Jesse Lee Pacheco

Westerns were a staple of American cinema for decades, transporting movie-goers back to the frontier where danger lurked around every corner and justice could be had with a ready six-shooter. Somehow over the years cowboy adventure gave way to secrets agents, fast cars and super powers, but perhaps cinema fans today need a history lesson. Strapping on some spurs to fill the void is Tombstone Rashomon from director Alex Cox. I’ll admit that having not attended film school, my only exposure to the work of Akira Kurosawa is his legendary film The Seven Samurai upon which seminal American western The Magnificent Seven was based. So the title of Tombstone Rashomon held very little meaning in terms of setting my expectations for the film. Even in the realm of American cinema the glut of big budget Hollywood westerns of the 90’s like Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, Sam Raimi’s The Quick and The Dead, Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp or the universally loved Tombstone had all passed me by without much of a thought.