The Quick and the Dead

(1995)

Ellen, an unknown female gunslinger rides into a small, dingy and depressing prairie town with a secret as to her reason for showing up. Shortly after her arrival, a local preacher, Cort, is thrown through the saloon doors while townfolk are signing up for a gun competition. The pot is a huge sum of money and the only rule: that you follow the rules of the man that set up the contest, Herod. Herod is also the owner, leader, and "ruler" of the town. Seems he's arranged this little gun-show-off so that the preacher (who use to be an outlaw and rode with Herod) will have to fight again. Cort refuses to ever use a gun to kill again and Herod, acknowledging Cort as one of the best, is determined to alter this line of thinking ... even if it gets someone killed ...

A classic film in my book, directed by Sam Raimi and staring Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman.

What does this movie have to do with bullfighting? Nothing.

Although the movie does somewhat stir up the same emotions as a bullfight with it's "quick-draw competition" and the possibility of death if one is not quick enough to survive. Plus, the film is set in the 1800's on the Western frontier, a place where bullfights did occasionally occur.

But I wanted to save this photo from my favorite scene and part of an interview of Lance Henriksen who played Ace Hanlon, one of the characters from the film that really steals the show.

This article is from John Kenneth Muir's blog "Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV"

Here is the link to the full article;

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2011/05/lance-henriksen-interview-on-quick-and.html

On his first day working with Gene Hackman:

HENRIKSEN: There were some very funny moments on that set.  I believed that I was this guy so much that when Gene Hackman and I did our first scene together, Sam put the camera on the ground and said to Gene, "you step up in front of the lens like this, with your legs spread."  Through his legs, you see Ace Hanlon standing there, taking a bow for what he just did. 

And Hackman said, "What is that?  What's that mean?  That's just a camera shot, right?"  He says, "I'm going to walk to him."

And I said, "Gene, wait a minute."

I'd never worked with Hackman before, and I waited twenty years to work with him, and I said, "Gene, don't walk to me.  Let me walk to you.  It makes you stronger.  If you walk to me, you're weaker, so let me walk to you."   And then I did that little turn where I said "I'm the best you'll ever see." 

But I remember after the day was over, I said, "what the fuck did I just do?  You don't tell Gene Hackman where to walk!"  But he held his ground.  It was that kind of environment where I was so much "the guy" that there was no ego involved.  If he'd told me to fuck off, it would have been all right.