The Quick and the Dead (1995)

Awards

1 nomination
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Users' rating: 6.0

150 votes

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About the movie

Year

1995

Runtime

1 h 47 min

Genres

Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Western

Countries

United States, Japan

Director

Sam Raimi

Writer

Simon Moore

Plotline

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

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Every third American is obese. Check if you are too!

Starring

Sharon Stone

Gene Hackman

Russell Crowe

Leonardo DiCaprio

Mark Boone Junior

Main cast

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

Woody Strode Charlie Moonlight

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External critics' reviews

That conscious absurdity is at the core of The Quick and the Dead. It's a rousingly grotesque, often wildly entertaining western horror-comedy, with co-producer and star Sharon Stone as a sexy lady gunslinger taking on all comers in the gunfight tournament from hell.

Ms. Stone's presence nicely underscores the genre-bending tactics of Sam Raimi, the cult director now doing his best to reinvent the B-movie in a spirit of self-referential glee. Mr. Raimi is limited by a sketch mentality, which means his jokes tend to be over long before his films end. But his tastes for visual mischief and crazy, ill-advised homage can still make for sly, sporadic fun. more

Hip, jokey western from cult director Sam Raimi. Recommended as an antidote to anyone still suffering from Wyatt Earp hangover. more

This ankle-deep story has a cheekful of tongue, providing opportunities galore for hammy, quick-draw melodrama and the perfect vehicle for Ms. Stone. more

Sam Raimi tries to do a Sergio Leone, and though this 1995 feature is highly enjoyable in spots, it doesn't come across as very convincing, perhaps because nothing can turn Sharon Stone into Charles Bronson. more

Quick and the Dead plays like a crazed compilation of highlights from famous westerns. Raimi finds the right look but misses the heartbeat. You leave the film dazed instead of dazzled, as if an expert marksman had drawn his gun only to shoot himself in the foot. more

As preposterous as the plot was, there was never a line of Hackman dialogue that didn't sound as if he believed it. The same can't be said, alas, for Sharon Stone, who apparently believed that if she played her character as silent, still, impassive and mysterious, we would find that interesting. More swagger might have helped. more

Yet all this work, all this skill, serve as little more than an elaborate setting for a rhinestone. At its core there is no passion, no sincerity of conception, nothing that might have made The Quick and the Dead into anything more than moment-to-moment stimulation. You get lots of clothes here, but no emperor. Or rather, no empress. more

The Quick and the Dead takes on a more serious tone - as if, even in this loonily amoral environment, we're supposed to care about atrocities. The film builds to a satisfyingly catastrophic climax full of biblical flames and fluttering bank notes, but there's far too much dead time along the way. more

If movies were rated solely on the basis of style, The Quick and the Dead would score highly indeed. With its dazzling photography, inventive camera angles, and throbbing bass score, the film is an experience for the eyes and ears. Director Sam Raimi and cinematographer Dante Spinotti have woven a beautifully elaborate tapestry: colorful and evocative -- and depressingly two-dimensional. more

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