The Quick and the Dead

Sound plays an important role in this movie. The click before the clock strikes 12 that the preacher asks the lady to listen to. The click of the lady's small gun that the Mayor heard when she accepted his invitation to his house and went there in her lovely dress. The click of the mayor's lighter when the lady went running out of his house hinting to her that he has heard her gun's click and that he knows she has a gun.

The movie is about ruling people with fear. That's what the mayor did. The mayor got his power out of the fear of the people. He was powerful himself because he had no fear. He tells the lady that ever since his father passed a gun around his family asking everyone to attempt to shoot himself, nothing in the world made him afraid after that day. His father being a man of the law is ironic. He represents the exact opposite, lawlessness. When the lady finally kills him at the end of the movie and hands over the sheriff's star to the preacher she say "Law has come back to town." By eliminating the symbol of lawlessness, law has come back.

The presence of the preacher's character is there to be a foil for the mayor. The preacher, though he has the urge to kill and is brought up as an outlaw, yet he takes the path to redemption. He has changed. This is significant, it says that the mayor has no excuse for being cruel and bad like he is, for there exists a path for changing to the good if he just chooses to take it.

The mayor's son is an interesting element in the movie. He represents the need for recognition. He is so sure of himself. He has no fear, but this does not prevent him from dying at the end. He is just not fast enough. By planning a trick and collaborating with the preacher, the lady is able to finally kill the mayor. She overcomes her fears after wearing the sheriff's star. As if now she represents law and order.

The music in the background is wonderful. A special note is played every time a victory comes to the good guys. Slow motion is used wonderfully to play another game with time.

Time is played with skillfully in the movie. The clock symbolizes time. Speed is what makes the difference between life and death in the movie. Slow motion is used to show split seconds in detail. Timing is also important in the movie. The exact time at which the tops of buildings blew up near the end of the movie is crucial to the success of the good guys' plan. The plan is not only made by the preacher and the lady, but by the people of that small town. The 'doctor' checks the lady's body after she falls and says she is dead acting as if he was sad.

The movie also uses the sense of suspense and reveals information bit by bit not all at once. We know what happened to the lady when she was a child only gradually. The final part where she misfires killing her father when she was a child is only revealed near the end of the movie. It was the perfect timing for revealing it so that the audience could find it quite fair to kill the mayor and would want that strongly. In addition, we get to know gradually that the mayor suspects that his son is really his. We get to know the truth at the last moment when his 'son' is dying.

The movie is brilliant. With only a few characters and a cowboy setting, the movie represents violence and lawlessness wherever it happens in the world. As if the movie is sending a message that injustice backed by power can only be removed by brave justice backed by power. It says that fear can be present in the good guys but that it can still be overcome.