The Quick and the Dead (1995)

I think the thing that I appreciate the most about Sam Raimi is how he directs every movie like it’s his one and only shot at making a film of its kind. Even his Doctor Strange movie, which came out late enough in the Marvel line that most directors’ work within it is indistinguishable from their peers, felt like his movie, and that was his fifth comic book movie.

The Quick and the Dead is his western. It is distinctly, undeniably his, and his vision is so thoroughly realized that it makes me want to scream. A fucking feast of weirdos, scoundrels, and impossibly attractive people whose profession is treated like a fetish and whose tools are treated like fetish objects. Gene Hackman is one of the great bastards of the west. Sharon Stone’s hair. Sharon Stone’s hat! I will own a hat like her’s one day, and when that day arrives I will feel an indescribable power. I will be insufferable.