The Quick and the Dead

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sam Raimi directs. Dante Spinotti behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Pietro Scalia cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America, Japan. Dialogue in English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 131 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.
• 3International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Japan.
• 4Directed by Sam Raimi, shot by Dante Spinotti. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Pietro Scalia shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman and Russell Crowe carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "Think you're quick enough?".
• 9IMDB entry: tt0114214 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Dante Spinotti

Original score

Alan Silvestri

Editing

Pietro Scalia

Production design

Patrizia von Brandenstein

Costume design

Judianna Makovsky

Makeup / hair

Bunny Parker

Stunt coordinator

Doc Duhame

Runtime

107 min · 1h 47m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$35,000,000

Box office

$47,000,000

Return

134% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

The Quick and the Dead (1995) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

62% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

49/100

IMDB rating

6.5/10 · 112,245 votes

MPAA

R

Also by

Sam Raimi

• 
  Ash vs Evil Dead

  2015 · ★ 7.8
• 
  Evil Dead II

  1987 · ★ 7.5
• 
  Spider-Man

  2002 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Spider-Man 2

  2004 · ★ 7.3
• 
  The Evil Dead

  1983 · ★ 7.3
• 
  Army of Darkness

  1992 · ★ 7.3

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  The Quick and the Dead (1995) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD]

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2019-05-19
  ★ 6/10

  Nice try from Raimi, but ultimately it creeps just above average. The Western is a tough genre to tackle in the modern age, more so when it's post Dances With Wolves and Unforgiven's masterclasses 101. But tackling both these challenges is nothing to the one which director Sam Raimi asks of the audience in his stab at the genre. A female gunslinger is here played by a Hollywood beauty, Sharon Stone, but she isn't right for the lead role. She obviously looks gorgeous and she broods and pouts better than most of her modern day peers, but she lacks a menacing streak, a bit of believable nastiness that just might have lifted the film to better heights. We understand and expect the vulnerability she shows, but to succeed here in the testosterone fuelled town of Redemption, she's going to have to convince as a tough gal. And Stone just isn't up to the task. The film does have good points to enjoy though, very much so. The story, although gimmicky, works well as an entertaining popcorn munching tale, while the cast list reads like a whose who of solid and quality thespers, (Gene Hackman wandering in from Unforgiven to play Little Bill's ghost, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DeCaprio, Keith David, Pat Hingle & Lance Henriksen). Also into the plus column is the always impressive cinematography from Dante Spinotti, and there is no denying Sam Raimi's keen eye for detail, with his zooming shots a real treat during the shoot out sequences - his Spaghetti Western leanings further enhanced by Alan Silvestri's pasta influenced score. Yet in spite of this bravado attempt, and acknowledging that the makers have tried something different, The Quick & The Dead isn't quite quick enough on the draw to outlive the leading lady misstep. 6/10

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• CinemaSerf2023-08-27
  ★ 6/10

  Now I saw this in the cinema in 1995 and had somehow managed to completely forget all about it - until I saw it again just last week and realised why. It's not that it is awful, it's just that it is so very derivative and very, very dependant on Gene Hackman ("Herod") who walks a fine line between menace and ham in a none too convincing fashion. He is running a to-the-death gun slinging competition - almost like one of the chivalric jousts of old - with the winner having to face him in the final shoot-out for an huge poke. Sharon Stone ("Ellen") arrives in his dingy town just at the start of the process determined to avenge her father's killer; Russell Crowe is "Cort", a preacher who also has a pretty violent past and "the Kid" (Leonardo di Caprio) who has the clear belief that his youth and skill make him all but immortal are all coaxed, cajoled and threatened into participating in this game of death. Sam Raimi has all the ingredients of a great little western adventure, but the cast don't work well together at all. Stone is well past her potent best and the usual guy-with-a-grudge theme is now so hackneyed as to render this little better than a series of gunfights with characters about whom I could not care less. The cinematography and some of the photographic styles are interesting, though - the film has a classy look to it and Alan Silvestri creates some tension with his slightly untypical (for a western) score; but the whole is nowhere near the sum of the parts leaving us with something that now, more than ever, just looks like it's been made for telly.

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• Wuchak2024-09-18
  ★ 7/10

  Mythic Western about a quick-draw contest in a town with an all-star cast Sharon Stone stars as a grim, nonchalant woman who, curiously, enters a dueling contest in a remote Southwest desert town "ruled" by outlaw Herod (Gene Hackman). A pacifist preacher is forced by Herod to participate in the contest, but he ain't no conventional minister (Russell Crowe). Other notables include: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lance Henriksen, Tobin Bell, Keith David, Gary Sinise and Pat Hingle. "The Quick and the Dead" (1995) was co-produced by Stone and she was responsible for getting the youthful & skinny DiCaprio in the cast, she even paid his salary (?!). Stone also apprehended New Zealander Crowe with this being his first American feature. When dressed in her tight leather pants Sharon was unable to sit down (lol). Interestingly, she fired her hottie stand-in because she was getting more attention from the crew on set (!). She later confessed that Crowe was her favorite on screen kisser, but kissing DiCaprio was like kissing her arm (lol). The tone is mythic in the manner of those spaghetti Westerns of the 60s, but with superior production values and obviously seminal to Tarantino Westerns ("Django Unchained" and "The Hateful Eight"). While the vibe isn't exactly realistic, the cast members take the material seriously and ham it up with gusto. You can tell they all had a great time. The movie's town bound and comic booky with larger-than-life characters, but it's not campy or comedic, although it's somewhat silly. The film's title is presumably taken from 1 Peter 4:5 of the KJV translation of the Bible, which details how Christ "is ready to judge the quick and the dead." The phrase also appears in the Apostle's Creed with the same meaning. In both cases 'quick' is an Old English term for "living." The movie's title clearly plays off both the modern and archaic meanings in that there are two kinds of gunfighters in the Old West: those who are quick (that is, fast and alive) and those who are dead. It runs 1 hour, 47 minutes, and was shot completely in Arizona (including Old Tucson). GRADE: B+

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  TriStar Pictures

  US

• JA

  Japan Satellite Broadcasting

  JP

• IN

  IndieProd Company Productions

  US

Key crew

• ProducerAllen Shapiro
• Executive ProducerToby Jaffe
• ProducerJoshua Donen
• ProducerPatrick Markey
• Executive ProducerRobert Tapert
• EditorPietro Scalia
• Supervising Sound EditorJay Kamen
• Supervising Sound EditorLarry Mann
• Key Hair StylistBunny Parker
• Key Makeup ArtistGary Liddiard
• Makeup ArtistFred C. Blau Jr.
• Makeup ArtistKimberly Felix
• HairstylistPaul LeBlanc
• Special Effects CoordinatorAl Di Sarro
• HairstylistKathe Swanson
• Assistant Art DirectorJames F. Truesdale
• Assistant Art DirectorRichard Fernandez
• Second Unit DirectorTerry Leonard
• Assistant Set DecorationHelen Britten
• Costume SupervisorBruce Ericksen
• Assistant Costume DesignerSarah Edwards
• Makeup ArtistTricia Sawyer
• Makeup ArtistGary Liddiard
• First Assistant DirectorJohn Cameron

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• gunslinger
• revenge
• prairie
• shootout
• awestruck
• powerful

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1995-02-09R

Also known as

International titles

• Mort Ou Vif: Duel à RedemptionFR
• 风舞狂沙CN
• Бързата и смърттаBG
• 致命的快感CN