The Quick and the Dead (1995)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Sam Raimi

Writer (WGA):

Simon Moore (written by)

Release Date:

10 February 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Western

Tagline:

In this town, you're either one or the other

Plot:

Lady avenger returns to western town owned by a ruthless gunslinger hosting an elimination tournament.

Plot Keywords:

Contest | Revenge | Beautiful Woman | Child Uses Gun | Feminism

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Sharon Stone	...	Ellen "The Lady"
Gene Hackman	...	John Herod
Russell Crowe	...	Cort
Leonardo DiCaprio	...	Fee Herod "The Kid"
Tobin Bell	...	Dog Kelly
Roberts Blossom	...	Doc Wallace
Kevin Conway	...	Eugene Dred
Keith David	...	Sgt. Clay Cantrell
Lance Henriksen	...	Ace Hanlon
Pat Hingle	...	Horace
Gary Sinise	...	The Marshal
Mark Boone Junior	...	Scars
Olivia Burnette	...	Katie
Fay Masterson	...	Mattie Silk
Raynor Scheine	...	Ratsy

MPAA:

Rated R for western violence.

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | South Korea:15 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Arizona, USA

Company:

IndieProd Company Productions

Trivia:

Russell Crowe's first American feature.

Goofs:

Continuity: After shooting Herod, Ellen has her gun held straight out, but as he raises his gun again, Ellen draws her gun again, with the same hand, without ever putting it back.

Quotes:

Ellen: [female gunslinger walks up behind a preoccupied bartender] How about a room?
Horace: Whores next door.
Ellen: [carefully sets her cigar down] Say that again.
Horace: I said whores next door.
Ellen: [kicks the stool out from under him, catches his liquor bottle as he falls, & pours herself a drink] Now, do you have a room available?
Horace: Uh, room and bath, yes, ma'am, coming up!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Quick and the Undead (2006)

Exaggerated, intense, beautiful, silly

Like all of Sam Raimi's movies, this flick was a cartoon. That's not an insult- his works with the Coen brothers on movies like The Hudsucker Proxy are some of my favorites, with their insanely "zoomed-in" quality. This movie was a spaghetti western, it was ABOUT spaghetti westerns, and it was also a weird, wonderful nightmare where your options are limited, you're a superhero, and your enemy is all-powerful. That's adolescent, silly, and totally compelling.

Raimi has always done brilliant visuals; I don't know his history, but I suspect he read a lot of pulp comics as a kid. The early scene where Stone gets up (after playing dead) and you see her shadow putting her hat back on, with the obvious bullet hole in the brim, is sheer visual brilliance.

Gene Hackman is, of course, great (MST3K line: "He's good in everything!"). Sharon Stone has gotten a lot of static for doing what Clint Eastwood built a legend on: bad acting, done intensely. (And in Stone's case in this flick, I think, purposefully.) Leonardo D. is well-cast as a cocky, yet needy, "bad-a** in his own mind" type. Russell Crowe (who nobody knew at the time, especially me) is great in his role as a survivor of a 12-step program to help fight a dependence on violence, complete with backsliding moments.

Do not look to this movie expecting anything like realism, believability, or moderation. This is pulp fiction, eye candy, nightmare surrealism, wanton entertainment. It's trash culture saluting trash culture, and if you can appreciate that, it's a hell of a great ride.