The Quick and the Dead (1987)

You won't be disappointed!

A Masterpiece!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Impressive location shooting in northern Arizona helps this rather worn plot along, and so does the acting.Tom Conti, ex teacher and ex Civil War sergeant, his wife Kate Capshaw, and their little boy Kenny Morrison, pull up stakes back east and head out West where a man and his family can escape the violence of the Civil War and breathe the fresh, clean, anarchic air.They offend one of those crusty, villainous families that are so often offended in these Westerns -- "Shane," "Will Penny," the Clantons -- and Conti and family are pursued by these revenge-driven miscreants over snowy hill and grassy dale.Well, I'll tell you. They don't know nothing' about survival in the West. Their hides are saved only by the appearance of Sam Elliott in buckskin and leather, toting a repeating rifle and various other gear. Elliott guides them through the wilderness towards the rude log cabin, miles away, that they will some day call home. But, of course, not if the evil family has anything to say about it.Time and again, the pursuers and the pursued wound one another but each carries on, leaving a trail of blood. The pursuers actually are winnowed down. One by one, they are plugged, except for the youngest, who sensibly decides to hell with it and rides off alone towards home. The rest of the pursuers don't fare so well.The plot line really is hoary. A pioneer family are unprepared for the violence they encounter and are saved by a romantic, sun-tanned stranger. The family's wife is attracted towards the mysterious savior and vice versa. "Mrs. McKaskel, if you wasn't married I'd of chased you till you dropped," says Sam Elliott, by way of declaring his deep affection for her. Mrs. McKaskel's pretty pale-blue eyes glow with pleasure.The acting is professional enough. Nobody can complain. Sam Elliott is his usual laconic, masculine self. He has a habit of holding conversations while facing at a right angle to the other, which gives him an opportunity to stare over his shoulder at the person he's addressing. Poor Tom Conti is saddled with a face that's about as interesting as a bowl of porridge, a kind of fleshier Dustin Hoffman, and his voice sounds like he suffers from an adenoid condition. He handles the role very well but those attributes knee-cap his performance.Kate Capshaw is quite a fox when you get right down to it but she's usually cast as a properly brought up, middle-class figure, as she is here. Only one film, whose title I can't remember, gave her an opportunity to show a slinkier and sexier side. I was genuinely worried about the family's son. He's about ten or eleven years old. I quailed at the thought of another cuddly kid saying cute things, but this kid can act. It could have been awful. He might have had disabling asthma attacks under stress or something. I shudder at the thought. That I never wanted to stomp him like an insect is a tribute to his talent.I enjoyed the message though. I thought it was carefully considered, thoughtful, and humane. Only Wussies swear off violence. Real men kill.

1876, Wyoming. Niave newly arrived settlers Duncan (well played by Tom Conti) and Susanna McKaskel (a fine performance by Kate Capshaw, who looks positively ravishing) require the assistance of rugged frontiersman Con Vallian (a superb and convincing performance by Sam Elliott) in order to protect them from a group of outlaws led by the weaselly Doc Shabitt (veteran character actor Matt Clark in top slimy form). Director Robert Day, working from a smart and engrossing script by James Lee Barrett, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, presents a flavorsome, yet unsentimental evocation of the old west, and stages the gunfights in a realistic and exciting manner. Con makes for a strong and interesting flawed hero who isn't entirely noble; he has lustful feelings for Susanna and keeps embarrassing Duncan every chance he gets. Moreover, the bad guys are a memorably scurvy lot, with especially memorable turns by Patrick Kilpatrick as fearsome half-breed tracker The Ute and Jerry Potter as the foul and lecherous Red Hayle. Kenny Morrison registers nicely as Duncan's loyal son Tom. Dick Bush's polished cinematography makes elegant occasional use of fades and dissolves. Steven Dorff's harmonic score does the tuneful trick. A worthwhile sagebrush saga.

Mysterious gunslinger Sam Elliot becomes a guardian angel to genteel easterners Kate Capshaw, Tom Conti, and their young son, who've unwittingly attracted the attention of a particularly nasty gang of cutthroats.A simple story with lots of violence, there isn't much to ponder here. However, it's always a lot of fun to watch Elliot shoot and drawl his way through a made-for-television western. Matt Clark and Patrick Kilpatrick always make good villains as well.One thing that made me kind of uneasy though, was watching Elliot's character's almost constant drooling over the married Kate Capshaw, often times in full view of her husband and son!On a side note, I miss these old HBO Pictures of the eighties and nineties, before they became all political, all boring, all the time.

The story of The Quick and the Dead is very simple: a young married couple and their son accidentally anger a gang of bandits and they begin pursuit, then a mysterious drifter begins helping them out and protecting them from said gang. However it is still a well-written story that manages to keep you interested in what's happening.The acting is decent enough. Sam Elliot is no Clint Eastwood but he does a good job as the stranger who befriends the young settlers who are heading West. Kate Capshaw, who you may remember as Willie Scott in Indiand Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Tom Conti also deliver some great performances as the young married couple who are travelling to the West with their son in the hopes of starting a new life.The villains are also well-portrayed. Matt Clark manages to be intimidating as the leader of the bandits, but he manages to be a fairly complex character rather than just a cardboard-cutout villain. The rest of the gang does have their own inner-conflicts which they deal with over the course of the story.I also thought the historical references were interesting. It is mentioned that the film takes place shortly after Custer's Last Stand, although the actual events have little bearing on the main plot beyond a very brief sub-plot which I'm not going to go into detail about.Overall, this is a very entertaining and interesting film and I'd recommend it to any fan of Westerns.