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To: Mr. Jeeves
Well, it's a matter of relative accuracy, I guess. The only other movie that comes close to beating "Tombstone" was "Hour of the Gun", which focused on events after the gunfight.

The events leading up to the gunfight, the shooting of Virgil and Morgan, and Wyatt's vengeful tracking down of the Cowboy killers are all historically correct. Yes, they made up the fight between Ringo and Doc Holliday, but I accept that as dramatic license and there is, after all, somewhat of a mystery as to who really did kill Johnny Ringo.

One interesting aspect of the Earp-Clanton struggle that no movie has ever covered is the political dimension. The Earps were midwestern, Union Republicans while the Clanton cowboys were ex-Confederate Democrats. That set-up bad blood from the beginning and in fact, made their feud a mirror-image of the general fault lines in early territorial politics.

36 posted on 08/08/2005 5:46:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus (Omnia relinquit servare Republicam)
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To: Cincinatus

Great point. And didn't that politics also play a role in the (Jesse) James gang?


39 posted on 08/08/2005 5:51:46 AM PDT by Pharmboy (There is no positive correlation between the ability to write, act, sing or dance and being right)
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To: Cincinatus

***Union Republicans while the Clanton cowboys were ex-Confederate Democrats. ***

Many years ago I saw an interesting photo in a western magazine. It was a photo of the Earps and Clantons together in a friendly game of cards.
This was before they had a falling out.


49 posted on 08/08/2005 7:13:45 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Islam, the religion of the criminally insane.)
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To: Cincinatus; Pharmboy; Mr. Jeeves
The only other movie that comes close to beating "Tombstone" was "Hour of the Gun", which focused on events after the gunfight.

Another excellent movie -- not about Tombstone -- about the James and Younger gangs was "The Long Riders" with the Keach boys, the Carradine boys, and the Quaid boys playing sets of brothers. The final shootout scene in that movie was one of the most graphic and brutal slow-mo shootout scenes I've ever watched. All in all, it was a great movie.

58 posted on 08/08/2005 11:28:39 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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