Re the Indiana Jones scene, Spielberg originally *did* have him taking on the swordsman with whip and fisticuffs - the film still exists. But Ford called bullshit on it and suggested doing it how the now-iconic scene plays it. Which was the right thing to do for the film and the character, incidentally.

Harrison Ford, saviour of crap scriptwriters and half-assed directors. Sometimes in the one body, in the case of George Lucas - as HF is supposed to have said, "You can write this shit, George, but I can't say it."

Since things have drifted onto the Western scene, I loved the Costner and Kilmer version of Tombstone. I've no idea how historically accurate it is, but I can't imagine anyone doing Holliday better than Val Kilmer - a borderline psycho who doesn't much care about risks because he knows he's dead anyway, and who just happens to be on the right side because of who/what his friends are. Mind you, I'd watch anything with Val Kilmer - the guy even nearly made that Batman film OK (although not quite).

I'm not sure about your assertion about backshooting, LH. Although the concept of the showdown on Main Street is baked into the Western genre, I understood that most folks shot with handguns *were* shot in the back or side, not the face-to-face showdown we'd like to imagine. More likely still would be the "Unforgiven" scenario of ambushing them with rifles.

Graham.