Tombstone Rashomon is a 2017 Western film directed by Alex Cox and starring Adam Newberry and Eric Schumacher.
A time-travelling film crew travels back in time to film the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. However, upon arrival, they discover that they have arrived the day after the gunfight. Instead they can only interview the survivors of the gunfight and others involved. They interview Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Kate Elder, Ike Clanton, Colonel Roderick Hafford, and Johnny Behan, each of whom has a different account on the events.
Tropes:
- Acquired Error at the Printer: Wyatt is extremely annoyed that a newspaper article has spelled his surname 'Erp'.
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: According to Johnny Behan's account, when he asked Billy Claiborne who he was, Claiborne replied "I'm Billy the Kid", which Behan treats with wry amusement.
- Blast Out: Something turns the confrontation between the Earps and the Cowboys from standoff to bloody gunfight in the blink of an eye. However, in keeping with the "Rashomon"-Style narrative, who and what triggers the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral varies in every retelling.
- Blood from the Mouth: True to history, Doc Holliday is coughing up blood due to his tuberculosis throughout his interview.
- Dastardly Dapper Derby: Johnny Behan, the cowardly and corrupt sheriff of Cochise County, in dressed in a natty suit and dapper brown derby, which the film crew gets him to keep on during his interview.
- Dirty Cop: The testimony of the Earp faction paints Sheriff Johnny Behan as being in the pocket of the Cowboys: a gang of rustlers. Behan's self-serving account does not do much to clear him.
- Domestic Appliance Disaster: Joesephine stops ironing to play the violin in order to draw Wyatt out of his funk. However, she leaves the flatiron sitting on the shirt and, by the time she remembers, it has left a black scorch mark on the back of Wyatt's white shirt. Apparently this is not the first time this has happened.
- Hidden Depths: Saloon keeper Colonel Roderick Hafford laments on how supplying alcohol to violent men is a poor profession for a man like him, and then expounds on how his true passion is ornithology and proudly explains how he has catalogued more than 200 specimens in his personal collection.
- Historical Domain Character: Apart from the film crew, every character is a historical figure connected to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
- Imagine Spot: During Ike Clanton's testimony, there is spot showing what Ike believes would have had happened had he actually been out to kill Wyatt, i.e. him gunning them all down with a Winchester carbine as they came round the corner towards the corral.
- Insistent Terminology: Doc Holliday is insistent that there was no gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It happened on Fremont Street.
- Love Triangle: During his interview, Johnny Behan makes the Suspiciously Specific Denial that he and Wyatt Earp were not rivals for the affections of an actress from San Franciso (i.e. Josephine Earp née Marcus); adding that she had only lived in his house because she was acting as governess to his son.
- Manipulative Editing: The film crew are doing this; getting Wyatt Earp to do multiple takes of him rising his bible and holding it over his heart and then reading it, until Wyatt gets annoyed with the whole process.
- Pronoun Trouble: Kate is Hungarian originally and has English as her second language. Throughout her testimony, she keeps using female pronouns to describe male characters.
- "Rashomon"-Style: Tells the story of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory from multiple differing perspectives.
- Revolver Cylinder Spin: In Wyatt's account, Billy Clanton does this when Wyatt confronts the Cowboy gang as they are tooling up at the gunsmith's in preparation for the showdown.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Doc Holliday and Johnny Behan are better educated than most of the others involved in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (or, as Doc would insist, 'on Fremont Street') and like to cultivate the impression of being gentlemen by using large words and speaking in a grandiloquent style. Colonel Hafford is also educated, but his vocal affection runs more to poetic turns of phrase rather than unnecessary verbiage.
- The Sheriff: The story showcases the Jurisdiction Friction between county sheriff Johnny Behan (who sees himself primarily as a politician) and town marshal Virgil Earp (who sees himself primarily as a lawman). And then there's Wyatt Earp, who isn't a lawman but keeps acting like he is.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: During his interview, Johnny Behan strongly denies rumours that he and Wyatt Earp were rivals for the affections of an actress from San Francisco. His denial is the first time anyone has mentioned such a rumour.
- The Rustler: According to the Earp faction, the Cowboys are a gang of rustlers. Ike Clanton claims that he and his companions are honest ranchers.note
- The Voice: The woman conducting the interviews never appears on screen; 'appearing' only as a voice from off-camera. She has a slightly mechanical intonation, making unclear is she is actually human or some form of robot or computer.
