Quigley Down Under (1990)

Matt Quigley (Tom Selleck) is a former buffalo hunter from Wyoming looking for a fresh start from regretting starving out American Indians. His guilt leads him to taking a job offer from an Australian rancher named Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman), who wants a sharp shooter to kill dingoes on his property at a distance. Before Matt can put his replica Buffalo Rifle to good use, he discovers Marston's real targets are the Australian Aborigines. After Quigley refuses the mean-spirited rancher, he is left for dead in the outback, where he rescues the fetching Crazy Cora (Laura San Giacomo), who insists in calling him Roy. Matt's only fault is always doing the "right" thing.Wonderful scenery of Down Under. Simon Wincer directs a story by John Hill that you can't help but stay interested in. Rickman is a good a villain as Selleck is a hero. Other players include: Ron Haddrick, Tony Bonner, Ben Mendelsohn, Jerome Ehlers, William Zappa, Steve Dodds and Conor McDermottroe.

Mainstream media will tell you that they don't really make westerns anymore but this is not true. Sometimes they make em look like something else. For example, Joss Whedon's Serendipity, an astonishing sci-fi film, and considered a true "space western." And then there is this wonderful little delicacy of a film, a western that takes place in, who would believe, Australia, and somehow pits a real down-on-his-luck American cowboy against a wannabee station (ranch) owner with the moral code of a junkyard dog. When a film is really really really superb, a one of a kind, I am reluctant to give too much away (spoilers or no) for fear of depriving a future viewer just one moment of pleasure from the experience. So I will say this -- acting is awesome. Selleck was just beginning the transition from the boisterous TV character he was known for, to the quieter thoughtful type he would later portray in TV movies. Brilliant, engaging, fun. Rickman practically invented playing bad guys (see Die Hard) and San Giacomo, no spring chicken here, has to provide the romantic interest but, because of the story, is given only a few lines of dialogue at most to work with. And whatta tale. In my other reviews I have emphasized the importance of staging these stories the way you would build a wedding cake, one layer at a time. And the story is perfection. It builds and builds and builds. In the best Jimmy Stewart tradition, Selleck keeps trying to avoid trouble, and only gets in deeper. The ending, the showdown, is superb and also dripping in irony. A vastly under-rated film, and a must see.

One of the factors that can help us understand why westerns are so rare nowadays is that long ago there was a certain magic in the West. It is not there anymore, lost in the freeways of Los Angeles. What Quigley brings us with the Outback of Austrália is that mysterious magic of an unknown new world. Put that together with a great musical score, a fabulous performance by Tom Selleck, spectacular scenes with thousands of Aboríginials, a remarkable rifle that shoots from a great distance and you have one of the best westerns ever made. There is a scene where the dingoes, the wild dogs of Australia are threatening the desperate Laura San Giacomo with a baby. The villain, Alan Rickman has a fascination with the west and the Colt and he is impressed to know that Quigley has been to Dodge City. But Quigley, who thought that he was contracted to kill dingoes, will never accept what Marston (Rickman) wants to use him for. Don't miss this film.

The low scoring of this movie at IMDb only reminds us: It wasn't the traditional Western that exhausted itself in the later 1960s/ early 1970s, it was the audience.This is an old-school traditional Western that happens to be set in Australia. The story, cinematography, music, pacing, characterizations, dialog, all are reminiscent of those we came to expect from Hawks, Hathaway, Sturgis. Yet there is no attempt to slavishly imitate the work of such past masters of the genre, but to add to the genre using a cinema vocabulary they would easily have recognized and appreciated.It's quite alright to say, 'traditional Westerns are not my cup or tea,' but it is not appropriate to slam a genre film for being true to its genre. And this sweeping adventure story is so true to its genre, if one didn't know when this was made or who these actors were, one could easily think it a product of the late 1950s or early 1960s, the last golden age of the traditional Western, the era of Rio Bravo, the Magnificent Seven, The Sons of Katie Elder, The River of No Return. While not strictly realistic, it presents a world that is three dimensionally realized - The heat is real, the wind is real, the old houses look like they've been standing for years, the people inhabiting this world are flesh and blood.One can easily imagine John Wayne speaking Tom Selleck's lines, but Selleck does an admirable job speaking them, and finds his own voice doing so. The rest of the cast is excellent as well. Since this is a traditional Western, some of the actors are stuck playing stereotypes, but as did their '50s-'60s counterparts, they work hard to bring these alive, to add the quirks that give them individuality, enough so to move the story along in fine dramatic fashion.And I think it a fine genre story, filled with wonder, suspense, thrills, drama, romance, humor. Pretty much the 'complete package' we came to expect Westerns to deliver back in their last golden age.We often say, "they don't make them like they used to." Well, here! They did it! They made one like they used to! Instead of complaining we should celebrate.