Vanity: Why is the "Well...Bye" quote from Tombstone so famous?

EEE | 02 DECEMBER 2013 | EEE

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Tombstone is one of my favorite movies, but one of the scenes have always puzzled me.

Why is the "Well...bye" quote from Curly Bill so popular?

[LS]

Except they aren’t defeated. It’s a ruse by Wyatt, knowing the cowboys will come after them, to get his brother out of town and to show his new US Marshal’s badge (”You tell ‘em I’m comin,’ AND HELL’S COMIN’ WITH ME.”)

[LS]

“Aim for the one in the middle.” (to Doc after he says he’s seeing three of the Clantons)

[Charles Martel]

It’s slang for drawing a revolver. Pulling it from a leather holster = “skinning”.

[V_TWIN]

“That movie had so many great lines its hard to pick just one”

Yep, the more I think about it, the more come to mind.

[AppyPappy]

When my mother died, my brother sent us the obit to review. But he had changed it to “give the middle finger” to everyone she left behind. It was funny but my sister warned him to “make sure you send the right one to the paper”.

[Bobalu]

The reason for the popularity of the quote, and especially the image, is so obvious to anyone who has seen the film that I am shocked anyone feels the need to ask why.

[JaguarXKE]

That right there is my favorite scene in that movie! Sometimes I watch Just that scene from the movie on my iTunes.

[JaguarXKE]

“No need to go heeled to get the bulge on a dub like you!”

[Bratch]

That’s one of the things so great about that movie.

Nowadays most period films use contemporary language. “Tombstone” made a concerted effort to utilize colloquialisms that were native to that era.

It made the movie more enjoyable, IMO.

[MestaMachine]

I always thought Val Kilmer deserved an oscar for Tombstone with Kurt Russell tied for it too. They were superb.

[Rebelbase]

Compliments of a farker:

[logi_cal869]

Sorta like:

“Nuts!” (Brig. Gen. McAuliffe, 12/22/44)

[windcliff]

ping

[onedoug]

“...But you’re a lady. I’d take my oath on it.”

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Ever notice how Powers Boothe is mimicking Lee Marvin (THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE) all through this film?

[tx_eggman]

I'm partial to Doc Holiday's response to Wyatt Earp's "I just want a normal life" ...

"Wyatt, there is no normal, there's just life."

[John S Mosby]

A “smoke wagon” would be a firearm, namely the pistol the moron was moving for. “Skin that smoke wagon” means put your hand to it and draw it to fire it.

[John S Mosby]

And-— “You’re no daisy.... you’re no daisy at all”.

[John S Mosby]

Of course... but curly bill didn’t know that and was a criminal mindset of dismissal, with a foolish endpoint by goading Wyatt en familie.

[Fledermaus]

Yes, great lines in this movie.

After the gunfight at the river one cowboy asks Doc, “where is Wyatt?” and Doc says, “down by the river, walking on water.”

The end of that conversation is the cowboy asking why Doc does this stuff and he says “Wyatt is my friend”. The cowboy says, “hell, I’ve got lots of friends” and Doc replies, “I don’t!”.

I love this movie.