The early 90s was the time when Hollywood's response to sexism was to cast women in the same, dumb action roles they'd been putting men in for decades, starting of course with
Thelma and Louise, and culminating, perhaps, with
Barbwire. In between those two films, they also decided to apply the formula with westerns.
Drew Barrymore,
Mary Stuart Masterson,
Madeline Stowe and
Andie McDowell starred in
Bad Girls in 1994, and
Sharon Stone came right on its heels as the slick gunslinger in 1995's
The Quick and the Dead. The film kind of languished at the box office as another PC statement, but now that time has past and we view the film out of that context, and out of
Bad Girls' unfortunate shadow, we can appreciate it for the fun and creative film it really is. And if we're willing to spend a little extra on an import, we can see even more of it.
Update 3/9/15 - 8/7/18: Sony has just come out with a 4k Ultra HD release of
The Quick and the Dead, so it's time to revive this post and see how things have improved (and, if you're interested, I also just added the missing Anchor Bay blu-ray to my
Day Of the Dead page). And since it's a combo-pack, that means we round out our comparisons with the US blu-ray, too. Unfortunately, could this all be a one step forward, two steps back situation?
Update 5/14/26: Forced subtitles, schmorced schmubtitles. Last year,
I bought a player with subtitle shifting, and the first thing I thought of was the uncut French UHD. It turns out that limited edition has gotten pretty hard to find, but I made my own by picking up the 2022 BD and 2023 UHD from L'atelier d'images (which are the exact same discs included in the original 2022 limited edition combopack). Scroll down to see how that works out.
Evil Dead fans were already excited to see it was that this film was directed by
Sam Raimi (and executive produced by
Robert Tapert), and it's full of his innovative style... something not always as evident in some of his later mainstream films. It's written by
Simon Moore, who also wrote the original
Traffik Masterpiece Theater miniseries, but it has the feel of a slightly more upscale
Brisco County Jr. episode (especially one episode in particular). That's not a criticism, though, that's a compliment, as the story is a lot of fun. A really exotic selection of gunslingers come from all across the west to compete in an ultimate gunfight, and they're portrayed by an amazing line-up of colorful character actors including
Gene Hackman,
Lance Henriksen,
Leonardo DiCaprio,
Keith David and
Russell Crowe. That's some big names, and that doesn't include all the other name actors who turn up in this film like
Gary Sinese,
Tobin Bell,
Woody Strode, and even
Scott Spiegel in a small cameo. The plot gets more complex and engrossing as we find out nearly ever character harbors a dark secret and another reason they need to be in the contest. It's really a great western by any definition.
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| UK-only footage... Bruce, is that you? |
All of us Raimi fans who saw this couldn't help but notice the name of one
Bruce Campbell in the closing credits. It especially stood out since he didn't appear to actually be in the movie. And there were also rumors of a Sharon Stone sex scene clipped from the movie. Well it turns out, we only had to go as far as the United Kingdom to find a longer version of the film, roughly 107 minutes, versus the US cut's 105. And all the differences come down to one solid chunk of film cut out around the 2/3s mark. Yes, it's a sex scene; but it's a lot more than that, too. After the flashback of Hackman killing her father, which we saw in the US version, the UK version now cuts to Stone storming into the saloon. A guy (Bruce Campbell? See the screenshot above) tries to shake her hand for her success so far in the contest and she pushes him into the bar, storming past him and up the stairs. She encounters a naked man (Stone's isn't the only nudity to be cut from the US cut) and starts kicking open the bordello bedroom doors, startling a number of people. There she finds a number of men roughing up Russell Crowe, who she rescues him from. She takes him into a room where they make love and spend the night, after she makes him promise not to kill Hackman before she can.
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| UK-only scene |
Now, I can see cutting the sex scene on the one hand... It feels a little Cinemax-y, and I understand Stone decided she didn't want it left in the film. But the problem is how much else had to come out with it. Up to that point, Stone had been very stand-offish towards Crowe, to say the least. Previously, Crowe was left out in the sun begging for water and she kicked it from him. And after this bit, they're now essentially teammates. In the US version, that's a very sudden, barely motivated shift in character dynamic; but it makes sense when you see the longer version where they've bonded and - critically - made their pact. So having lived with both versions of the film for some time now, I really do have to say that the the UK cut is the better film.
