Quick And The Dead
Shortly after completing his fabled Evil Dead Trilogy, Sam Raimi decided to follow that up with a Western in 1995 and coming from a demented cinematic genius like Raimi, what a Western it was! It turned out to not only be the most self aware and self referencial Western perhaps ever made, but it also featured its fair share of classic nutball moments along with a loaded for bear cast that included Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobin (Jigsaw) Bell, Roberts Blossom, Kevin Conway, Keith David, Lance Henriksen, Pat Hingle, Mark Boone Junior, Swen-Ole Thorsen, Gary Sinise and even Woody Strode in his last on screen appearance before his death (although most of the pre release advertising focused on Stone and Hackman)! Stone (still running hot after her Basic Instinct success) takes on the lead role here, that of a strong, silent female gunfighter in The Old West whose true motives and identity are so concealed that she might as well be called The Woman With No Name, but eventually is given the moniker âLadyâ by the other characters. She rides into a small Western town that is advertising itself as having a single elimination gunfighting competition with the grand prize being a cool $123,000 in cash and is thus the reason for the film having such a loaded cast as the roster of competitors quickly fills up and in true Raimi tradition, slyly manages to turn the whole affair into an unofficial sports movie, even going so far as to make the viewer wish that the film had actually been longer in order to better develop the various colorful (and nasty) characters who have come to compete. The organizer of the event (and fellow competitor) is none other than Hackman, not only the townâs resident rich man but also the undisputed ruler of the whole place, in essence a retired outlaw gang leader who wound up making so much money from his ill gotten pursuits that he can now walk around and do absolutely anything he wants all while wearing the most expensive clothes to boot. Stone has also come to compete but is actually doing so while looking for revenge on Hackman for the brutal death of her father (Sinise who is only seen in flashback) but finds that she also has to wade through the rest of the crowded field along with the obvious prejudices which she faces in being a woman. Hackman for his part, is not only looking to win the prize money (which he doesnât really need) but also to prove himself against the best of the best that he can find, specifically Croweâs character, a former ultra badass outlaw who used to ride with him but is now a reformed and ordained preacher, refusing to fight even after he is kidnapped from his own church and has his life threatened but ultimately being forced to go through with it. Thereâs also DiCaprio as Hackmanâs son, a tough talking little shit who fancies himself as an outlaw, but is really just a spoiled little brat who nonetheless enters so that he can prove that he is better than his old man. The majority of the rest of the field includes Henriksenâs colorful trick shot artist and Davidâs stoic âman of adventureâ (both of whom are possible mercenaries), Bellâs raggedy drifter who has taken off after Stone after having had a run in with her in the filmâs opening scene, following her into the town where he enters just so he can get some payback, Conway as a child molesting pervert who also has intentions of rape on Stone herself, Boone Junior as an escaped convict who literally spends all of his screen time still wearing his striped prison outfit, and Thorsen as a big Swede who is the first one eliminated. On top of that, we have Hingle as the local saloon owner (and de facto ring announcer for the gunfights) who does a wonderful job of providing a solid, reliable anchor for much of the film, but the acting honors here would probably go to Hackman, a guy who openly states that he got to where he is by having absolutely no fear in going through life (and we believe him), coming across as being literally so intimidating that Stone herself is obviously afraid to try anything on him for most of the movie even though her intentions of revenge on Hackman are her main motivations for even being there in the first place. Raimi succeeds in giving us original bits that stay in the memory for a long time (such as when a finely dressed gunfighter who has just been killed has everything valuable on him stripped off by human vultures leaving him laying in the street wearing nothing but his underwear), but the filmâs true ambition is to make several direct and indirect references to classic Western movies and clichĂ©s from the past (with the climax even being a blatantly direct lift from Once Upon A Time In The West). For many viewers though, the biggest draw today is probably Crowe (in his first American film) who was such an unknown at the time of filming that he wasnât even on any posters or in any trailers despite the fact that he probably has the second or third most amount of screen time. Despite all that, his role is definitely one of considerable substance, imbuing his character with a sense of righteousness which he attained through the church and then having that ripped away from him by being dragged into this town and into this contest by his old outlaw buddy, solely based on the fact that Hackman still remembers just what a quick draw he was back in the day and now wants to see if heâs still got that impeccable aim and ability for when the two of them go head to head in the name of top quality competition. The film does go over the top in a number of sequences (especially the outcomes of some of the gunfights) and the ending goes right for the âjust blow everything to Hellâ approach but there are also others who have stated that having a female lead like Stone in a movie about Western gunfighters is a laughably satiric statement about the feminism movement, especially since Stone (like Crowe) seems to have an adversion to the act of killing (even though her stated mission IS to kill Hackman) which doesnât get any easier when Hackman (who basically decides the rules) casually announces that starting with the second round that ALL gunfights in the competition will now be to the death (as opposed to it being legal to just wounding your opponent and being declared the winner if they canât get back to their feet). Of course, thatâs the sick twist with Hackmanâs character is that heâs a guy who actually ENJOYS killing without any remorse, thus easily making him the guy who deserves to die the most as well, a fact that is well reflected in the townspeople who obviously hope that at least one, if any of the other gunfighters can finally finish him off so that they can be liberated from his cruel, god like grip on the town. Even DiCaprio (whoâs obviously handy with a gun but doesnât seem to have had much experience with actually killing people) comes across as being a goofy, likable sort who even carries on a running friendship with Stone throughout the movie even as sheâs well aware of who his father is. As for Crowe and Stone, he comes across as also being a friend and mentor to her but no obvious romantic sparks ever seem to fly between them (unlike the so called International Version of the film where the two of them have a full fledged sex scene) and indeed with Stone itâs almost refreshing to see her in a non sexualized female lead role since she definitely has the charisma to carry it off while still showing enough hard attitude to be able to hang with this cast of roughneck types that she shares the screen with. There are imperfections here for sure (the lack of screen time and development for some of the other colorful cast members; the times when the homages get just a little too obvious; some Raimi style camerawork and moments that are a little too reminiscent of Evil Dead) but the overall effect is one of watching a bunch of badasses having at it one after another (one wonders why Raimi didnât just bring in Bruce Campbell himself to try his hand here) until only one (or two) remain and while none of the themes on hand here are as potent or powerful as those of the greatest Westerns, it definitely shows the sense of fun that the genre possesses especially when it comes to its stylized violenceâŠ
8/10