A few words about…™ The Quick and the Dead — in 4k UHD Blu-ray

Sam Raimi’s 1994 The Quick and the Dead is an entertaining tale of revenge, set in the style of ’60s spaghetti westerns – BCUs and all.

I’ve always liked this film, for it sets out a task for itself, and accomplished said task perfectly.

Reviews were unappreciative.

Here’s Roger Ebert’s take: “The [film] takes the premise of those old Tough Man Contests and moves it to the old West, where the sadistic despot of a small town holds a shoot-off every year. The rules are simple: The last man alive wins a big cash prize. It’s a movie that is intimately familiar with the conventions of Westerns, especially those rules that state: (a) when a Kid comes riding into town for a showdown with the big man, he is probably the man’s unacknowledged son, and (b) when a woman rides into town, also for a showdown, she is probably seeking revenge for a terrible wrong in the past.”

In this case, the “kid” is a then 19 year-old named DiCaprio, who looks to be closer to 16, the despot is Gene Hackman, and the woman riding into town is Sharon Stone, in an impressive turn.

What’s nice about Sony’s new 4k release of the Columbia / Tri-Star production is simple.

It’s absolutely reference quality.

Image is exemplary, with everything perfectly reproduced, and audio, now in Dolby Atmos, is based upon the original SDDS mix, which is extremely impressive, especially for spatial rendering.

I couldn’t be more pleased to retire my 2010 Blu-ray.

Image – 5

Audio – 5 (Dolby Atmos)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Highly Recommended

RAH