''Quigley Down Under'' is a 1990
western film
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
directed by
Simon Wincer
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
and starring
Tom Selleck
Thomas William Selleck (; born January 29, 1945) is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series ''Magnum, P.I.'' (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations f ...
,
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his deep, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespe ...
, and
Laura San Giacomo
Laura San Giacomo (born November 14, 1962) is an American actress. She played Cynthia in the film ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' (1989) for which she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, Kit De Luca in the film ''Pretty Woman ...
.
Plot
Matthew Quigley is an American cowboy with a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. Seeing a newspaper advertisement that asks for a man with his special talent, he answers using just four words: "M. Quigley 900 yards", written on a copy of the advertisement that is punctured by six closely spaced bullet holes.
When he arrives in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, then part of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, he gets into a fight with employees of the man who hired him as they try to force "Crazy Cora" onto their wagon. After he identifies himself, he is taken to the station of Elliot Marston, who informs Quigley his sharpshooting skills will be used to eradicate the increasingly elusive
Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
. Quigley turns down the offer and throws Marston out of his own house. When the Aboriginal manservant knocks Quigley over the head, Marston's men beat him and Cora unconscious and dump them in the
Outback
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...
with no water and little chance of survival. However, they are rescued by Aborigines.
Cora now reveals that she comes from
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. When her home was attacked by
Comanches
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
, she hid in the root cellar and accidentally suffocated her child while trying to prevent him from crying. Her husband had then put her alone on a ship to Australia. Now Cora consistently calls Quigley by her husband's name (Roy), much to his annoyance.
When Marston's men attack the Aborigines who helped them, Quigley kills three. Escaping on a single horse, they encounter more of the men driving Aborigines over a cliff. Quigley drives them off with his deadly shooting and Cora rescues an orphaned baby she finds among the dead. Leaving Cora and the infant in the desert with food and water, Quigley rides alone to a nearby town. There he obtains new ammunition from a local German gunsmith, who hates Marston for his murdering ways. Quigley learns as well that he has become a legendary hero among the Aborigines.
Marston's men are also in town and recognize Quigley's saddle. When they attack, cornering him in a burning building, he escapes through a skylight and kills all but one of them. The injured survivor is sent back to say Quigley will be following. But first Quigley returns to Cora and the baby, which she has just saved from an attack by
dingoes
The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient ( basal) lineage of dog found in Australia. Its taxonomic classification is debated as indicated by the variety of scienti ...
. She had tried to stop that child from crying too, but finally let him make as much noise as he liked as she killed the animals using a revolver that Quigley had left for her. Back in town, Cora gives the baby to Aborigines trading there after Quigley tells her that she (Cora) has a right to happiness.
Next morning, Quigley rides away to confront Marston at his station. At first he shoots the defenders from his location in the hills, but is eventually shot in the leg and captured by Marston's last two men. Marston, who has noticed that Quigley only ever carries a rifle, decides to give him a lesson in the "quick-draw" style of gunfighting. However, Marston and his men are beaten to the draw by Quigley; as Marston lies dying, Quigley refers to an earlier conversation, telling him, "I said I never had much use for one
revolver never said I didn't know how to use it."
Marston's servant comes out of the house and gives Quigley his rifle back, then walks away from the ranch, stripping off his western-style clothing as he goes. An army troop now arrives to arrest Quigley, until they notice the surrounding hills are lined with Aborigines and decide to withdraw. Later Quigley and Cora book a passage back to America in the name of Cora's husband, since Quigley is still wanted. On the wharf, she reminds him that he once told her that she had to say two words before he could make love to her. Smiling broadly, she calls him "Matthew Quigley" and the two embrace for the first time.
