The Quick and the Dead has a very distinct spark of originality that only Sam Raimi could add to it. The rules are well and truly broken in this wry tale which involves one of the first female gunslingers to be given a lead role.

The female outlaw played superbly well by Sharon Stone is on a path of revenge as she enters into a gun fighting competition in an attempt to kill the person that murdered her father (Gene Hackman). Along the way she encounters some original characters that would all play a pivotal part in the plot, for instance the outlaw turned preacher played by a relatively unknown Russell Crowe, and a fast gunslinger nicknamed the Kid played well by a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Even the infamous Tobin Bell (Jigsaw, Saw) makes an appearance as a fellow outlaw that has to face off against a female opposition in the competition.

In the typical Western women are looked upon as secondary characters, and are usually the damsels in distress or prostitutes. That stereotype is turned on its head fairly early on when Sharon Stone’s character knocks a bar owner from the top of his ladder while stocking a shelf for believing her to be a hooker. It is then expected when Gene Hackman’s character says ‘women can’t shoot for s**t’ that he is going to be made to eat his words.

Sam Raimi though doesn’t get caught up in the battling stereotypes and is able to craft an original story with plenty of twists and turns and a climax that changes from shocking to mesmerising several times with ease. It is a jewel in the Western crown, and should be placed up at the dizzy heights of the list with the likes of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and A Fist Full of Dollars.