Like the ending of The Thing, one aspect of Kurt Russell’s filmography that has long been debated is whether he actually directed the classic 1993 Western Tombstone himself. One of the absolute best Westerns to come out of the ’90s, which also saw the release of Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans, Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, and Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi, Tombstone is a guns blazing great time that has only gotten better as the years have passed. Loosely based on events that transpired in 1880s Arizona, it’s a glamorous, star-studded production with standout scenes like its suitably tense recreation of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. But it wasn’t an easy path to getting the film to the big screen. But, thanks to one of its stars in particular, things were kept on track and now it stands as quite a few people’s favorite Western flick ever made. That star was Kurt Russell, who played the film’s Wyatt Earp, to far better effect than Kevin Costner in the following year’s turgid and lethargic Wyatt Earp.
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What makes Tombstone so great? For one, like many Westerns, its set design is top-notch. But the edge the film holds over all other Westerns (and really just about any film) comes in the form of casting. Russell is perfect in the lead role, bringing his typical gruff nature with immense likability. But he’s also surrounded by phenomenal performers across the board, including The Terminator‘s Michael Biehn, the late Powers Boothe, Dana Delany, Sam Elliott, Avatar‘s Stephen Lang, Bill Paxton, Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Michael Rooker, Billy Zane, Charlton Heston, and two years before he picked up the cape and cowl in Batman Forever (release the Schumacher Cut), Val Kilmer. There’s even an actual descendant of Earp on the cast list (Wyatt Earp III). And, as great as Russell is, it’s Kilmer who steals the show, delivering the best performance of his career as Doc Holliday, a dying gambler and gunfighter with a close bond to Earp.
Who Got Official Credit and Why Is There an Argument for Russell?
The first director attached to Tombstone was the film’s screenwriter, Kevin Jarre, who wrote the first story treatment for Rambo: First Blood Part II eight years earlier. It was set to be his directorial debut, but a month into the shoot he was fired and replaced by, quite coincidentally, that First Blood sequel’s director, George P. Cosmatos. Jarre’s shot scenes, specifically those featuring Charlton Heston, remain in the final cut.
Jarre was let go because he felt overwhelmed by the gig, but Cosmatos didn’t make for the best possible replacement because, as Michael Biehn said, he “had no understanding or appreciation of the screenplay.” Cosmatos also ruffled some of the crew members with his demanding nature, and during this period Russell helped streamline Jarre’s script, mostly by deleting extraneous subplots and adding further emphasis on the dynamic between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.
And just as he worked on the script, Russell took up directing duties on the film. Russell himself has said that Cosmatos was essentially hired as a “ghost director,” and while co-star accounts on this vary, there’s mostly agreement. Kilmer agreed that Russell took on that behind-the-scenes role but has never called Russell the quote-unquote director, just that he “essentially” directed it. On his part, Biehn has said that he was never directed by Russell, only Cosmatos. But there’s a macro-scale consensus on the fact that the Earp actor played a major part on setting up the next day’s shot list on a day-to-day basis, which is indeed a part of directing.
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In short, the answer to “Did Kurt Russell direct Tombstone?” is “sort of.” The best answer unsurprisingly has come from Russell himself.
“Tombstone will always remain a mystery,” Russell told Rolling Stone. “I made a promise to somebody [likely Cosmatos] that I won’t talk about things publicly. At the end of the day, I’m really glad that it came out as well as it did. It had a group of fantastic actors and a writer that, in my opinion, wrote the best Western dialogue ever. And I always see it climbing its way up the ranks in the ‘Best Western’ conversation. I will say this: If I had not been around, Tombstone wouldn’t have, either.”
So, it stands that Russell has never officially directed a film. But were his name to ever become attached to Tombstone in that capacity, there would be little argument against him being called one of the best “One and done” directors in cinematic history.
Tombstone is available to stream on AMC+.
