I'm wondering if we could shift this discussion to ask why the
Earp story has been re-told so many times.  What is it about these
characters, the issues, the violence that make it something filmmakers
return to.  What, at least, made it possible for two versions of the
story to make it to the screen within six months of one another?  Or,
perhaps in a larger sense, why the upsurge of Westerns (or at least films
that promote themselves as Westerns) in the last few years?  What
relationships can be made, legitimately, between the concerns of violent
crime, gangs and gun control and these movies which seem to thrive on
such elements?  (Tombstone, I feel, is especially aware of these current
societal issues - remember when Wyatt takes all the guns away from the
people in town?  The Brady Bill was passed almost to the day Tombstone
came out.)
 
John Nichols
Univ. of Pittsburgh