The Quick and the Dead (1995)

A female gunfighter returns to a frontier town where a dueling tournament is being held, which she enters in an effort to avenge her father's death.

Director:

Sam Raimi

Writer:

Simon Moore

Stars:

Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sharon Stone	...	Ellen
Gene Hackman	...	Herod
Russell Crowe	...	Cort
Leonardo DiCaprio	...	Kid
Tobin Bell	...	Dog Kelly
Roberts Blossom	...	Doc Wallace
Kevin Conway	...	Eugene Dred
Keith David	...	Sgt. Cantrell
Lance Henriksen	...	Ace Hanlon
Pat Hingle	...	Horace the Bartender
Gary Sinise	...	Marshall
Mark Boone Junior	...	Scars
Olivia Burnette	...	Katie
Fay Masterson	...	Mattie Silk
Raynor Scheine	...	Ratsy

Storyline

Ellen, an unknown female gunslinger rides into a small, dingy and depressing prairie town with a secret as to her reason for showing up. Shortly after her arrival, a local preacher, Cort, is thrown through the saloon doors while townfolk are signing up for a gun competition. The pot is a huge sum of money and the only rule: that you follow the rules of the man that set up the contest, Herod. Herod is also the owner, leader, and "ruler" of the town. Seems he's arranged this little gun-show-off so that the preacher (who use to be an outlaw and rode with Herod) will have to fight again. Cort refuses to ever use a gun to kill again and Herod, acknowledging Cort as one of the best, is determined to alter this line of thinking ... even if it gets someone killed ...

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Plot Keywords:

street shootout | showdown | gun duel | saved from hanging | girl power | 

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Taglines:

You can't ignore her. You can't beat her. You can't resist her. You can't win...

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Genres:

Action | Romance | Thriller | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for western violence

Details

Country:

Japan USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

10 February 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Quick and the Dead

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$32,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,515,861, 12 February 1995, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$18,636,537

Company Credits

Production Co:

TriStar Pictures,Japan Satellite Broadcasting (JBS),IndieProd Company Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS (8 channels) Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It took two and a half days to film the gunfight between Ellen and Eugene. The actors were soaked the whole time. Kevin Conway: "That scene was probably the most difficult I'd ever done in my life."

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Goofs

When Eugene Dred steps down the stairs, just after the girl who he seduced, he carries the guns on his shoulder. Then the gun in the front changes position from one shot to another.

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Quotes

Ellen: You stole my life.

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Alternate Versions

A sex scene between Ellen (Sharon Stone) and Cort ('Russell Crowe (I)') was shot, but Stone and director Sam Raimi decided that it wasn't a necessary part of the story. The scene was not included in the American release of the film, but international versions do include it.

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Connections

Referenced in Fah talai jone (2000)

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Soundtracks

El Tierra Calento
Written by Alex Gonzalez
Performed by El Mariachi Tepalcatepec De Michoacan
Courtesy of Discos Dos Coronas
(A Division of Two Crowns International Inc.)

User Reviews

Splatter Western

"The Quick and the Dead" is a "splatter Western," directed by horror vet Sam Raimi (whose latest, as of this writing, is "Spider-Man," but who cut his teeth on the "Evil Dead" trilogy). It's set in the oh-so-ironically named lawless town of Redemption, a haven of grotesques that gives us an idea what the wild West would've looked like if had been painted, not by Frederic Remington, but by Heironymus Bosch.

In a surfeit of Biblical nomenclature, the town's mayor/owner/capo is named Herod (Gene Hackman at his oiliest, complete with bad hair). Into town there rides a mysterious stranger, not Clint Eastwood this time but Sharon Stone. I'm not the world's biggest Stone fan, but this movie and "Total Recall" indicate that she has her uses in kick-butt action roles that make no demands on her limited thespianic skills. As gunslinger Ellen, she's doubly armed--with a six-shooter, and with an axe to grind; even her "inner child" packs a gun. She enters Herod's to-the-death fast-draw tournament, a no-win, no-exit, potentially no-survivors affair, with an agenda on her mind other than just winning the prize money.

This is an overripe, over-wrought movie, but it mostly works. Raimi all but erases the slim wall between the horror and Western genres: Redemption is another Transylvanian village of simple peasants lorded over by by an evil baron, and the atmosphere--palpably oppressive and claustrophobic--could be cut with a knife. Leonardo di Caprio and veteran character actors Lance Henriksen and Roberts Blossom effectively round out the cast, and the action scenes--exaggerated, mythic, often darkly humorous--deliver. If you're more of a horror fan than a Western fan, this may be the Western for you.