A cult classic Western movie is airing on TV tonight

We'd argue there has never been a more clever idea for a Western movie.

Set in 1881, the film follows The Lady (Sharon Stone), a mysterious woman who arrives in the Old West town of Redemption. It soon becomes clear she seeks vengeance against the town’s mayor, John Herod (Gene Hackman), a former outlaw who now rules with an iron fist.

Believing himself the fastest gun in the West, Herod launches a deadly duelling tournament where anyone can challenge anyone, no challenge can be refused, and each fight ends only when someone yields or dies.

The Lady enters the competition, facing Herod and a rogues’ gallery of colourful opponents.

The most pivotal of these are The Kid (a fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio), a young gunslinger with something to prove, and Cort (Russell Crowe in his first US movie), Herod's former protégé when he was outlaw who has since renounced violence but is forced to take part in the competition.

There is also Ace Hanlon (Lance Henriksen), a flamboyant gunfighter who specialises in trick shots, and Sergeant Clay Cantrell (the truly never bad Keith David), a professional shootist hired by the town folk to kill Herod.

Written by British writer Simon Moore (Traffik) as a tribute to Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti Westerns - The Lady is essentially a gender-swapped version of Eastwood's Man with No Name - there is an argument to be made that the central premise of The Quick and the Dead is the most ingenious in Western cinema history.

This is because its central duelling competition essentially enables the movie to capture the tension of the climactic stand-off scene in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - one of the most famous moments in films ever - for its entire 108-minute runtime.

Despite all the incredible talent on display in The Quick and the Dead, the movie was not a huge box office success or hit with critics.

It perhaps suffered from coming after a wave of Westerns - Dances with Wolves, El Mariachi and its follow-up Desperado, Far and Away, Geronimo, Tombstone, Unforgiven, Wyatt Earp, Young Guns and its sequel - which may have left audiences a bit fatigued with the genre.

And though it has since received a critical reassessment, growing in many people's estimations, it feels like the Western should be a bigger deal.

The Quick and the Dead is airing on Legend at 9pm tonight.

Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight:

The Fugitive – RTÉ Two – 9pm

Thriller, starring Harrison Ford, an Oscar-winning Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore and Joe Pantoliano.

White House Down – Virgin Media Two – 11.50pm

A policeman is turned down for his dream job as a secret service bodyguard to the president. 

'71 – Channel 4 – 1.15am

A British soldier deployed to Belfast in 1971, almost immediately finds himself caught up in a riot. 

Lethal Weapon 3 – ITV4 – 10pm

Action thriller sequel, starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci and Rene Russo.

Money Plane – Legend Xtra – 11.35pm

A professional thief who owes the mob money is forced to rob a futuristic flying casino filled with the world's most dangerous criminals.