Tagarchief: Gene Hackman

Dungeon Classics #4: The Quick and the Dead

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

The Quick and the Dead (1995, USA / Japan)

Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio
Running Time: 107 mins.

One of the my favorite movies! It’s just so damn entertaining. The story is about a sexy, female gunslinger (Sharon Stone) riding into the town of redemption to take revenge on local boss Herod (Gene Hackman). To do this, she has to enter a fast-draw contest in which the odds of surviving are about 3,2 percent. Five reasons I LOVE this movie:
1. The direction by Sam Raimi is top of the line. Never did he deliver more style and razzle-dazzle.
2. The camerawork. Every shot and angle is a little masterpiece. The gunfights are all shot in incredibly inventive ways.
3. The main cast and supporting cast are terrific. The chemistry and tension between Stone, Hackman, Crowe and DiCaprio is magnetic. And the supporting actors, gunfighters mostly, are hard, no impossible to forget.
4. The beautiful score by Alan Silvestri.
5. Some of the duels are the greatest scenes I’ve ever seen. This movie is scandalously underrated.

Fast Draw Competition ‘The Quick and the Dead’: Contestants and Results

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

The Quick and the Dead 00

The greatest sport in the world – which is forbidden since the days of the Old West – is fast-draw aka quick-draw. Well the deadly version at least. It is still played with special blanks or wax bullets nowadays. Not so exciting. I only wish there was a great movie about the true art of gunslinging.

Wait a minute: there is! ‘The Quick and the Dead’, a 1995 western directed by nobody less than Sam Raimi, the man who gave us the outrageously entertaining horror comedies ‘The Evil Dead’ and sequels back in the eighties and early nineties. ‘The Quick and the Dead’ featured great actors, such as Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. It is a magnificent revenge western in the style of ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’, but then Raimi style, featuring plenty of razzle dazzle and jaw dropping camera moves.

It is also a sport movie. Perhaps it is understandable that we don’t see this type of competition anymore, because there are some major drawbacks obviously. For example, unless you are the best you don’t get to play it many times. And even if you win, there won’t be many people around to witness your great victory. Better to stick with this movie then.

So who are the outlaws that battle it out in this underrated quick-draw flick? To refresh your memory about the participants and outcomes of this tournament see below (spoilers obviously):

Round 1

The Quick and the Dead - Round 1.1
The Quick and the Dead - Round 1.2
The Quick and the Dead - Round 1.3
The Quick and the Dead - Round 1.4

Round 2

The Quick and the Dead - Round 2.1
The Quick and the Dead - Round 2.2

Round 3

The Quick and the Dead - Round 3

Final

The Quick and the Dead - Final

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘They’re young… they’re in love… and they kill people.’

Directed by:
Arthur Penn

Written by:
David Newman, Robert Benton

Cast:
Warren Beatty (Clyde Barrow), Faye Dunaway (Bonnie Parker), Michael J. Pollard (C.W. Moss), Gene Hackman (Buck Barrow), Estelle Parsons (Blanche), Denver Pyle (Frank Hamer), Dub Taylor (Ivan Moss), Evans Evans (Velma Davis), Gene Wilder (Eugene Grizzard)

“I’ll tell you right now, I ain’t much of a lover boy.” That is what Clyde Barrow tells Bonnie Parker, a pretty waitress he just snatched from a dull Texas town after robbing a grocery store. Still, they fall in love and take off together and go on a crime spree with no ending in sight. It is the time of the Great Depression, and Bonnie and Clyde would soon belong to the most legendary gangsters of this period.

The people would read about these young robbers in the newspaper and they were fascinated. A large part of this fascination was due to the fact that these were young and beautiful people that were obviously sleeping together. Little did they know that Clyde almost never touches Bonnie (in the movie that is, in real life this is unlikely). Still without the sex, this is one hell of a sexy movie due to the appearance and performance of the two leads.

Bonnie and Clyde will now always be synonymous with violent young lovers on the run. For a long time they seemed to be uncatchable, and they caused terror and excitement everywhere they went. Very soon they were joined by other robbers, including Clyde’s brother Buck and his wife blanche (great performances by Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons), and ‘the Barrow Gang’ soon became the talk of every town between Texas and Louisiana.

Bonnie and Clyde became a controversial movie back in its time because of the violence (and sex, yes there is some despite Barrow’s initial reluctance). Especially the famous ending in which Bonnie and Clyde are riddled with bullets by law enforcers is still iconic in its depiction of graphic screen violence (and it inspired the way Sonny is killed in The Godfather). Bonnie and Clyde grew out to become an absolute classic in American cinema history. It is one of the 100 films selected for archiving in the AFI archive. It also won two Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Estelle Parsons).

Rating:

Quote:
BONNIE PARKER: “Your advertising is just dandy. Folks would never guess you don’t have a thing to sell.”

Trivia:
The hostage Eugene Grizzard is played by Gene Wilder. His girlfriend Velma Davis is played by Evans Evans, the daughter of director John Frankenheimer.