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A Shot In the Dark
Plot synopsis:
A man, visibly upset and obviously drunk, sets in a bar talking to a stranger. He is Billy Claiborne, ex-cowboy.
Quote “I was there that day. The day they shot up the cowboys and started the movement what ran us out of town. History will remember us as villains; it ain't so. We was a hard working bunch. Some of us was brothers, but we was kin, all of us. Sure, we did some damned right unlawful things. Weren't nothin' no one else wasn't doin if they were needing to survive. But the folk, they were generally happy. Ain't nothing was wrong with this town of Tombstone, until those bastard Earp brothers came down on us and brought the devil with them.”
The story is told through the eyes of Bill Claiborne, recounting the events of the Earps rise to power and they're attempt to put the town under their thumb to increase their market share on gambling. They always had their ace in the hole, the devil himself, Doc Holliday.
Quote: “They called him educated; schooled in language and a gentleman. We called it the devil's tongue. He spoke his language through a cleft lip and walked on cleft feet. And any man what seen him gamble should've known without doubt that was the devil's luck. Any man who feared god, that is.”
The town, a little lawless but generally happy, resists the Earps constraints on them, especially not being able to carry their weapons. Billy goes on to recount many violent pistol whippings and arrests to anyone who disobeyed their weapons orders.
The cowboys try to fight back, but you can't win when someone has the very devil on their side. The events finally lead up to the infamous gunfight, which although took about thirty seconds “seemed like an eternity.”
Billy, as one of the two men who ran, feels guilty. The shots loom large, as while most of the Earp clan get injured, Docs eyes glow as the darkness whips around him and he fires shots into the cowboys.
Quote: “They say although he was shot, the bullet hit his holster. I'll tell you this, there was no holster. It was as though he pulled his guns from the air itself, and the bullet strayed from him as though it feared to touch him. Had the others not held him back, he would have killed the whole town. You could see it in those eyes.”
Billy, now almost in tears and lamenting about how he ran while the others faced down evil, looks into the strangers dark face.
“I can't live with what I've done and what I've seen. I can't run. I've come back here to Tombstone to make my peace with my maker. Lord knows that evil will find me. I only hope when it does, and I look into those horrible eyes one last time, I'll be able to forgive myself like him up above is supposed to.”
Billy then stands up and walks towards the door.
“Do what you will, stranger. I knew you'd come, sooner or later. Outside, you and I will come to terms. I will turn and look hell into it's eyes one last time and fire into its depths. If I see the ghost of my brothers, then I'll ask them to forgive me for being such a coward. I'm a coward who's asked to be called Billy the Kid, but I don't deserve his good name. I'm a coward like the one what killed him.”
Billy turns to look the stranger in the eyes, and we see the glow. The screen goes black as a single shot rings out.
Screenplay
Kathryn Bigelow
Main Cast:
Billy Claiborne - Brenden Sexton III
Wyatt Earp - Liam Neeson
Doc Holliday - Robert Carlyle
Stranger - Michael Madsen
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