One of the cleverest ideas for a Western movie ever.

Set in 1881, the film follows The Lady (Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct), 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, Unforgiven), 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, Titanic), a young gunslinger with something to prove, and Cort (Gladiator's Russell Crowe in his first US movie), Herod's former protégé when he was an outlaw.

Cort has since renounced violence but is forced to take part in the competition by Herod.

There is also Ace Hanlon (Lance Henriksen, Aliens), a flamboyant gunfighter who specialises in trick shots, and Sergeant Clay Cantrell (Keith David, They Live), a professional shootist hired by the terrified town folk to kill Herod.

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

The central duelling competition essentially enables director Sam Raimi (Send Help) 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 cinema ever, for his movie's entire 108-minute runtime.

Despite all the incredible talent on display in The Quick and the Dead, the film 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 fatigued with the genre.

Since then, however, The Quick and the Dead has received critical reassessment, growing in many reviewers' estimations.

The Quick and the Dead is airing on TV tonight on the channel Legend at 11.05pm. It's also available to rent on Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video, Rakuten TV and the Sky Store.

The Quick and the Dead Trailer

Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight:

Bonnie and Clyde - BBC Four - 9pm

Gene Hackman is among the cast again of this legendary '60s biographical drama film, which earned him his first Oscar nomination.

Hot Fuzz - ITV4 - 9pm

Edgar Wright's action comedy starring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, which JOE previously called “the greatest comedy of the 2000s”.

White House Down - Film4 - 9pm

This might be a hot take, but we enjoy this Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx action flick better than the similarly plotted Olympus Has Fallen.

Crocodile Dundee - Comedy Central - 9pm

"That's not a knife. That's a knife."

The Beguiled - Legend - 9pm

The excellent Clint Eastwood-led '70s Southern Gothic thriller, which was later remade with Colin Farrell.

The Devil's Own - Legend Xtra - 9pm

The ’90s thriller about the IRA starring Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford, which got mixed reviews.

Let It Snow - BBC Two - 11pm

Megan 2.0's Ivanna Sakhno stars in this horror thriller about snowboarders in a remote area of Georgia (the country, not the US state).

Sicario 2: Soldado - Film4 - 11.35pm

An underrated action thriller sequel, which we also recommend.

Turn your home into a cinema with this projector 

Do you love movies? Have you ever dreamt of turning your home into your own cinema?

If so, then you may be interested in a home theatre projector we spotted on sale on Amazon with “impressive quality”.

The 4K projector has the likes of YouTube, Netflix and Prime Video built-in, so you can access thousands of films and shows without an additional TV stick, and you can also connect it to Bluetooth on your phone and laptop.

It’s currently priced from €36.99 on the Amazon website.

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