Tombstone: Behind the Scenes of the Modern Western

18. Cowboy Latin

There is a now-famous scene where Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo speak Latin to each other. It’s laden with tension and comedy, ending with Holliday mocking the hell out of Ringo. Holliday starts out with a simple bit of Latin, “In vino veritas,” in wine there is truth. Then Ringo retorts, “Age quod agis,” do what you do. It doesn’t exactly make sense, but the message to Holliday is clear, you’re not smarter than I. They go back and forth like this for half a dozen lines, unlikely tied to any real history. Doc Holliday may have been able to speak Latin in real life, but Ringo was not that well educated.

17. Michael Beihn

Some fans of the film did not like it when Val Kilmer’s character, Doc Holliday, shot Johnny Ringo played by Michael Biehn. But, as it turns out in a Den of Geek interview with the star, Beihn himself wanted that scene. “I always thought Johnny Ringo had a little bit of a ‘suicide by police’ mentality,” Beihn told Den of Geek. “There’s a part in that movie… I have the line, ‘Alright, lunger. Let’s do it.’ And there’s something that’s like a twinkle in my eye… That was the height for him, like when guys skydive, or why people go to horror movies to get that scary feeling, that adrenalin rush.”



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