Backbencher

The movie Quigley Down Under is basically a Western filmed in Australia that features stars such as Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman, and other familiars. Quigley (Selleck) is an American that an Australian man hires to kill Aborigines. When Quigley refuses to do this deed, well you guessed it...trouble breaks loose. Quigley is beaten up and left for dead in the hot Australian desert (once again an excuse to show off the scenery). As Quigley and his friend Cora go through the story, they begin to form a sort of mateship (is that the right word in this case?). Cora's past was pretty interesting and part of her coping with it was what I thought made the movie somwhat emotional.

Tom Selleck did as good a job acting in this movie as he probably ever will. One actor that I thought was kind of funny was the 'Crazy Cora' lady that Quigley meets in Australia. She is kind of disillusioned in that she thinks that he is her long lost husband that has come to finally claim her. She then commences to follow him for the majority of the movie.

One thing I do like is a good "western" (whether Australian or American). It had beautiful scenery, as Australian movies always seem to manage. Westerns don't even have lots of violence, but it does have to retain those good old-fashioned American values that I love, where the hero always does good. Gun fights however, will always be a close second: I just loved when the showdown at the end (and as I've said before: revenge/justice is a good basis for plot in my book).

While I don't know enough about Australia to know if this sort of thing took place exactly like it did in the movie, it does seem pretty possible judging from all the other movies about Aboriginal prejudice and racism that I've seen. Overall, this was one of my more favorite movies I've watched this year. 9/10.