Skip to content »

Just Between Frames

Our Take On: "The Quick and the Dead"

Quick and the Dead graphic

Our third Range on the Western was last Thursday’s The Quick and the Dead. We felt it could be seen both as a tribute to the “spaghetti Westerns” that Clint Eastwood made famous, and a spoof as well. Once the group became aware that the director, Sam Raimi, is the director of the Evil Dead movies, the Spider-Man movies with Toby Maguire, as well as both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess, that this movie was very consistent with both the style – and the substance of those films. And while that substance may be shallow – it doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable!

We liked the fact that the film brought the conventions of this type of story up to date by including a female gunslinger in their quick-draw competition. We felt Sharon Stone did a decent job with this role, but had a few too many Clint mannerisms. We really liked just how good a bad guy Gene Hackman was, and many feel he can play any part. We hadn’t realized that this film was Russell Crowe’s American debut, and that both he and Leonardo DiCaprio were hand-picked by Sharon Stone for their roles. Stone wanted DiCaprio badly enough that she paid his salary to get him in the role. Members found his portrayal of the Kid both believable and even a bit poignant towards the end of the movie. We also found out that there was supposed to be a love scene between Sharon Stone’s character and Russell Crowe’s Preacher character that was deleted. We agreed with Stone and Raimi that it really would not have been a good fit for where that relationship was headed and with the main storyline.

Some members felt there were too many gunfights, while others appreciated the fact that each fight (per Raimi’s intention) was uniquely staged, and revealed something different about the various contenders. There was some debate about the final gun battle and how it was possible given one of the preceding duels, but in talking it over, we felt they did establish the grounds for the twist that takes place.

All in all, JBF gives this film a quick-drawn thumbs up!

 

Links:

IMDb: The Quick and the Dead; Director, Cast, and more!

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

777 Front Street Lisle, IL 60532 | Phone: 630-971-1675 | Fax: 630-971-1701 | Hours: M-F 9:30am-9:00pm, SAT 9:30am-5:00pm, SUN 1:00pm-5:00pm