Quigley Down Under Parent Guide

Australian rancher Elliot Marsten (Alan Rickman) has put out an ad looking for the greatest sharpshooter in the world. He receives one response that interests him: his own ad, with 6 bullet holes in it, signed “M. Quigley, 900 yards”. When Quigley (Tom Selleck) arrives in Australia to meet Marsten, he discovers that Marsten isn’t interested in shooting wild dogs. He wants Quigley to hunt down the Aboriginal people who live around his ranch. Disgusted by this proposition, Quigley makes a break for it with a young woman from the ranch, Cora (Laura San Giacomo), who is convinced he is her husband. Evading Marsten’s murderous ranch-hands, keeping an eye on Cora, and trying to help the Aboriginal people along the way, Quigley will need to be as skilled a shot as he advertised…

This is a very standard Western, merely relocated to Western Australia. Grizzled men wearing stirrups, holding six-shooters, and spitting tobacco trudge through the dust and the heat, riding horses and firing at each other. Hard to go wrong with such a tried and true formula. Where it differs is in its more affectionate presentation of the Aboriginal Australians - while not a perfect representation, it’s certainly trying to be less offensive than the old American “Cowboys and Indians” stories. It also brings some much-deserved attention to the murderous consequences of the fraught relationship between European colonizers and the people with whom they came into contact.

Tom Selleck of Magnum, P.I. fame is perfectly cast as Quigley. Tall, capable, and heavily mustached, he alternates between bemused and aggravated facial expressions for the nearly two hour runtime - and it works! This isn’t a complicated character study, it’s a morally black and white Western, and all Selleck needs to do is look gruff and dusty. He does both perfectly. Laura San Giacomo is the heart of the movie as “Crazy” Cora, a truly tragic figure with a hard life and a brutal past. As always, though, the highlight is Alan Rickman, playing his standard demented villain. Whether it’s the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves or the businesslike terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Rickman is always the best part of any movie he’s in.

As far as family viewing goes, the only real problem here is the violence. While not completely over the top, people are graphically killed on numerous occasions, including unarmed women and children. This isn’t just random violence, though, and is contextually significant to the time and place the movie is set in. Although unsuitable for young children, teenagers and young adults will likely enjoy the cheesy fun of this by-the-books Western, its gunslinging villain, and its mustachioed hero.