THE QUICK AND THE DEAD
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
**1/2 (out of four)
THE QUICK AND THE DEAD is a western starring Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman. Should've been called THE NUDE AND THE OLD. That last sentence, of course, is an example of the dangers of insensitive stereotyping, because we now know Stone actually can carry a film without taking her shirt off and Hackman, of course, has always been able to carry films fully-clothed (thankfully). This movie is a decent showcase for both of them as well as WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE star Leonardo DeCaprio.
What the movie isn't a decent showcase for is good directing. Every "high noon" cliche in the book is brought out for THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, including rapid-fire closeups of all the characters and recurring shots of the town clock. (I'm also sure I saw a tumbleweed blow by on more than one occasion.) The writing also isn't the best, as when tough cowboy -- make that cowperson -- Sharon Stone arrives in town and is hit on by a tough guy:
TOUGH GUY: You're purty.
SHARON: You're not.
TOUGH GUY: I need a woman.
SHARON: You n, Sharon. Here's another
exchange, coming about one minute after the "bath" sequence,
when Sharon is talking to the shoe shine boy.
SHOE SHINE BOY (pointing to Hackman): See him?
He gets fifty cents of every dollar in this town.
SHARON: And what does the town get?
SHOE SHINE BOY: It gets to live.
And we get to laugh at the ludicrous dialogue. Another area of fault is the plot. The nature of the premise dictates a thin, predictable plot. Even the "twist"of the ending you can see riding into town a mile away. The plot has a group of gunfighters entering a contest, where people square off in gunfighting competitions one by one, until only one is left alive to collect the $123,456 prize. We know from the get-go who the last two contestants will be, and even who the last four will be. Still, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD for the most part contains original entertainment from time-tested (and tit-tested) Hollywood performers.
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