Official Synopsis
Arriving in Australia with nothing more than a saddle and his prized six-foot Sharps rifle, American sharpshooter Matthew Quigley thinks he’s been hired to kill off wild dogs. But when he realizes, instead, that his mission is murder – to “eliminate” the Aborigines from a wealthy cattle baron’s land – Quigley refuses and quickly turns from hunter to hunted. Forced to wage a savage war against his former employer, Quigley proves that no one gets the best of a steely-eyed American gunfighter – no one, that is, except the mysterious beauty (Laura San Giacomo, sex, lies, and videotape) who rides by his side and captures his heart.
I’m torn on this movie. I realize it’s popularity and I adore the fact that director Simon Wincer and Tom Selleck wanted to give a ‘rebirth’ to the western genre, but I have an issue with how quickly things develop in the film. You’ve got Quigley literally hopping off the boat from the United States and onto Australian land. He’s been hired to be a long range shooter, which is brilliant. He gets to town, scuffles a bit with the locals to show us how tough he is and how compassionate he can be towards a weaker soul who is getting picked on. This is very good character development and it already establishes a bit about who Quigley is as a person.
From that point on, things get a bit gray.
Quigley’s punching dummies turn out to be the helping hands of his newly found boss, Elliott Marston (played by Alan Rickman). Once the boys take Quigley to Martson for his ‘interview’ he quickly becomes a hit. Everything is fine and dandy until Marston tells Quigley what his job will be, which is basically shooting Aborigines that cross over Marston’s property to kill his livestock. Quigley takes offense to the idea and makes enemies with Rickman’s a-hole character.
There lies the issue. The beef of the story, which is the ‘elimination’ of the Aborigines, is shallow. I’m not saying that killing these native Australians is a pointless storyline, just getting to the overall impact of Quigley’s job by Marston is shallow. Quigley has nothing invested in the Aborigines. Up to this point in the story he has only been introduced to Marston’s servant, who doesn’t say a word. The idea of men shooting other men for killing their livestock isn’t something new, especially for a character that came from the old west, like Quigley did. Both things simply don’t add up enough for the reaction that Quigley gives Marston, and for Quigley’s defense of the defenseless population.
I’m not trying to be insensitive about the movie’s motivation to create Quigley into this hero, but develop it slowly. Let Quigley go on a ride with Marston’s boys and see how cruel they are to the Aborigines. Build it into this emotional set of moments that erupts into a full out rage on Marston. That would make a true ‘western’ feeling to Quigley’s persona and magnify his climb to warrior hero in the eyes of the Aborigines.
Regretfully, it’s too quick and the change from worker to hero is way too quick. The end fight is pretty cool, though (which I won’t get into).
Anyway, if you liked the film then you’re not interested in my opinion of the movie. You’re wanting to know how the Blu-ray turned out. Well, it didn’t do so hot. It’s plagued by artifacts and graininess in the picture. The HD rears its head when Quigley and crew find themselves out in the daylight, but there are still hits in the film and just a lot of unclean moments. MGM and 20th Century Fox apparently didn’t spend too much time in the transfer room on this one, which is disappointing. I realize that it’s a $19.99 release (and cheaper on Amazon), but still it should have looked far better than it turned out. Lionsgate is setting the bar with releases like The Crow, which is cheap and it looks damn good, that 20th Century Fox should follow suit on. No movie going to Blu-ray should look like it hasn’t been transferred properly.
Quigley, while not a huge moneymaker, deserved a bit more love on the HD side of things.
As for features, you’re getting a nice documentary called The Rebirth of the Western, which gives a bit more detail and insight on what the cast/crew were doing to bring the essence of the western genre to Quigley Down Under. After that, nothing much more.