1993 Holiday Movie Guide: Meaty Fare, Nutty Treats, and No Doubt a Few Turkeys

New-Wave Westerns
Unforgiven might have played like a swan song to the Western, but its success helped spur the new breed of remakes and revisionist pics we'll soon be seeing. These first two had been heading for an opening-day showdown; now the Apache has a head start.

Geronimo
Opens Dec. 10. Starring Jason Patric, Wes Studi, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Matt Damon. Directed by Walter Hill.
History Rides Again: There are heroes on both sides, but don't expect any of them to triumph in this faithful account (did someone say subtitles?) of the U.S. Cavalry's war to subdue the Apache leader.
They Shoot Varmints, Don't They? Sure do. In cantinas, on horseback, and from rocks as the ricochets ping.
For Ladies, There's the Scenery: Patric's blue eyes searching the desert for his soul brother Geronimo, played by the studly Studi, should be enough to set hearts aflutter. Women, however, have barely a line.

Tombstone
Opens Dec. 17. Starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Dana Delany, Jason Priestley. Directed by George P. Cosmatos.
History Rides Again: Kevin Jarre, who made a reputation for sticking to the facts with his screenplay of Glory, wrote this drama about Wyatt Earp and the famous OK Corral gunfight. He was to direct as well, but that bit the dust midway through filming.
They Shoot Varmints, Don't They? Sure do. The movie will probably earn an R rating for its violence.
For Ladies, There's the Scenery: The beauty-boy cast runs the risk of looking citified, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do. Especially when Delany's waiting for him back at the saloon.

Also Due By Year's End
A bionic dog mistakes bodies for biscuits in Man's Best Friend, starring Ally Sheedy. Abel Ferrara's Dangerous Game (formerly Snake Eyes), a movie about the making of a movie, stars Harvey Keitel as a frenetic director shepherding Madonna through the role of an abused wife. Matt Dillon is a homeless schizophrenic befriended by Danny Glover in The Saint of Fort Washington. Isabelle Huppert plays an author torn between two romantic attachments in Love After Love. Harold Pinter's adaptation of Kafka's The Trial stars Anthony Hopkins, Jason Robards, and Kyle MacLachlan. David Thewlis is homeless in London in Mike Leigh's 1993 Cannes prize winner, Naked. Faraway, So Close! is Wim Wenders' sequel to his 1987 cult hit, Wings of Desire. John Guare's 1990 play, Six Degrees of Separation, about a black con artist's effect on a Fifth Avenue family, comes to the screen starring Will Smith, Stockard Channing, and Donald Sutherland. In The Hawk, Helen Mirren plays a British suburban housewife who suspects her husband is a murderer. Highway Patrolman, directed by Alex Cox (Sid and Nancy), is about a cop seeking revenge for the death of his best friend. Two boys run away from an unhappy home life in Josh and S.A.M. Jeanne Moreau and Joan Plowright star in the comedy The Summer House, about an older woman's attempt to save a young girl from a dreadful impending marriage. The Accompanist tells the story of a shy pianist and her relationship with her singer-boss. Juliette Binoche is a widowed musician in Blue, the first of a trilogy from Krzysztof Kieslowski (The Double Life of Veronique).