In the 1860s, Elite Wyoming sharpshooter Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck) answers a newspaper advertisement from a wealthy Australian cattle rancher offering an astronomical sum of money for a master rifleman.
Arriving in Western Australia with nothing but a saddle and his custom rifle, Quigley meets his employer, the tyrannical land baron Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman).
Marston reveals that he did not hire Quigley to shoot dingoes as implied, but rather to systematically exterminate the local Aboriginals to clear them off his land.
Horrified by the genocidal assignment, the deeply principled Quigley refuses the job and immediately punches Marston out of a window.
Marston’s thugs retaliate by beating Quigley unconscious and dumping him, alongside a traumatised eccentric American expatriate named “Crazy Cora” (Laura San Giacomo), deep in the barren Outback to die.
Rescued by the indigenous people Marston targeted, Quigley is nursed back to health. Armed with his specialised weapon – a massive, heavy, long-range Sharps rifle – he launches a one-man guerrilla war across the bush to dismantle Marston’s criminal empire and protect the local tribes.
More than 300 Aborigines from the Warlpiri, Anmutjirra, Luritja, Pintupi and Aranda tribes appear in the film.
Stunning cinematography and breathtaking Australian outback scenery set Quigley apart from traditional Westerns.
The screenplay for Quigley Down Under was actually written in 1974 as a starring vehicle for Steve McQueen.
After McQueen’s death, Harrison Ford was offered the lead role but turned it down because he considered it too similar to Indiana Jones.
The lead was then first offered to Selleck in 1985, but he had to turn it down because of his commitment to Magnum P.I. When the series concluded in 1988, he quickly asked if the role was still available, and accepted it.
“This ain’t Dodge City. And you ain’t Bill Hickok.”
Matthew Quigley
Tom Selleck Elliott Marston
Alan Rickman Crazy Cora
Laura San Giacomo Major Ashley-Pitt
Chris Haywood Grimmelman
Ron Haddrick Dobkin
Tony Bonner Coogan
Jerome Ehlers Hobb
Conor McDermottroe Brophy
Roger Ward O’Flynn
Ben Mendelsohn Kunkurra
Steve Dodd Slattern #1
Karen Davitt Slattern #2
Kylie Foster Reilly
William Zappa Sergeant Thomas
Jonathan Sweet Tout
Jon Ewing Miller
Tim Hughes Mullion
David Slingsby Mitchell
Danny Adcock Cavanagh
Maeliosa Stafford Carver
Ollie Hall Smythe
Danny Baldwin Scotty
Jim Willoughby Hayden
Spike Cherrie Whitey
Gerald Egan Cliff
Guy Norris Paddy
Mark Minchinton Oliver
Brian Ellison Bugler
Mark Pennell Tribal Elder 1
Nosepeg Tribal Elder 2
Billy Stockman Mrs Grimmelman
Evelyn Krape Klaus Grimmelman
Eamonn Kelly Little Bit
Cory Tjapaltjarri
Director
Simon Wincer
Video
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Marston reveals that he did not hire Quigley to shoot dingoes as implied, but rather to systematically exterminate the local Aboriginals to clear them off his land.
The screenplay for Quigley Down Under was actually written in 1974 as a starring vehicle for Steve McQueen.
