Kurt Russell's Tombstone couldn't be more different from his second best western.

After playing a classic western with an old school gem Tombstone In 1993, Kurt Russell transformed into a wildly different western with a provocative horror thriller Bone Tomahawk. Apologies to Quentin Tarantino The Hateful Eightit's a great western in its own right, the best western Russell has starred in since. Tombstone S. is a horror film by Craig Zahler Bone Tomahawk. It's interesting to compare the two because they couldn't be more different: one is a traditional western and the other throws the genre's playbook out the window.

while Tombstone full of violence and death, tastefully depicted. The film looks like a traditional western; it's a throwback to a Hollywood era and even a genre that no longer existed by 1993 (despite some refreshingly modern updates). Bone Tomahawkon the other, it's an incredibly brutal, dark, ultraviolet neo-western mixed with gory horror that defies the norms of what the genre can be. Russell is equally charming and charismatic in both, but tonally, stylistically and narratively, the two westerns could not have less in common.

Tombstone is a classic western despite being made in the 1990s

Tombstone Feels Made in Hollywood's Golden Age

released in 1993, Tombstone is a Wyatt Earp biopic covering all the major events in the life of the American lawmanFrom the Gunfight at the OK Corral to the Earp Vendetta Ride. As Earp, Russell also leads a star-studded ensemble that also includes Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Sam Elliott as Virgil Earp and Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo. Tombstone has been widely praised for its excellent pacing, strong performances and stunning cinematography. Kilmer's performance as Holliday has been hailed as one of the most memorable performances in film history.

In the 90s, the heyday of the western genre was long gone. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, at the beginning of the New Hollywood movement, anti-Westerners McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid deconstructed the tropes of the genre, broke down the unrealistic black-and-white good-evil morality, and put the traditional Western in the rearview mirror. Like the biggest hit westerns of the 90s Unforgivablewere similarly dark deconstructions of the genre's conventions. But Tombstone it was different—it wasn't a brutal deconstruction of the classic western; it was a kind return to him.

Despite being set in the 90s, Tombstone looks and feels like it could have been made in the 50s at the height of the genre's popularity.

Despite its production in the 90s, Tombstone It looks and feels like it could have been made in the 50s at the height of the genre's popularity. There is a delicious old clip of the actorthe cinematography has the static framing and traditional camera setups of old Hollywood classics and The story's standard good-versus-evil ethos — lawmen versus troublemakers — feels like a refreshing throwback to a simpler time.. At a time when Westerns were trying to modernize the genre, Tombstone It came as a product of the golden age.

Kurt Russell's Bone Tomahawk challenged what Western movies could be

Bone Tomahawk brought a level of bloodshed never before seen in the West

released in 2015, Bone Tomahawk is a unique genre cocktail that brings the terrifying thrills of the horror genre to the traditional western — is like Seekers meets i saw. Russell stars as Sheriff Franklin Hunt, who leads a squad across the border in search of three men kidnapped from their small town by a Native American clan. When they reach the desolate region where these poor souls were taken, they are horrified to learn that the clan is full of cannibals hungry for human flesh, and that they cannot survive it with their lives.

Bone Tomahawk
S. marked Craig Zahler's directorial debut.

Bone Tomahawk was not the first western to feature gruesome, gory violence. Sam Peckinpah featured plenty of fake blood in his gritty, hard-hitting revisionist western epic. Wild bunch In 1969. The surrealist spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci are defined by being more violent than the classic westerns that inspired them. The latter's 1966 major gem Django concludes with the main character separating the bad guys by pushing the trigger against his lover's tombstone with his broken fingers. But Bone Tomahawk took the violence further than even Leone, Corbucci and Peckinpah.

Inside is a really disturbing scene Bone Tomahawk where one of the cannibals slices a man right in half, and Zahler shows the whole thing in all its gruesome glory. Bringing another genre into the mix, Bone Tomahawk proved that hundreds of previous westerns had only scratched the surface of what could be done within the genre.. In later years, films are popular Sulphur and The Pale Door they brought the brutal terror of the horror genre to the construction of the traditional western.

Tombstone Is Better Than Bone Tomahawk But Both Are Great Westerns

Tombstone is one of the Best Westerns Ever Made

while Tombstone is better than Bone Tomahawk – it's one of the best westerns ever made – both are excellent entries in the genre. Tombstone has all the hallmarks of a classic Golden Age, but with a few refreshingly modern touches like speeding up the pace and giving the female characters some agency. It has some of the best acting in the western genre, and the cinematography and set design bring 1880s Arizona to life.

It has a lot of shock value Bone Tomahawkthe terrible violence ofbut that's not all the film has to offer. scenes A slave crossing the border into the clan's territory gives the audience a chance to really get to know the characters.. Not only does that make it all the more terrifying when those lovable characters start getting picked; provides that Bone Tomahawk feels like a westernera la Seekers or Cowboys. Even if the horror elements were removed, it would still be a great western.

Tombstone & Bone Tomahawk proves that Kurt Russell is the greatest Western actor of all time

Russell Is Up There with John Wayne and Henry Fonda

Although Kurt Russell he acted in only a few western films, Tombstone and Bone Tomahawk That alone is enough to cement him as one of the all-time great western actors. Russell joined the ranks of John Wayne and Henry Fonda, proving he could play both the traditional western hero and the darker, more ambiguous antihero. The contrast between Wayne's speeches Stagecoach and True Redand Fonda's speeches My love Clementine and Once upon a time in the WestIt is comparable to the differences between Russell's two best westerns.