THE QUICK AND THE DEAD (1995)

Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead & Spider-Man trilogies) just seemed born to apply his skills to a send-up of a spaghetti western and back in the mid '90's he got his chance.  You've got Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) at the PEAK of her star-power playing the strong-but-silent type, a gunslinger coming to the town of Redemption seeking revenge and getting roped into a gun-duel tournament....Hackman taking his Oscar-winning thug sheriff role from Unforgiven up to 11 as the main villain....journeyman players like Lance Henricksen, Keith David, Pat Hingle, and Tobin Bell all having a blast.  PLUS you have a truly baby-faced Leo DiCaprio and youthful-looking Russell Crowe (in his American film debut) both bringing the heat with interesting supporting characters who form different types of bonds with Stone's protagonist.  What results is a high-energy genre hybrid which was a flop on initial release but has since built up a cult following as it now approaches it's thirtieth anniversary.  Let's find out who is the quickest....

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD - 1995

Directed by Sam Raimi

Starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobin Bell, Roberts Blossom, Kevin Conway, Lance Henriksen, Pat Hingle, Gary Sinise, Mark Boone Junior, Olivia Burnette, Jerry Swindall, Jonothon Gill, and Keith David

Genre: Heightened Western (Audio clip)

Sam Raimi just seemed born to apply his skills to a send-up of a spaghetti western and boy does he. 🙂 You've got Sharon Stone at the PEAK of her starpower and not only does she look amazing but she plays the strong-but-silent "Woman with No Name" pretty convincingly....Hackman doing what he does best and taking his Oscar-winning thug sheriff role from Unforgiven up to 11....journeyman players like Lance Henricksen, Keith David, Pat Hingle, and Tobin Bell having a blast.....and you have a truly baby-faced Leo DiCaprio and youthful-looking Russell Crowe (in his American film debut) bringing the heat with nicely drawn characters who enhance but never take away from the central narrative of Stone's character.

I remember seeing this back in the day and being a bit dismissive of it but the film accomplishes EXACTLY what it sets out to do. truly a lot of fun and part of what was a damn interesting (albeit kinda bizarre) Raimi run during the '90's when he was dipping his feet into big studio filmmaking: the iconic (to me) Darkman, Army of Darkness, THIS....then A Simple Plan (tense thriller featuring great performances from Paxton and Billy Bob) and the (mildly entertaining overall but with great baseball) For the Love of the Game all leading up to him introducing us to Spider-man on the big screen in '02....

As a pure Western, it's difficult to take completely seriously....but as a dizzying piece of absurdist "Western-themed" pop entertainment, it just works thanks to it stacked cast along with a top-flight technical team behind the camera including DP Dante Spinotti (Heat, LA Confidential), production design Patrizia Von Brandenstein (Amadeus, The Untouchables), and....of course....a rip-roaring score from Alan Silvestri. ;) (Back to the Future, Predator) It's a shame that Sharon Stone never got more action-oriented vehicles like this, especially given how she held her own against such a murderer’s row of big-time actors.

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Now about that rip-roaring score from Teaneck, NJ’s own Alan Silvestri…..it’s DAMN fun!  It almost teeters close to sounding like a PARODY of music for a Western but who cares?  It just works so well in tandem with the tone of the movie….just jam-packed with loads of old fashioned Southwestern flavor including trumpets, guitars, whistles, strings, and EVEN the usage of a whip to help kick things off.  Just fun rousing stuff which we hear early in the movie, just as our hero wins her first gun-fight, and at the very end.  It’s the main theme for the score, officially named after the town within which this story takes place….”Redemption.” (Audio clip)   

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Sadly this film was very much both a critical AND commercial failure when it was first released in February 1995….most reviews dismissed it as being too silly, cartoonish, that Stone was miscast, etc…..and on a pretty generous $35 million budget, it ended up only making a paltry $45 million worldwide.

Now granted since the end of their ‘50’s/’60’s hey day, Hollywood Westerns have ALWAYS shown mixed success.  Yes you have the BIG ones like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Dances With Wolves….the modest surprises like Tombstone or the early ‘00’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma….but there were always just as many sizeable flops and/or disappointments like Wyatt Earp, Paint Your Wagon, the early ‘00’s Alamo, and…..yeah….the infamous Heaven’s Gate.  So a Western like this was always a risky venture, even moreso with a female lead….but as a result when this movie flopped, Sharon Stone received the brunt of the blame.

To be fair, this was a STARK departure from the recent roles which had made her an international superstar….even in Total Recall where she got to show off her action chops, she was a villain in that instance.  But here as a strong, silent protagonist, audiences just weren’t buying it….and unfortunately, they never would again.  Even though later this SAME year, Stone would co-star in and receive a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her performance in Casino….it was all pretty much downhill from there.  Opportunities started to dry up and of course, Stone committed the CARDINAL Hollywood crime for any talented actress: she turned 40.  Thirty years later….she’s still working and still commanding attention as a glamorous celebrity….but would I have loved to have seen her take on some bigger, juicier roles?  Of course… (Audio clip) 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Now this might be a slightly controversial take as this scene does NOT included our main star Ms. Stone but….and it doesn’t even feature any gun-fighting either.  However, it occurs about 40 minutes into the film and DOES feature some nice verbal AND silent back-and-forth among three generations of amazing actors….with 15 Oscar nom’s and Four Oscars combined between them. (Audio clip) 

You see Russel Crowe’s silent and sequestered Cort is now a priest but was previously part of Hackman’s Herod’s criminal gang….before they had a falling out.  Well now that Herod has found him and brought him back in town, he is INSISTENT that Cort participate in his town’s ongoing duel tournament…..only Cort has sworn off of killing and also doesn’t possess his own firearm.  So….Herod takes the UNIQUE step of bringing Cort to the Kid’s local gun-store to acquire one….the Kid being played by DiCaprio. (Audio clip) 

It's a fun, relatively quiet scene but still features TONS of tension….between the Kid and Herod, whom the kid believes to be his own father….and of course between Cort and Herod.  DiCaprio’s doing most of the talking here and is a kick to watch describing the variety of top-quality pistols with a certain amount of fetishistic glee….I GOTTA think that gun enthusiasts enjoy this scene.  But beyond that, it’s also fun to watch Hackman’s brashness and Crowe’s quiet fierceness…..you can TELL that even as he says he has no interest in purchasing a firearm nor using one, that he still gets a bit of a thrill in handling one.  The Kid tosses him a Colt and he’s enthusiastically flipping it….this whole sequence lasts less than four minutes but it says SO much about each character, pretty much laying out their motivations for the remainder of the movie. (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

Overall this film reflects the genuinely unique vision of its filmmaker as this DOES film it could have been directed by one man….it’s not his best film though you could make a strong case that it has THE best cast he has ever worked with.  And that’s not taking anything away from Raimi because armed with such smorgasbord of talented actors and interesting faces, most if not ALL of them seem to leave a distinct mark.  The film’s violence feels appropriately brutal AND cartoonish in equal measure which is not such an easy thing to pull off either…..especially the clever way ONE particular’s looming death is visualized towards the very end.  I’ll try not to spoil it except to say that it’s a true ray of light.  For giving us the Western we never we knew wanted, Sam Raimi is the MVP. 

Final Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Happy 30th Anniversary to one of the more absurdly entertaining cult classics from the ‘90’s….they don’t make them like this any more and to be honest even back then, nobody was making them like this.  A true original gem.

Streaming on Hulu

And that ends another FAST ENOUGH review!