The Quick and the Dead is a 1995 American revisionist Western film directed by Sam Raimi. The film stars Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. The screenplay was written by Simon Moore but includes contributions from Joss Whedon. The story focuses on "The Lady" (Stone), a gunfighter who rides into the frontier town of Redemption, controlled by John Herod (Hackman). The Lady joins a deadly dueling competition in an attempt to exact revenge for her father's death.

Simon Moore's script was purchased by Sony Pictures Entertainment in May 1993, and actress Sharon Stone signed on as both star and co-producer. Development was fast-tracked after director Sam Raimi's hiring, and principal photography began in Old Tucson Studios in Arizona on November 21, 1993. The film was distributed by TriStar Pictures and was released in the United States on February 10, 1995, to a dismal box-office performance, receiving mixed reviews from critics. In later years, however, the film earned critical praise, especially for the performances, direction, cinematography and musical score, with some critics noting it as underrated in Raimi's catalog.

Plot

In 1881, a gunslinger known as "The Lady" arrives in the Old West town of Redemption, which is ruled by a ruthless outlaw-turned-mayor named John Herod. Herod has announced a fast-draw single-elimination shooting tournament with a large cash prize for the winner. The rules stipulate that any contestant may challenge any other, no challenge can be refused, every contestant must fight once per day, and a fight continues until one contestant either yields or dies. The Lady announces her participation, insisting she is interested only in the prize.

During the sign-up, Herod's henchmen arrive with Cort, an exceptionally skilled gunfighter and a former member of their gang. Cort has renounced violence to become a preacher and refuses to participate in the tournament. Herod's men attempt to lynch him, but The Lady shoots through the rope, freeing him. The Lady meets "The Kid", a brash young man who believes Herod is his father and hopes to earn his respect by winning the tournament. She wakes up alone in The Kid's bed and notices some barrels of loose dynamite under it.

In the first round, Herod kills Ace Hanlon, a braggart who took credit for some of Herod's kills as an outlaw. The Kid and The Lady easily defeat their opponents. Herod buys a cheap gun for Cort from The Kid and declares he can have only one bullet at a time, to prevent him from shooting his way out of town. Despite his conversion, Cort reflexively draws when challenged and wins his first-round duel.

Before the second round, Herod meets with Clay Cantrell, a professional gunfighter hired by the townspeople to kill him. Herod declares all duels are now to the death and kills Cantrell. The Kid wins his second fight against Scars, an escaped convict. The Lady faces Eugene Dred after he molests the saloon owner's young daughter, eventually killing him. Upset, she rides out of town.

Meanwhile, Cort duels a Native American gunslinger, Spotted Horse, but fails to kill him with the first shot and kills with a second bullet thrown by a spectator. Doc Wallace finds The Lady at a nearby cemetery and tells her he recognizes her and knows why she is there. Flashbacks reveal that The Lady's real name is Ellen McKenzie. Her father was the marshal in Redemption until Herod's gang invaded and lynched him. Herod gave Ellen a pistol and three shots to try to break the rope, but she accidentally killed her father, after which she fled town. Doc hands Ellen her father's old badge and persuades her to help rid the town of Herod.

The following day, Ellen challenges Herod, but he has already accepted a challenge from The Kid. As Ellen and Cort are the only fighters left, Herod orders them to fight, threatening to kill them if they refuse. Herod urges The Kid to withdraw, but he refuses. Although Herod is wounded, The Kid is fatally shot. Herod coldly refuses to take his hand as he dies, and says afterward it was never proven he was The Kid's father. When Cort and Ellen face off, Cort draws and fires on her, and Doc declares her dead. Cort angrily demands to fight Herod immediately, but he settles for dawn the next day. That night, Ratsy, one of Herod's men, breaks Cort's right hand.

The next morning, Herod rebukes Ratsy and kills him for harming Cort. Herod confesses that he is afraid of Cort, which is why he forced him to enter the tournament. As a matter of honor, he offers to fight Cort left-handed, but still instructs his henchmen to kill Cort if he wins. At the moment Herod draws, several buildings explode, including Herod's house and the clock tower. Ellen emerges from the smoke and flames, having faked her death and planted The Kid's dynamite with help from Cort and Doc. Cort kills Herod's remaining henchmen while Ellen faces off against Herod, revealing her identity by throwing her father's badge at his feet. Herod wounds Ellen, but she shoots him through the chest and kills him with a bullet to the eye. She tosses the badge to Cort and rides away, leaving him in charge of bringing law and order to Redemption.

Cast

thumb|175px|right|Gene Hackman portrayed John Herod, the film's main antagonist.

Production

Development

Writer Simon Moore finished his speculative script for The Quick and the Dead in late 1992, writing it as an homage to the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone, particularly Once Upon a Time in the West and the Dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood. The writer decided the lead character should be a female. "When you introduce women into that kind of world, something very interesting happens and you have an interesting dynamic straight away", Moore commented. Because Stone also signed on as co-producer, she had approval of the choice of director. Sam Raimi was hired to direct because Stone was impressed with his work on Army of Darkness (1992); she made it clear that if he was not hired, she would quit the project. Although Stone had mixed emotions on Raimi's previous work, she believed in his ability to handle the campy tone of the film, feeling that The Quick and the Dead would be a perfect opportunity to "stretch the limits of his technical and creative ability". Moore was also enthusiastic over Raimi's hiring based on his previous work with the Evil Dead film series. On working with Raimi, Crowe later described the director as "sort of like the fourth Stooge". Matt Damon was offered the role of Fee "The Kid" Herod, but declined. Sam Rockwell also auditioned for The Kid, a role that ended up going to Leonardo DiCaprio. Sony was also hesitant about the inexperienced DiCaprio's casting; Stone compromised by paying his salary out of her own pocket. Locations included Old Tucson Studios in Arizona

The town of Redemption was designed by Patrizia von Brandenstein, known for her work on Amadeus (1984) and The Untouchables (1987).

Stone had a love scene with Crowe removed from the final cut before the film's release in the United States. The actress/co-producer thought the scene did not fit with the picture's established reality. The score for the film was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri and mixed by Dennis Sands. Kenneth Karman and Thomas Drescher edited the film's music.

Release and reception

Box office

The Quick and the Dead was released in the US and Canada on February 10, 1995, in 2,158 theaters, earning $6,515,861 in its opening weekend, placing second at the US box office behind Billy Madison by $124,000. The film eventually grossed $18,636,537 at the US and Canadian box office. Writer Simon Moore noted the film performed modestly in Europe. Additionally, Stone was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress but lost to Angela Bassett in Strange Days. A novelization written by Jack Curtis was published by HarperCollins in September 1995. The Region 1 DVD was released in September 1998.

Critical reception

The Quick and the Dead received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 62%, based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The site's consensus states: "The Quick and the Dead isn't quite the draw that its intriguing premise and pedigree suggest, but fans of nontraditional Westerns should have some rootin', tootin' fun." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 21 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised Stone's performance and Raimi's directing. "Stone's presence nicely underscores the genre-bending tactics of Raimi, the cult filmmaker now doing his best to reinvent the B movie in a spirit of self-referential glee."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticized the film for being overtly clichéd, but praised Raimi's direction and Dante Spinotti's cinematography.