ABSTRACT
The resulting rush led to a boom town, which retained the extraordinary name of Tombstone. It sounds like a crazy frontier tall tale. Except it was true. And Tombstone became an eerily prescient name for one of the most violent and wildest places in the West. Tombstone modern attempt to be as authentic as possible has come to be regarded as the definitive cinematic telling of the gunfight at the OK Corral. The story of Wyatt Earp has been heavily mediatised by cinema. The examples outlined below illustrate two important principles in how the Western myth has been constructed by film. The first is the influence of intertextuality, with a great deal of cross-referencing in evidence. Certain characters, scenes and images keep reappearing, almost as if expected. The second concerns authenticity. As in many period films, the emphasis has been on the look, particularly clothing, rather than historical veracity.
