The Quick and the Dead

RELEASED IN 1987 and directed by Robert Day, "The Quick and the Dead" is a made-for-HBO Western starring Sam Elliott as Con Vallian, a mysterious stranger who helps a family heading West in their conflict with a group of ne'er-do-wells. Vallian's desire is piqued by the wife (Kate Capshaw), is that interest mutual? Will the family make it to the Bighorn Mountains alive-and-well or will violence and adultery destroy them?

If you don't remember Kate Capshaw, she was the blonde in 1984's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and later married director Steven Spielberg.

I was impressed with this little-known Western. Although made for cable, it's based on a Louis L'Armour book and is actually better than some theatrically released Westerns. There are flaws, like the kid's questionable acting skills and the fact that the film was noticeably shot in Northern Arizona rather than Eastern Wyoming, but -- all things considered -- this is a solid realistic Western in the tradition of "Shane" and "Will Penny." Don't expect the mythic tone of 1995's big-budget Western of the same name.

Highlights include the breathtaking cinematography, a believable and mature approach, Kate's beauty, a hackneyed plot redeemed by quality characters (like Tom Conti as the settler husband/father), insightful drama & plot surprises and, of course, Sam Elliott as the quintessential Westerner. Really, Elliott is as good or - more likely - better than any Western icon you care to name (Wayne, Eastwood, Cooper, Scott, Stewart, Costner, etc.).

There are mature and insightful themes, like the undeniable connection of Vallian and Susanna. Most of us can relate: You stumble across someone of the opposite sex and instinctively sense a palpable connection, some kind of profound mutual fascination, yet - for whatever reason - pursuing an intimate relationship is not an option. In an entire lifetime you will only experience a handful such 'connections,' or less. These exchanges are permanent because they are so potent they are forever burned into one's psyche.

"The Quick and the Dead" may not be a top-notch Western like "Dances With Wolves" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales," but it's certainly a quality Western and well worth your time.

THE MOVIE RUNS 91 minutes.

GRADE: B.

...with Tom Conti and Kate Capshaw as settlers in post-Civil War Wyoming. They, along with their young son (Kenny Morrison), run into a band of outlaws and cutthroats led by the deceptively-avuncular Doc Shabbit (Matt Clark). The family seem doomed until the intervention of the mysterious Con Vallain (Sam Elliott), who escorts the family across hostile territory.

Director Robert Day tells the story competently and in a straightforward fashion, with no stylistic excess. Elliott is well-cast, as is Conti as the kindly war veteran suspicious of Elliott's motives, as well his attention toward his wife. Capshaw looks nice, but her performance is spotty. She seems to adopt a period-specific speech pattern in many scenes that is admirable in its intent, but questionable as the others in the cast don't attempt the same. Still, I enjoyed this minor film well enough, and would recommend it to western fans.

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.

This is one terrific western film. Sam Elliott, who is marvelous as a "Shane-like" character, plays a drifter who follows a family of green homesteaders across the western plains and protects them from a savage pack of outlaws. The family, which includes Tom Conti and Kate Capshaw, also becomes more sufficient as the story progresses. It's a lean, well-directed film, with not a scene or character wasted. Not until Unforgiven did a western film arrives as superior as this HBO production. The story is based on an entertaining L. Lamour novel of the same name. The novel has a significant plot twist from the film, which I won't reveal here.

Sam Elliott who is doing his level best to keep the western alive as an American art form stars in The Quick And The Dead which has nothing to do with the film Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, and Leonardo DiCaprio did. But it has one great western pedigree as the story is from the pen of Louis L'Amour.

In fact there are some elements in this story that are most similar to L'Amour's most famous western Hondo. Although Sam Elliott isn't quite the G-rated cowboy John Wayne was.

Tom Conti, Kate Capshaw and their son Kenny Morrison are traveling west to settle and work the homestead that Conti's late brother had in Wyoming territory. But they run afoul of some outlaws led by Matt Clark and the outlaws mean to them harm.

If you remember in Hondo the mutual attraction of the frontier scout and the settler's wife who is waiting for her husband to get home. That's going on big time here only Conti is very much on the scene. Elliott thinks him a worthless tenderfoot at first, but Conti's character develops over the course of the film and the more you see, the more you realize there's a lot to him. A lot more than there was to Leo Gordon in Hondo.

Nice location cinematography in Arizona standing in for Wyoming territory. The roles are well cast and cowboy heroes don't come any better than Sam Elliott.