The Quick And The Dead

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General		Extras
Category	Western	Theatrical Trailer(s)	1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Running Time	105 minutes	Commentary Tracks	None
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Other Extras	None
Region	4
Distributor	Columbia Tristar
RRP	$34.95

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) English (Dolby Digital 2.0) French (Dolby Digital 5.1) French (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
Macrovision	Yes
Subtitles	English  French Dutch Arabic

    Various gunfights ensue, but the first dramatically interesting one involves Cort, where his principles are first put to the test. Cort kills his opponent, albeit somewhat unwillingly. The next interesting gunfight involves Lady versus a sleazy gunfighter who has just raped a little girl. It is clear that Lady is not a killer, but nonetheless, she dispatches the sleaze.

    Throughout the course of this film, Lady's past is slowly revealed to us in flashback sequences, but it is only towards the end of the movie that we begin to understand just what she is doing in Redemption, and in a very gruesome sequence that I won't describe, we get to fully comprehend her motivation. Herod also tries to understand what Lady is doing in town, but cannot find out.

    After several days, after most of the rest of the cast has been dispatched, only four gunfighters remain; Kid (Leonard DiCaprio), Herod, Lady and Cort. The Kid and Herod are matched up, which is a difficult match, since they are father and son. The Kid is killed.

    Next, Lady and Cort are matched up. Suffice it to say that a sneaky plan is drawn up, and Cort is matched with Herod for the final climactic showdown. Several twists await to keep you entertained, which I will not reveal.

Video

    The transfer was absolutely razor sharp at all times. Shadow detail was perfect, with a complete absence of low level noise.

    The colour was perfectly rendered. There are a lot of earthy colours in this transfer, and they all come up brilliantly.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. No film-to-video artefacts were seen; no aliasing, nothing. Other than one very small and trivial film artefact early on, there were no artefacts to speak of at all. This was a truly exemplary transfer, and earns a reference quality rating.

Audio

    Dialogue was always completely clear and intelligible.

    The musical score was frequently present, underscoring the action. It suited the film perfectly.

     The surround channels were used pretty much the entire time throughout the movie. They were used to create a truly superb ambient soundfield. There was almost always something going on in the surrounds, be it ambient sound effects, gunfire, or music. This soundtrack was truly enveloping.

    The .1 channel was used both to enhance the music, and to underscore the action sequences, and was excellent in doing so.

    Overall, this is one of the most enveloping and exciting soundtracks that I have had the pleasure of listening to, and earns a reference quality rating.

    The video quality is essentially faultless, and of reference quality. DVD doesn't get much better than this!

    The audio quality is also superb, with a wonderful, aggressive and enveloping sound field created.

    This DVD is significantly enhanced by the faultless video and aggressive, surrounding audio which made this DVD a greater pleasure to review than most that I review. This is a DVD you can use to show off your system, but not to young children, since it earns its MA rating!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Michael Demtschyna
10th November 1998