” In discussing the behind-the-scenes issues with True West Magazine in 2006, Russell states that to gain the trust of the film’s large ensemble after Jarre left, he had to cut most of Wyatt’s best scenes and make him an “aura” character. That’s why this mythic intro does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to Earp. Says the star:
In other words, you meet him, you see him, you know who he is. When you see him step off the train, that’s it. There’s the guy. And then Doc Holliday fleshes him out. I said, “You’re going to have all the acting stuff to do in this movie, and I’m going to make sure it gets done.” And I saved most of everybody else’s stuff to do.
Kurt Russell’s Tombstone Entrance Perfectly Sums Up His Wyatt Earp
Tombstone’s opening says all audiences need to know
Tombstone’s opening lets audiences know immediately who Wyatt Earp is. He’s larger than life, stands up to bullies and immediately rejects a Marshal’s offer to continue his lawman career, as he’s come to town to seek his fortune. This sequence makes it clear that Earp is a good man underneath his shield of cynicism, so his conflict with the Cowboys is all but inevitable. When he later warns the weaselly gang member Ike Clanton (Stephen Lang) that “Hell’s coming with me!,” it’s like the realization of the Mexican priest’s warning from the prologue.
Wyatt Earp’s intro in Tombstone is a masterclass in how to create a mythic entrance for a main character…
Wyatt’s intro in Tombstone is a masterclass in how to create a mythic entrance for a main character, and establishes all viewers need to know about him in less than a minute. It may not rank alongside the likes of Charles Bronson’s first appearance in Once Upon a Time in the West or John Wayne in Stagecoach, but it is one of the genre’s best of recent times.