IMDb user comments for
The Quick and the Dead (1995) More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 18:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Index

179 comments in total

---

46 out of 70 people found the following comment useful :-
More style than substance but good fun as a modern spin on the spaghetti genre, 6 July 2003
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

In the Western town of Redemption John Herrod runs everything, they say he gets half of every dollar spent or earned. In order to face his enemies face on he runs an annual quick draw contest where fights battle each other until only one remains. The winner takes home a small fortune – the losers leave wounded if they are lucky. Into this contest comes a group of hopefuls including a woman who has personal reasons for signing up.

Looking at the list of names it is evident that the casting director is very good at his/her job as they managed to catch several big names, get several stars who were a few years away from hitting big and also get veteran faces as well. The ensemble of well known faces suits this film as the focus is very much on style and appearance than it is on substance. As a plot it takes the well known genre of the revenge western and makes a sort of pastiche of it. Thus we have the OTT and hyper direction of Rami and gun fights that are delivered with energy and shots that have no bearing to reality.

When I think about the actual plot, it really should bother me more than it does. The plot is pretty thin and contains nothing that you can't see coming from about the first 20 minutes of the film – certainly the woman's `secret' will be no mystery to anyone who has seen `Once Upon A Time In The West' which it clearly apes in this regard. What exists in the place of a wider plot is characters and style. The style is fun and energetic and will appeal to fans of Evil Dead etc.

The characters themselves are also pretty good, each has a little back story which helps to fill out the running time without getting too serious. Stone does surprisingly well in the lead, she's no Clint Eastwood but she leads the cast well – which is no mean feat when you look at the credits. Hackman is a gleefully good villain – even more mean and unrepentant that his character in Unforgiven. Crowe and DiCaprio were both a few years from the levels of stardom they now hold, but both are engaging and enjoyable. The support cast is also full of names and faces you'll recognise – either as solid support actors of recent films or older faces. For example – Henriksen, David, Sinise, Hingle, Bell and Blossom.

Overall this film might infuriate you if you are looking for a film that has more substance than style, as this is the other way round. However fans of Rami's style and/or revenge westerns will find much to enjoy here. Every time I see it I always find it hard not to get caught up in the atmosphere it creates.

---

19 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
"Quick and the dead" may hold your attention quite a bit..., 14 July 2007

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

Sharon Stone is another gun in the old West town… It seems that she is here to pay off an old score that has haunted her since she was a child… She becomes swept up in a deadly quick-draw contest where anybody can challenge anybody in the windy dusty streets… The fighters must not draw until the clock makes the first chime of the hour… Whoever is standing after the draw is the winner… The prize is $123,000…

The lawless town of Redemption is ruled by a despicable ironfisted gunman called John Herod who takes a lot to scare him… Hackman plays pretty well the kind people hate… He is, here, a fearless, sadistic, cold-blooded killer in charge of everything, who decides who lives or who dies…

Herod wants a preacher in the tournament – even if he has to beat, kick, and knock him to the ground to force him back into it… Cort— humiliated and chained out by the fountain—used to be pretty fast, faster than Herod… But now he wouldn't hurt a fly… He is a man of peace who has renounced violence… Years ago he was an outlaw… In fact, he was only a kid when he hitched up with Herod… He singled him out because he was a little smarter, a little faster than most… Now, he must revert to his former believes to survive…

As Cort, Russell Crowe is saintly when compared to the movie's real villain… Cort tries to redeem himself, but gets enticed into the killing by Herod who is trying to prove that he's a fraud...

Several other men were just running a little errand for Herod… But Herod made an example of them all: the buffoon card shark (Lance Henriksen); the hired gun moseying into town to kill (Keith David); the teenager gunslinger who thinks he is on a different level (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Raimi succeeds through his shots of each gunfighter to show the worried and scared faces of each gunfighter, the clock counting away the time, and Herod's magnified evil smile…

---

37 out of 62 people found the following comment useful :-
Dolly in, push in, zoom out, 22 May 2005

Author: composer_mike from Edoass

-It's sad that Raimi only became world known after the "Spider-Man" series because this man has been making classics for a long time now. and one of his gems is this wonderful movie which i love like crazy. This is truly Raimi at his best