Cast
*
Tom Selleck
Thomas William Selleck (; born January 29, 1945) is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series ''Magnum, P.I.'' (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations f ...
as Matthew Quigley
*
Laura San Giacomo
Laura San Giacomo (born November 14, 1962) is an American actress. She played Cynthia in the film ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' (1989) for which she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, Kit De Luca in the film ''Pretty Woman ...
as Crazy Cora
*
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his deep, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespe ...
as Elliott Marston
*
Chris Haywood
Chris Haywood (born ) is an English-born Australian actor, writer and producer, with close to 500 screen performances to his name. Haywood has also worked as a casting director, art director, sound recordist, camera operator, gaffer, grip, l ...
as Major Ashley-Pitt
*
Ron Haddrick
Ronald Norman Haddrick (9 April 1929 – 11 February 2020) was an Australian actor, cricketer, narrator and presenter. In 2012, he received the Actors Equity Lifetime Achievement Award for his long and distinguished career in media, spanning s ...
as Grimmelman
*
Tony Bonner
Anthony Frederick Bonner (born 23 November 1943) is an Australian television, film and stage actor and singer. Bonner became famous in the 1960s children's television series '' Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'', later moving on to lead roles in the ...
as Dobkin
*
Jerome Ehlers
Jerome Ehlers (20 December 1958 – 9 August 2014) was an Australian actor and writer. He graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1987.
Ehlers died in Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New So ...
as Coogan
* Conor McDermottroe as Hobb
*
Roger Ward
Roger Ward (born 1936) is an Australian actor who has had a considerable career in film and television, noted for "tough guy" roles in which he often did his own stunts.
Biography
Ward was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1936.
His car ...
as Brophy
*
Ben Mendelsohn
Paul Benjamin Mendelsohn (born 3 April 1969) is an Australian actor. He first rose to prominence in Australia for his breakout role in ''The Year My Voice Broke'' (1987) and since then he has had roles in films such as '' Animal Kingdom'' (2010) ...
as O'Flynn
*
Steve Dodd
Steve Dodd (1 June 1928 – 10 November 2014) was an Indigenous Australian actor, notable for playing indigenous characters across seven decades of Australian film. After beginning his working life as a stockman and rodeo rider, Dodd was g ...
as Kunkurra
* Karen Davitt as Slattern
* Kylie Foster as Slattern
* William Zappa as Reilly
*
Jonathan Sweet as Sergeant Thomas
* Ollie Hall as Carver
Production
Development
John Hill John Hill may refer to:
Business
* John Henry Hill (1791–1882), American businessman, educator and missionary
* John Hill (planter) (1824–1910), Scottish-born American industrialist and planter
* John Hill (businessman) (1847–1926), Austral ...
first began writing ''Quigley Down Under'' in 1974. He was inspired by a ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' article about the genocide of the aborigines in 19th-century Australia. Although Westerns were in decline in the 1970s, Hill said that the script "opened a lot of doors for me," and led to other assignments.
The script was first optioned in 1979 by producer Mort Engelberg for
Steve McQueen
Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...
, with whom he teamed on ''
The Hunter''; however McQueen died of cancer shortly after completing ''The Hunter''. The script was bought by CBS Theatrical Films where it was attached to director
Rick Rosenthal
Richard L. Rosenthal, Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American film instructor and director, known for directing '' Halloween II'' and '' Halloween: Resurrection''.
Early life, family and education
Rosenthal was born in New York City, the son o ...
. It then went to Warner Bros with
Tom Selleck
Thomas William Selleck (; born January 29, 1945) is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series ''Magnum, P.I.'' (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations f ...
to star and
Lewis Gilbert
Lewis Gilbert (6 March 1920 – 23 February 2018) was an English film director, producer and screenwriter who directed more than 40 films during six decades; among them such varied titles as '' Reach for the Sky'' (1956), ''Sink the Bismarck!' ...
to direct around 1987. Warner Bros had the script for three years but then dropped their option. The script then became the subject of bidding between Pathe Entertainment, Disney and Warner Bros. It sold to
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...
for $250,000 which Hill said "is pretty good, when you consider that for 15 years I'd been making money optioning and rewriting that screenplay."