Right. Now, we've got the 2009 UK and 2022 French blu-rays here, and to make things interesting, in addition to just comparing them to the standard US 1998 DVD and 2009 BD, I thought I'd compare 'em to the 2003 Superbit DVD. What the heck is Superbit, you may ask? Let's have a look at the explanatory insert included inside the case.
Well, a Superbit DVD is... just a regular DVD that plays in a regular DVD player. What they've done is removed any special features, right down to the animated menus, and filled the disc with the movie only, so it has room to give the film a higher bit-rate. So is it the equivalent of a blu-ray or HD DVD? No. It's just a regular DVD, but with all of the space devoted to the film (although in this case, they did make the room for two audio tracks and five sets of subtitles). A few films were released as Superbit Deluxe, where the extras were included on a second disc. Now in the case of, say,
Desperados, where the film was originally a special edition forced on a single layer disc, the Superbit was a worthwhile improvement. But
The Quick and the Dead was dual-layered and only ever had the trailer as an extra. But at least the Superbit line implies that they're paying extra special close attention to the compression of the transfer, so maybe it's still a bit better.
And speaking of the compression of the transfer looking better, now we've got the 2018 US UHD and 2023 French UHD, which should blow all those other discs' compressions out of the water.
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1) US DVD (widescreen); 2) US DVD (fullscreen); 3) US Superbit DVD;
4) UK BD; 5) US BD; 6) US UHD; 7) FR BD; 8) FR UHD. |
Well, right off the bat, I'm surprised by how the color timing keeps changing across these older discs. The US DVDs are bluer, except the fullscreen, which is redder (how often do you see the colors differ on the same disc??). And the 2009 blu-rays are greener. It's certainly more noticeable in the top shot than the lower one, but it's present in both and throughout the film. Finally, the UHDs (and 2022 BD) come along, and we know it's going to have at least somewhat different colors for the HDR. And I have to say, Sony seems to have used this opportunity not just to give this film more vivid, stand-out colors, but the most authentic looking timing of all the releases to date. The framing is basically identical, however, with all versions - except the
fullscreen, obviously - slightly letterboxed to the proper 1.85:1 aspect
ratio. I say "basically," because the 2018 and newer discs, with the 4k scan, zoom out to reveal the tiniest of slivers along all four sides. And the fullscreen is a bit of a hybrid, losing some info on the
sides and gaining some on the top and bottom. It's definitely a less attractive image misframed at 1.33, though.
Otherwise, in terms of quality, it may not look like a huge difference; but the blus are a bit clearer and more detailed, and then the UHDs even more so. The two 2009 BDs and the two UHDs have matching transfers, and the 2022 BD has the same scan as the UHDs (not the previous BDs), but scaled down to 1080p with no HDR, of course. The fullscreen side of the DVD is a bit softer than the widescreen. Meanwhile, here's a smidgen extra detail and the haloing is much less invasive on the 2009 blus. While all of the pre-2018 releases are to some degree, the Superbit actually seems a little more edge enhanced than any of the
others, perhaps to make it look sharper than the previous DVD. Or maybe it's just because the edges are less obscured by extra compression. But the original DVD has an interlacing problem (look at the flames of the fullscreen to see an example, but the widescreen has it, too), which the SuperBit at least corrects, so it unquestionably would've been preferable to the DVD back in the day, if not hugely.
Of course, that distinction's academic now. All the blu-rays trump the DVD versions and the UHDs trump all the blus. It's not just a question of capturing grain, either, it genuinely affects the root image. Zoom in close to that first set of shots and you can see Crowe's features becoming even more life-like as you move down the page. You can actually make out the expression he's making with his mouth, which was previously just an unclear patch of pixels, even on blu.
