An old-fashioned Western with a twist being set in the Australian Outback, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER (1990), was my choice for this Western Night session.

Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck), a Wyoming cowboy with a specially designed Sharps buffalo rifle, travels to Australia to work for Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman), a rancher looking for an expert shot. When Marston tells Quigley he wants the Aborigines on his land eradicated, Quigley throws him out a window, starting a vendetta resulting in a classic Western tale about making things right.

From the moment we see him, Selleck exudes effortless authority. No sooner does he step off the ship at Perth, he encounters Crazy Cora (Laura San Giacomo), who’s mad for good reason, but demonstrates grit and gumption.

Rickman, who two years earlier was the villain you love to hate in DIE HARD, almost steals the show as an evil villain who fancies himself a Down Under version of Wild Bill Hickock.

Fresh off an Emmy win for LONESOME DOVE, Australian director Simon Wincer demonstrates a sure hand with both action and intimacy without over doing either. The Australian landscapes photographed by David Eggby are beautiful, even when they are dangerous.

With a running time of 119 minutes, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and on Amazon Prime.

Our group includes Johnny D. Boggs, record ten-time Spur Award-winning author and Owen Wister Award winner whose work includes his latest, BLOODY NEWTON; Kirk Ellis, Emmy winning screenwriter and producer, as well as author of THEY KILL PEOPLE about the making of BONNIE AND CLYDE; Kirk’s wife, Sheila; David Morrell, award-winning author and New York Times best-selling author of FIRST BLOOD, the novel that introduced the character Rambo; and Robert Nott, award-winning journalist abd author of several books on Western films, including RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY that examines the production, themes and legacy of the film that launched Sam Peckinpah’s career.

Watch the movie below, and drop a comment with your thoughts!