[A Long, Dusty Trail for Selleck and Aussie Western Movies: John Hill's script for 'Quigley Down Under' endured a 15-year journey before hitting the big screen. BROESKE, PAT H. Los Angeles Times 19 October 1990: 12.]
Pathé's then head of production,
Alan Ladd Jr., agreed to commit a $20 million budget. Selleck agreed to star and the director was an Australian, Simon Wincer.
Wincer felt a good story had been ruined by numerous rewrites from people who knew little about Australian history, so he brought on Ian Jones as writer. They went back to the original draft, re-set it from the 1880s to the 1860s and made it more historically accurate.
[Scott Murray, "Simon Wincer: Trusting His Instincts", ''Cinema Papers'', November 1989 pp. 6–12, 78]
Shooting
The firearm used by Quigley (Selleck) is a custom 13.5 pound (6 kg), single-shot, 1874
Sharps Rifle
Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore, single-shot, falling-block, breech-loading rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848 and ceasing production in 1881. They were renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle wa ...
, with a 34-inch (860 mm) barrel. The rifle used for filming was a replica manufactured for the film by the
Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company
Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company is a firearms manufacturer located in Big Timber, Montana, United States.
The company produces a line of reproductions of various historical black-powder rifles, including the legendary 1874 Sharps Rifle, featu ...
of
Big Timber, Montana
Big Timber is a city in, and the county seat of Sweet Grass County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,650 at the 2020 census.
Big Timber takes its name from Big Timber Creek, which was named by William Clark because of the large cot ...
. In 2002 Selleck donated the rifle, along with six other firearms from his other films, to the
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
, as part of the NRA's exhibit "Real Guns of Reel Heroes" at the
National Firearms Museum
The NRA National Firearms Museum is a museum located at the NRA Headquarters Building in Fairfax County, Virginia. Approximated 2,500 guns are displayed in 15,000 square feet. The NRA National Firearms Museum is operated by the Museums Division of ...
in
Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...
.
The film was shot entirely in Australia. Scenes were filmed in and around
Warrnambool
Warrnambool ( Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Al ...
and
Apollo Bay, Victoria
Apollo Bay is a coastal town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the eastern side of Cape Otway, along the edge of the Barham River and on the Great Ocean Road, in the Colac Otway Shire. The town had a population of 1,790 at ...
.
Although several scenes of the story depict violence and cruelty toward and involving animals, a film spokesperson explained that no animal was harmed, and special effects were used. For example, Quigley and Cora are reduced to consuming "grub worms" (actually blobs of dough) for survival. A pack of dingoes attacks Cora, and she finally saves herself by shooting the animals. Those animals were specially trained, and were actually "playing" for that scene, which was later enhanced by visual and sound effects. Several scenes involve falling horses; they were performed by specially-trained animals and were not hurt. When a horse falls off a cliff, the "horse" was a mechanical creation. The film's producer stated that a veterinarian was on the set whenever animals were being used in filming.
Reception
Critical responses were mixed, with ''Quigley'' having a 55% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
from 20 reviews.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of ''The Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, writing it was a well-made but formulaic neo-western. He particularly praised the performances of Rickman and San Giacomo, saying "
is may be the movie that proves her staying power."
The film, however, was not a financial success in theaters, roughly recouping its budget.
The film, and, more specifically, the protagonist's skill with his rifle, has led
sniper
A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...
s to refer to the act of killing two targets with a single bullet as "a Quigley".
Awards and nominations
See also
*
Cinema of Australia
The cinema of Australia had its beginnings with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received internati ...
References
External links
''Quigley Down Under''at Oz Movies
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{{Authority control
1990 films
1990 Western (genre) films
1990s adventure drama films
Australian drama films
Australian Western (genre) films
Films set in Western Australia
Films set in colonial Australia
Films shot in Victoria (Australia)
1990s English-language films
Films scored by Basil Poledouris
Films directed by Simon Wincer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Films set in the Outback
1990 drama films