A drifting gunslinger-for-hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town.A drifting gunslinger-for-hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town.A drifting gunslinger-for-hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis movie, like A Fistful of Dollars (1964), is a retelling of the story in Yojimbo (1961), which is itself based on Dashiell Hammett's 1927 novel "Red Harvest".
- GoofsSmith carries two Colt 45. s that hold 7+1 rounds or 14+2 rounds. Smith fires way more bullets than that.
- Quotes
Capt. Tom Pickett: Things in this town are out of control. Two gangs is just one too many. I'm not an idealist. I know a lot of things that people do are awful low, but that's between them and God. Do you believe in God? I believe in God, son. But what I'm concerned with is keeping a lid on things, and what we got here in Jericho is just way out of hand, and Sheriff Galt here can't do much about it, right? Matter of fact, it might be fair to say that he's part of the problem, right? Now you been going back and forth playing both sides according to Mr. Galt, here, making yourself a lot of money out of all this. Well, it's over, son. I'm coming back here in ten days, and I'm gonna bring about 20 rangers with me. I will tolerate one gang because that is the nature of things. A certain amount of corruption is inevitable. But if I find two gangs here when I get back, then in a couple of hours there will be no gangs here. So it's simple. One gang quits and goes home. You boys work it out. I don't give a damn which one.
John Smith: Just so long as one side leaves or maybe one side loses.
Capt. Tom Pickett: That's fine, too, son. Kill as many as you want. Just don't kill no innocent people around here. I wouldn't like that.
The Plot then is basically Bruce Willis's character playing both sides for whatever he can get. He is grimly cool in a certain way. The gangs then are the Irish, led by Doyle, and the Italians, led by Strozzi. These gangs are essentially copies of each other except for their names and accents, and perhaps their faces. The only difference of course being that Doyle has a psychotic second-in-command, or so we are told at the start of the movie. He, as a psychotic, is played by the true mother of all psychotic playing actors.... You guessed it, Christopher Walken, essentially playing Christopher Walken. The only other occupants of the town then are the sheriff, bartender, and undertaker.
In the end this is movie is certainly a dark one, although it is also not particularly serious in terms of realism. The atmosphere is extremely dark and grim as many characters are killed by Willis as well as Walken. It may actually be found depressing later on in the movie. However, contrary to this, the violence is often slightly comical. In one instance as many as forty bullets are needed to take down a character, and in others people, after having been shot by pistols, fly back several yards in the air. Something will certainly work for everyone who sees this movie, however only some will find all of these mixed aspects pleasurable when placed together as they have been here. This movie definitely employs major style, both in its shoot-outs and visual style. In parts of this film, the color has been diluted so much that it appears more or less selectively colored, such as in Sin City but not so much so. This will work for noir fans as well as those who find this bold style innovative and original, but others will find that it contributes more-so merely to the grim nature of this movie. The shoot-outs, undeniably are the best part of this movie and is all you desire is some good action then this movie fills that desire well. While this movie prefers darkness over fun, the stylistic and violent gunfights as well as the dark style will appeal to many, as it has to me. 7/10
- Patedwalters
- Jul 8, 2007
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $67,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $18,115,927
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,010,333
- Sep 22, 1996
- Gross worldwide
- $47,267,001
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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