HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

Studio: Sony Tri-Star

Year: 1995

Rated: R

Film Length: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 1080p High Definition Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio: English Dolby True HD 5.1, French Dolby True HD 5.1

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish

Release Date: September 8, 2009
 

The Movie

A western town called Redemption is ruled with an iron fist by a gunfighter named Herod(Gene Hackman). The Lady(Sharon Stone) is a gunfighter who comes to Redemption. Is she there for revenge, or is she there to win the quick draw competition and its pot of $123,000.00? The Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio) is there to win the competition and earn his father’s respect. Cort(Russell Crowe) is the preacher who has turned his back on his killing ways, or would have if Herod would let him. Other notable cast members include Tobin Bell(Saw), Gary Sinise(Forrest Gump), Lance Henriksen(Aliens), Pat Hingle(Hang Em High), and Woody Strode(Spartacus).

The Quick and the Dead is a western pumped up on steroids; the camera rarely stops moving which lends itself well to the deliberately kinetic pace. Sam Raimi(Evil Dead, Spider-Man) directed this film, and Raimi has obviously seen a lot of western films and borrowed from the best of them. Although Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock never directed any westerns, there are certain shots in this film that bear his influence, to great effect. Raimi reaches into his directorial bag of tricks and creates a whole that is greater than its individual parts.

The Quick and the Dead is basically a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, if Clint’s role were played instead by Sharon Stone in 1995. This is not a criticism since The Quick and the Dead succeeds in its effort to entertain; it is simply not a traditional western even though it assembles many positive elements (and a few cliches) from the greatest western films.

Video

The movie is in 1080p high definition in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The picture quality is surprisingly poor during the first five minutes of this film, but the remainder of the film is excellent. The film opens on a sun-dappled field as a lone rider approaches the camera. The detail in this scene is excellent, however, there is an unusual amount of dirt and debris popping on the screen that could be mistaken at first glance for mosquito noise. Thankfully, the remainder of the film is virtually pristine. Edge enhancement and DNR are minimal to non-existent with an appropriate amount of grain in most scenes. There is some loss of clarity in shadow details but this is also minimal. But for the first few minutes, this would be an excellent transfer overall.

Audio

The English Dolby True HD 5.1 tracks make excellent use of all speakers for an immersive experience. Dialogue tracks come through strong here which is sometimes a problem in films with this much background noise. The film probably did not sound this good in its original theatrical release in 1995.

Special Features

This version is fairly devoid of special features. There is not even a theatrical trailer for The Quick and the Dead, which was even included on the standard DVD from a few years ago, but not ported over for this edition. Trailers are included for other films including The DaVinci Code Extended Edition, Casino Royale, Ghostbusters, A River Runs Through It, Damages Season One, The Sky Crawlers, Tyson, and Rudo Y Cursi.

BD Live Blu Ray players connected to the internet can access the movieIQ feature, which presents information about the cast, crew, production, and music during the movie via a pop-up window. The window takes up about one-third of the screen and the trivia will be of little interest to most viewers.

Where are the deleted scenes? Raimi’s pal Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness) filmed several scenes for The Quick and the Dead. Campbell’s name has always appeared in the closing credits even though his scenes were all cut from the theatrical version. It seems fairly likely that these scenes still exist somewhere in the studio archives. Studios should consider including such offerings on Blu-Ray as an added incentive for consumers to upgrade from DVD, rather than hold back with the intent to provide a deluxe edition several years down the road to entice buyers to buy the same film 2 or more times.

Conclusion

This may not be the greatest western ever filmed but it is not the worst either. The Quick and the Dead is a stylistic, action-packed film that set the stage in many ways for more recent films in this genre like the remake of 3:10 To Yuma. Even if western films are not usually your cup of tea, The Quick and the Dead contains enough originality (in style if not in substance) that it may win over some viewers who would not ordinarily seek out this kind of film. The excellent cast of actors, many of whom would reach greater heights of fame after this film, enhance the entertainment value and make this one film worth seeing.

Thanks, Timothy! Too bad about those opening few minutes, but I'll probably get this anyway, because Hackman's Herod is one of my favorite Western villains.

As I recall, this film opens with the credits playing over the image.  This would explain the image quality issues with those opening few minutes, as the entire sequence would be an optical which is two additional generations removed from the negative, and opticals are prone to having dirt printed in, as well.

Vincent

I remember from the days I used to do reviews that it
was very common for title sequences to look awful
compared to the rest of the print.  Your explanation
as to why, Vincent, was the best description of that
problem I have ever read.  I finally know after all these
years why titles usually looked as bad as they did.

I agree that Herod is a terrific villain and I think this is one of Hackman's best performances.

Timothy,

Thanks for the review as well as bringing this BR to our attention. (There's another The Quick and the Dead, an English western, so to say, which I want too). But this one will surely be added to my collection!


Cees

Can someone who has the US Blu-Ray release & has watched it please state for the record whether it is the US theatrical version or the extended European cut? I have heard conflicting reports & would like to know since I am interested in picking this up since Fry's has it for $12.99.