But each version has rather different language options. The original DVD provides a French dub and English and French subtitles. The Superbit ditched the French dub but added Spanish, Portuguese and Korean subtitles to the mix. The initial blu-rays lack the French dub, but have Italian and Spanish ones, plus optional/ removable subtitles in: English, English SDH, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Portuguese and Swedish. As far as straight English audio, though, both DVDs offer 5.1 and 2.0 mixes, and the blus have DTS-HD 5.1. There's also a menu button to mute the music on the blu's menu screen, but it only actually worked in one of the three blu-ray players I tried it in. And the US UHD? It gives us the choice between a Dolby Atmos
TrueHD 7.1 mix or 5.1 DTS-HD mix for the English audio, plus the French
and Spanish dubs (in 5.1 DTS-HD), with optional English, French and
Spanish subs.
And that brings us to the French discs. They're pretty simple: both discs have the original English and French dub in 5.1 DTS-HD with French subtitles. That's it; none of the extraneous language options. But here's the important part: those French subs are forced (yes, on both discs). They're not burnt in, though, so you can watch without them if you play it on a computer, or have a player that can shift subtitles like my trusty Panasonic UB420P-K. But know what your equipment can do before you go down this right, or you may find yourself getting very frustrated. ...Although, with that said, unnecessary foreign subtitles aren't the worst thing in the world. Over the years, I've owned plenty of tapes and discs with 'em, and since it's presently the only way to watch the uncut version in 4k, you may find it worthwhile anyway. But that's the deal you'll have to make.
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| deleted scene |
And I previously wrote not to expect many extras 'round these parts; but that's something the French discs improve upon, too. The original DVD at
least has the trailer, which is more than you can say for the SuperBit
or 2009 blu-rays. And none of them have any other special features. It wasn't until the 2018 UHD that we finally got something more. Not a ton, but something, in the form of 7 deleted scenes. They run for just over five minutes and though they're presented in 1080p, though the source they're taken from shows a great deal of wear, and the sound is clearly not in the final mix stage. Stone walking in her gown is louder than the character's dialogue in one scene, and in two others, there are points where we see the character speak, but their dialogue just isn't there. Still, there are some interesting additions here, including DiCaprio trick-shooting the corks off champagne bottles, the blind kid's back story, and most welcome of all, the tale behind another one of the crazy gun slingers, Dog Kelly. Also, from the "Little Things That Count" department, the UHD brings back the film's trailer that the blu-rays discarded. It also comes in a nice slip cover. As far as that goes, the DVD had a nice fold-out insert, while the Superbit DVD also comes
in a slip cover and includes two inserts: the one from the regular DVD
and the other explaining Superbit. And the old BDs had bupkis.
And I should point out that the blu-ray in the 2018 combo-pack is the standard 2009 release. Same original menu, same label on the disc. What that means is that the enclosed blu-ray does not include the new transfer, trailer or the deleted scenes. So if you can't play 4k discs, but were thinking of just getting this to upgrade your blu, don't bother; you're out of luck.
But again, the French discs solve everything, though here's why you
might want to pick up the French 2022 BD in addition to the UHD if you
can't find the limited edition combopack. There are new extras, but
they're not on the UHD disc, just the blu. And again, be careful -
there was a 2009 French blu-ray from Sony that's the same as the US and
UK ones with the older scan and none of the extras, so don't get that!
But yes, first of all, the deleted scenes and trailer are on both french
discs; so those are locked in; we're not taking any steps backwards.
There's also two French-language featurettes, both with the same pair of
critics, that are entirely in French with no subtitles. So those are
only of interest if you're fluent. And for the record, there's a bunch
of French bonus trailers. But then there's a pretty great 20-minute
interview with Simon Moore, which is 100% in English. And there's the
original promo featurette with on-set B-roll and soundbites from the
cast and crew, which is of course English as well. The 2022 BD and the
combopack also come in slipcovers, though the 2023 UHD does not.
So just to be clear, none of the US discs, including UHDs, include the longer European cut. Most websites just say there is a "sex scene
between Ellen and Cort" excised from the US version, but I'd call that a
misleading understatement considering how much more happens in the cut
footage than sex. And no, that material isn't included in the seven deleted
scenes either. But now, if you're willing to put up with the subtitle thing, we've at least got the complete version in 4k with some extras that don't quite add up to a loaded special edition, but definitely add some legit value. Your call, partner. But whichever version you go with, it'll be a hell of a lot
better than
Bad Girls.
