The Quick Cut and the Dead Genre

So few good westerns are made anymore. And all of the good ones made lately seem to feature Gene Hackman. Sam Raimi's "The Quick and the Dead" faces Gene Hackman off against the likes of Sharon Stone and Leonardo DiCaprio and Russel Crowe (before they were "Leo" and "that Bud White guy"). Raimi, well known for his "Evil Dead" films and the Academy Award-nominated "A Simple Plan," tries to reinvent the genre with the story of a town run by outlaws featuring a quick draw contest.
His first step is a female protagonist. Sharon Stone puts on the slow burn, alternating menace with tenderness as a woman come to town for revenge. Raimi does not merely stick a woman in and expect us to accept it. Frequently, the concept of a female gunslinger is brought into question. When Stone tries to join the contest, the barkeep says, "No Women. The rules forbid it." Hackman, as the host of the contest, laughs this off. "There's nothing in the rules about women. It's just that women can't shoot."
Raimi also tries to update the genre with interesting camera tricks. This is far less successful. Too often, these are merely distracting. In particular, the near constant zoom-ins of the gunfights are irritating both in their repetitiveness and the way they stand out.
These technical aspects, however, are easy to overlook in light of a solid, tight story and great performances. The story is somewhat predictable, but such is often part of the Western genre. Hackman is at his usual high level of performance, but DiCaprio and Crowe nearly steal the show. DiCaprio is charming as the young gunfighter who thinks he can never lose. Crowe, as a gunfighter turned preacher, gives us a far more subdued and frightened performance than we've seen in his later work.
On the whole, this film is an enjoyable Western filled with great actors in good roles. It is both fun and satisfying. The distracting camera work is but a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent film.