-It's a classic revenge tale we have here folks. A girl seeks revenge on the man who "stole her childhood" and finally finds the man who is responsible when she comes into a town ruled by the evil, evil man. The woman is played by Sharon Stone, and the evil, evil man is played by Gene Hackman. Russel Crowe and David Keith also do a great supporting cast job in the movie. Crowe being the ex-con whose now a man of God, and Keith being an assassin for hire. Also doing a good job is a very young Leo Dicaprio as "The Kid". He's just a naive boy who tries his best to please everyone and his dad, and the one and only Scott Spiegel plays the goldman who sells anything that anything to do with gold

-What I love about this movie is how it doesn't bog itself down in reality, it's pure campy fun and even though we know that half of the stuff happening is impossible we still go along with it and enjoy the ride. The "dolly in, push in, zoom out" technique is used a lot in this movie, and gives the movie this sense that you're not suppose to take anything seriously. This isn't "Unforgiven" or another realistic western, it's a fantasy and Raimi takes full advantage of that. Alan Silvestri's score is also nicely represented here and gives the movie right balance of fantasy and pseudo realism it needs. The sound is also well done and actually sounds better than most movies that come out today. Bass is earth shatteringly deep, and the surrounds are used nicely to envelope you around the movie nicely. Only problem with the sound is that I wish they had given the gunshots a bit more bass instead of making it sound like plastic toys that kids play with. The cinematography is pretty nice but it doesn't really stand out.

-This movie is fun, lots of fun.Iit's no western classic but simply one of my favorite movies from one of my favorite directors.

although where were Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell?

---

27 out of 46 people found the following comment useful :-
Fun modern western., 5 August 2004

Author: Boba_Fett1138 from Groningen, The Netherlands

This movie uses lot's of ingredients used in classic westerns. It does it in a fun way but it doesn't spoof the classic westerns in any way and it never becomes humorous or a parody that makes fun of the genre.

Who would have known, Sharon Stone is a believable cowgirl. I think it's fair for me to say that she's the best I have seen in a western. The movie also features both Russell Crow and Leonardo DiCaprio before their days of fame and big Dollars. It's always fun and great to have Gene Hackman in a villain role and he makes this movie an even more pleasant watch. The movie features lot's of other fun and stereotype western characters.

The settings and costumes are great and real western like and help to create the right atmosphere for the movie. The great western score is by Alan Silvestri and fits the movie well, even though the score goes a bit too much "Back to the Future" like at times.

The movie is filled with some unusual but great Sam Raimi like cinematography and tricks.

Just enjoy and don't pay attention to the story. It is just simple entertainment!

8/10

---

18 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Advertised As Different Comes Out Dreadful, 30 January 2009

Author: alexkolokotronis from New York, United States

Now after a title like that why would I give it even an average rating? The plot was pretty horrible and everything but original. The dialog was pretty corny at times and even the set looked a bit stupid. Still the performances were interesting to watch.

Anytime u get see Gene Hackman act like a real mother****** its fun to watch. Hes famous for that and is always enjoyable to watch. Seeing Dicaprio and Crowe in one of their earliest films was the most fun to watch. These are arguably the actors of the decade and seeing them perform at such a young age is very absorbing. Who I found annoying was Sharon Stone. The idea of her role was stupid, the way it was performed was ridiculous and its just not a role to be taken seriously.

As I was watching the movie I wasn't quite sure what kind of movie this was or even attempting to be. At times it seemed like a drama or an action flick. At other times it seemed like a parody and sometimes it even looked like it was heading towards the direction of a romance. The bottom line is that this film is confused within itself. In film different either means great or downright horrible and this was lucky enough to not reach the state of being considered horrible.

---

25 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
An entertaining western, 25 February 2003

Author: perfectbond

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The first thing to say about this film is that the cast is an all-star one: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Gary Sinise in a bit part. Each of the characters, even Hackman's villain Herod, is so likeable and charismatic that you can't help but feeling sad that a good portion of them will be killed. There is some spectacular cinematography and creatively conceived shots from director Sam Raimi and his team. A particularly memorable shot is the one of the sunlight shining through the bullet hole of the victim's head. In my opinion the two drawbacks of The Quick and the Dead are the thin plot and the relative scarcity of dialogue. With a cast like this it's a bit of a shame that it is underutilized. Still this film provides a solid hour and a half or so of entertainment, 7.5/10.

---

20 out of 37 people found the following comment useful :-
The Good & Bad Of 'The Quick And The Dead', 11 November 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

Like the western "Wild Bill" that also came out around this time, this is a pretty wild, almost cartoon-like western. It has many pluses and minuses.

