The Quick and the Dead (1995)

“No no no no, you see it’s a gun fight. We both have guns. We aim, we fire, you die. ” – Kid

Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Jan 2019)

Brief Synopsis – In order to try and avenge her father’s murder, a female gunfighter travels to a quick draw tournament to face her father’s murderer.

My Take on it – This is a film that I had heard of when it came out but never really had much interest in seeing what it was all about.

This is one of the 8 films that Richard of Kirkham Movie A Day chose for his picks for this month’s MOTM over at the Lamb.

I didn’t know what to really expect here and was surprised at how much I enjoyed this film, largely due to the very unique premise.

The cast is filed with lots of famous actors even if some of them were only on the rise at the time, but it would be quite difficult today to get Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sharon Stone to appear in a film together.

It’s a lot of fun watching how things unfold and they do a great job slowly giving us bits and pieces of information about the backgrounds of these characters which helps us get a much clearer idea as to why each of them made the choice to join in on this contest.

They also manage to take the story to a higher level by the use of some great twists and turns along the way that help raise the stakes of the action and danger while at the same time still keep things interesting the entire way.

Tnx for getting me to watch this one Richard!

Bottom Line – Great premise that works quite well especially when dealing with such a unique idea. The cast is superb and even though, some of the famous actors were lesser known at the time, it’s still fun to watch how things unfold. Love the way that they slowly tell us the history of some of the characters in order for us to get a much clearer picture as to why they have joined this kind of contest. They manage to take this idea to a higher level by adding some great twists and turns along the way that keep things interesting while also constantly raising the stakes and danger of it all. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – All of the actors on the set in the gunfight scenes were instructed in the art of the quick draw by a stunt coordinator. Due to his limited screen time, Gene Hackman had the most opportunity to prepare his quick draw and as a result was the fastest actor on the set. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)