Quigley Down Under
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| Quigley Down Under | |
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 The movie poster |
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| Directed by | Simon Wincer |
| Starring | Tom Selleck Laura San Giacomo Alan Rickman |
| Release date(s) | 1990 |
| Running time | 119 min. |
| Country |  Australia |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Quigley Down Under is a somewhat comedic western film theatrically released in 1990. It was originally intended to star Steve McQueen in 1980, but after an illness by the star the project was suspended and not filmed until a decade later. Directed by Simon Wincer, the film runs 119 minutes, and is rated PG-13 in the United States.
[edit] Plot
Tom Selleck plays the titular Matthew Quigley, a cowboy and gunman from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is an 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle which fires .45-110 paper patch black powder cartridges. Its barrel is 34 inches long, which makes it four inches longer than an unmodified rifle. He answers an advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long distance shooting, the job being in Australia. He travels by boat the great distance to Australia, then is met by employees of the man who hired him, Elliot Marston, and taken to Marston's ranch a great distance into the Australian Outback.
Alan Rickman plays his nemesis, Elliot Marston. Marston is a gentleman infatuated with stories of quick-draw gunslingers from the American Old West, believing himself to have been born on the wrong continent, and amazed that Quigley has actually been to Dodge City. He hires Quigley to come to Australia in the hopes that Quigley will use his sharpshooting skills to help eradicate the native aborigines. Quigley finds the idea abhorrent and the two men are quickly headed for a showdown.
Laura San Giacomo provides comic relief and a love interest as "Crazy Cora." Having suffered a terrifying personal tragedy some years before the film's story begins, Cora appears to think that Quigley is her estranged husband, Roy. By the film's end, the viewer is left with some doubt as to how crazy she really is.
After Quigley turns Marston down, Marston has his men dump Quigley and Cora in the Australian Outback with no water and little chance of survival. Thanks to the possibly magical help of a group of aborigines, Quigley and Cora survive to rescue other aborigines from Marston's men, including an orphaned baby who helps Cora overcome her tragic past. As the story progresses, Marston loses more and more men to Quigley until the final showdown, which leaves Quigley standing to face a hostile British major. Again with the help of the aborigines, Quigley survives. The movie ends with Quigley and Cora purchasing passage on the next ship to America.
The film engendered a rapid rise in interest in the use of black powder, cartridge firing rifles for Metallic silhouette shooting competitions.
[edit] Trivia
- The famous firearm that is used by the main character Matthew Quigley is a replica model 1874 Sharps Rifle, manufactured for the film by the Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company of Big Timber, Montana. Tom Selleck later donated the rifle to the National Rifle Association as a fund-raising item.
- The film was to have been Steve McQueen's follow-up to The Hunter (1980), but he fell ill shortly after filming The Hunter, so the project was scrapped.
- "Old Painless", the creator of "The Box O' Truth" website owns a replica rifle. He ordered the weapon special after watching this movie. It has been the most powerful weapon he used in his tests so far.
[edit] External links
 Cinema of Australia |
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Film chronology: 1890s-1930s • 1940s-1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s |
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