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Tombstone Rashomon
USA 2017
produced by Merritt Crocker, Max Arvelaiz (executive), Fernando Sulichin (executive), Robert S. Wilson (executive) for Tombstone Limited
directed by Alex Cox
starring Adam Newberry, Jesse Lee Pacheco, Christine Doidge, Eric Schumacher, Benny Lee Kennedy, Richard Anderson, Jason Graham, Shayn Herndon, Michele Bauer, Haydn Winston, Bradford Trojan, James Miller, Callie Hutchison, Rogelio Camarillo, Brenda Jean Foley, Frank Gonzalez, Wade Everett, Pablo Kjolseth, Geoff Marslett, Merritt Crocker, Carlos Abdalla, Oz, Frank Baden, Jeremy Hamley, Susan Sebanc (voice), William Long, Khameiah Williamson, Steve Burton, Charles Scanlon
written by Alex Cox, music by Dan Wool
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A team of documentary filmmakers time travel back to Tombstone, Arizona
to be present at the gunfight at O.K. Corral and document what has really
been going on, but alas, they arrive one day late, and now all they can do
is to interview the survivors (and a few bystanders) to find out what's
really been going down. Interviewees include Wyatt Earp (Adam Newberry)
and Doc Holliday (Eric Schumacher) from the one side and Ike Clanton
(Benny Lee Kennedy) from the other of course, but also Holliday's
girlfriend Kate (Christine Doidge), and Cochise sheriff Johnny Behan
(Jesse Lee Pacheco), the one man who could have prevented it all but
didn't - and to nobody's real surprise, the accounts of all those involved
vary wildly, with everybody more interested in putting their own spin on
the story than helping our team of documentarians to find the truth, as
truth of course is in the eye of the beholder ... Now the
gunfight at O.K. Corral is one of the most famous actual altercations in
the Old West, and one that, knowing the actual background of the rivalry
between the brothers Earl on one side and the Clantons and McLaurys (often
dubbed the gamblers vs the cowboys), really blurs the line between black
and white, between heroes and villains. Thus there have over the years
been numerous interpretations of the story, with each probably carrying at
least a grain of truth and none telling the whole, absolute truth. And
that all said, the concept of Akira Kurasawa's Rashomon,
with its set of alternate truths might lend itself to the story rather
perfectly. (Side note: Tombstone Rashomon is not the first
western to adopt the Rashomon-formula,
that would be the Martin Ritt film The Outrage starring Paul
Newman.) Now it's of course a clever move to address the
elephant in the room in this movie's title, but that said, Alex Cox is
much too clever and versatile and in fact too creative a filmmaker to just
use a well-worn formula as a gimmick, he really just mends the premise
with the many stories told about what happened back when to build his very
own world upon it, a world that's flooded with myths and lies, where
everybody makes up one's own truth (which is especially true in Doc
Holliday's version of the story, where Holliday and the Earps arrive at
the scene of the shootout in a modern police car) and thus adds to the
legend rather than actual history. And in that way, Tombstone Rashomon
is something like a meta-movie, where everything we think we know about
the Old West (and in consequence about history as such) can be seen from
many different perspectives, and truth really is in the eye of the
beholder. Now that all sounds rather lofty to be honest, but Cox as a
filmmaker and storyteller never forgets to entertain his audience, and
with Tombstone Rashomon he not only shows how well he's versed in
the western genre, with the constant re-telling of the same story he also
throws winks at the audience, builds in little jokes, and basically just
makes this a fun ride, without ever dumbing things down, and thus makes
this nothing short of a joy to watch. Well recommended!
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