Sharon Stone is another gun in the old West town
It seems that she is here to pay off an old score that has haunted her since she was a child
She becomes swept up in a deadly quick-draw contest where anybody can challenge anybody in the windy dusty streets
The fighters must not draw until the clock makes the first chime of the hour
Whoever is standing after the draw is the winner
The prize is $123,000
The lawless town of Redemption is ruled by a despicable ironfisted gunman called John Herod who takes a lot to scare him
Hackman plays pretty well the kind people hate
He is, here, a fearless, sadistic, cold-blooded killer in charge of everything, who decides who lives or who dies
Herod wants a preacher in the tournament even if he has to beat, kick, and knock him to the ground to force him back into it
Cort humiliated and chained out by the fountainused to be pretty fast, faster than Herod
But now he wouldn't hurt a fly
He is a man of peace who has renounced violence
Years ago he was an outlaw
In fact, he was only a kid when he hitched up with Herod
He singled him out because he was a little smarter, a little faster than most
Now, he must revert to his former believes to survive
As Cort, Russell Crowe is saintly when compared to the movie's real villain
Cort tries to redeem himself, but gets enticed into the killing by Herod who is trying to prove that he's a fraud...
Several other men were just running a little errand for Herod
But Herod made an example of them all: the buffoon card shark (Lance Henriksen); the hired gun moseying into town to kill (Keith David); the teenager gunslinger who thinks he is on a different level (Leonardo DiCaprio).
Raimi succeeds through his shots of each gunfighter to show the worried and scared faces of each gunfighter, the clock counting away the time, and Herod's magnified evil smile
