Don't Front:

I've been sleeping on Don't Front for a minute—but it's a cold world out there, and the frontery never seems to cease, so I'm bringing it on back. Welcome once again to Don't Front, the series in which I tell you about something that you may think sucks, but it's actually one-hundred bucks, sucka.

Previously:
#1: Billy Ocean "The Love Zone"
#2: Beef Jerky
#3: Phone Cameras

This week:
#4 The movie Tombstone

Yes, it's historically inaccurate, ultra-Hollywood, and filled to the brim with over-acting by Kurt Russell and company—but the story moves along nicely and it's a very satisfying Western that fits comfortably somewhere between the Johns (Ford, Wayne) and The Unforgiven. Val Kilmer is thoroughly entertaining as Doc Holliday, Billy Bob Thornton has a funny cameo, and there are great lines galore, one of my favorites being "Law don't go around here, lawdog." Comes in handy when your wife is an attorney.

More than anything though, it's a good movie about friendship and camaraderie in this crazy, mixed-up, front-happy world. Cases in point:

1. A riverside post-mortem after a big gunfight in which Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) charges out into a hail of gunfire, taking out all of his would-be killers and walking away miraculously unscathed. Doc Holliday, who should be housebound on account of all the consumption and bourbon-fortified blood he's been coughing up, stands strong in helping Wyatt avenge the murder of his brothers.



2. Many years later, Wyatt is broke and aimless, and pays Doc one last visit on his deathbed.



It ain't a documentary, and nothing tops Deadwood, but for my money, Tombstone is one of the better westerns out there. Don't Front.