The Quick and the Dead

          This is not Louis Lamore’s tail of a family surviving in the frontier with the help of a friendly stranger. This is the story of a horrible bully (Gene Hackman, Narrow Margin) who runs a small town, enslaving it’s Mexican residents. He also hosts an annual shoot out competition. The ultimate western cliché comes to dramatic real life in this fantastically shaped ultrareal western.

            The ones we really care about besides the boss are the Lady (Sharon Stone, Catwoman), The Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed) and the preacher (Russell Crowe, Gladiator). They fight against 12 other larger than life characters in a traditional style shoot out tournament.

            The characters are the highlight of this film, as the story telling style highlights some incredibly well written and archetypical characters. It’s a lot of fun, and very well made. The movie fully acknowledges that it is not doing anything original, yet brings some tremendous energy into a well composed script.

            2. This is a great 90’s western, up there with Unforgiven and Dances with Wolves.