GOOD - Great sound, interesting camera angles and very stylishly shot. The visuals and audio make it interesting alone. Add a simple but interesting story filled with wild cartoon-like characters and you have a fun, fast-moving film. Western purists will hate the movie because it's filled with over-the-top characters. The most interesting, I thought, was Gene Hackman as the villain and Russell Crowe as the good-guy "preacher" named "Cort." Sharon Stone's character, "Ellen," is very reminiscent of the one she played in "The Specialist," a movie which came out the previous year in which - as in this movie - revenge is her main motive.

BAD - This is only bad if you are religiously-inclined. The "preacher" in here is questionable as such. No real preacher uses the Lord's name in vain which Crowe did twice here. His theology also is not Biblically, more like clueless Hollywood stereotypes. Also, there was a bit too much of the feminist slant in here. Then again, since Stone co-produced the film, it's not surprising. Actually, her character - especially when she begins to soften a bit - is interesting, too.

OVERALL - Despite the usual bias, the movie is fun to watch and entertaining.

---

5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Western? You call this a western?, 22 February 2007

Author: RedWine_1st from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Sorry but this is a vent more then a comment.

How could anyone call this a western. It may have taken place in western times but the stupidity of the plot is incredible.

A contest where people compete by a quick draw shoot out. Not very well done I might add. Oh please.

I admit the final shoot out at the fort was entertaining but you have to suffer through the entire move to get there.

I was offered a free copy of this movie but refused to include it in my collection. Maybe I should have accepted that way I could have trashed the DVD.

---

16 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
Exaggerated, intense, beautiful, silly, 6 July 2000

Author: greenman_99 from Georgia, USA

Like all of Sam Raimi's movies, this flick was a cartoon. That's not an insult- his works with the Coen brothers on movies like The Hudsucker Proxy are some of my favorites, with their insanely "zoomed-in" quality. This movie was a spaghetti western, it was ABOUT spaghetti westerns, and it was also a weird, wonderful nightmare where your options are limited, you're a superhero, and your enemy is all-powerful. That's adolescent, silly, and totally compelling.

Raimi has always done brilliant visuals; I don't know his history, but I suspect he read a lot of pulp comics as a kid. The early scene where Stone gets up (after playing dead) and you see her shadow putting her hat back on, with the obvious bullet hole in the brim, is sheer visual brilliance.

Gene Hackman is, of course, great (MST3K line: "He's good in everything!"). Sharon Stone has gotten a lot of static for doing what Clint Eastwood built a legend on: bad acting, done intensely. (And in Stone's case in this flick, I think, purposefully.) Leonardo D. is well-cast as a cocky, yet needy, "bad-a** in his own mind" type. Russell Crowe (who nobody knew at the time, especially me) is great in his role as a survivor of a 12-step program to help fight a dependence on violence, complete with backsliding moments.

Do not look to this movie expecting anything like realism, believability, or moderation. This is pulp fiction, eye candy, nightmare surrealism, wanton entertainment. It's trash culture saluting trash culture, and if you can appreciate that, it's a hell of a great ride.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Raimi goes West, 16 August 2009

Author: samkay1 from Canada

With The Quick and the Dead, Sam Raimi approaches the old west with a very new/contemporary style. With its brisk energy and competitive characters, the story often feels like a sports movie with lots of photography tricks. If you want a top western, this might not be your film, but if you are looking for good old American slick fun, you've come to the right place.

Thanks to James Cameron, since T2, there has been nothing sexier than a woman with a gun. Sharon Stone actually brings a fairly macho 'Sarah Conner' quality to her character. She plays Ellen, a young cowgirl who rides into a mysterious town for a very special event, a gunslinging competition. The mayor of the town is a dangerous fella and one of the most feared gunslingers around. It is this man who Ellen is after. The question is, why? In order to fight him, she must beat everyone else in the competition. There will be blood, for sure.

In order to make up for his superficial plot, Sam Raimi has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. One of his most recognizable through his career is going over the top in an amusing way, which he does here too, mostly at the climax. He doesn't make great movies, but he makes clever and entertaining ones, which this is.

---

---

Page 1 of 18:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Amazon.com summary	Ratings
Awards	Newsgroup reviews	External reviews
Parents Guide	Plot keywords	Main details
Your user comments	Your vote history