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It’s a grand shame that THE QUICK AND THE DEAD continues to be unjustly appraised on account of media pedantry, flattened to an uninspired plot to become a byproduct of the ‘90s Western revival. It’s a film that demands intellectual excavation and not passive consumption, enriched by Sharon Stone’s inseparable personal dimension. We disregard the rigor with which she fought to produce this picture; the cinematic passion coursing through her veins; the erudite lyricism of her creative catharsis to abstractly draw upon her own experiences as a woman in Hollywood. Her influence cannot be ignored or excised, yet it’s spuriously dismissed as supplemental drivel. The magic and message are lost without necessary engagement, leveling a deeply intimate experience into something that’s more or less forgettable and homogenous.
Careful examination reveals a vague intentionality tailored to metaphorical projection, a fictional playscape over which Stone has free reign. The town is a fictional village symbolically named “Redemption,” which pointedly captures the film’s essence. An enigmatic outlaw known only as The Lady saunters back into town to avenge her father’s death, the only woman amongst a rowdy crowd of uncivilized heathens who sneer derisively. Her epithet is a roaring embodiment of sexual objectification — the men are clearly preoccupied by her sex and thus assign it to her identifying moniker. Its latent duality will prove symbolic as Stone begins to take pride in her womanhood, ultimately recontextualizing its use in exacting revenge.
In playing the Lady, Stone intimates queerness in a surprisingly sympathetic and progressive light. Her character revives the alegorical queerness of Western genre in rich tradition. An omitted sex scene between Stone and Cort strips the Lady of any tangible heterosexuality: Stone spares no affection for the men, and engages with them as if she were one herself. She rejects their callous cruelty with open hostility, revealing ethnographic instances that directly allude to firsthand frustrations as a woman working in male-dominated Hollywood. This addition broadens the film’s queerness to be a sort-of generalized catch-all, and in turn emphasizes how both gender and sexuality are marginalized.
These touches are what truly embolden THE QUICK AND THE DEAD and distinguish it from lackluster contemporaries. It’s loud without effort, profound without added dialogue, and rich in vulnerable authenticity in a way that is tremendously admirable. I have nothing but ardent respect for Sharon Stone, who continues to flaunt her innovative prowess as both a performer and an academic.
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