Reviews (61)

A Typical and Atypical Western
"Quigley down Under" stars Tom Selleck in the title role as an American sharpshooter who answers a help wanted poster for the best rifleman in the world. The job is in Australia and Quigley travels there not knowing exactly what the job is.

When he arrives in Australia, Quigley meets Crazy Cora, played by Laura San Giacomo. Cora is a slightly deranged American who believes Quigley to be her husband Roy. Cora continues to believe Quigley to be Roy even after he insists his name is Matthew Quigley.

When Quigley finally meets his new employer, Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman), he is disgusted to find out that Marston wants him to shoot Aborigines. Cora has become the self-designated defender of the Aborigines and gets abused by Marston for it. Quigley intervenes and winds up roughing Marston up a bit. Marston then has Quigley and Cora beaten and left in the desert to die.

"Quigley down Under" becomes, after this, a set piece movie about good versus evil. This is typical of the Western genre. In this Western though the good guys are a little "gooder" than usual. Both Quigley and Cora are pure hearts who only want what's right for the Aborigines. Cora is more determined to see it happen while Quigley is only interested in it so far as it gets him out of Australia alive.

The most interesting part of the movie is the relationship between Quigley and Cora. In most Westerns the woman is a one-dimensional cutout whose only raison d'etre is to stand by in horror as her man goes out to fight the bad guy. However, Cora is a fully fleshed out individual with both a history before Quigley and an existence independent of him. She still does the "stand by in horror" thing; but, it's with a sense of grace and composure you don't often get from that role.

From that relationship between Quigley and Cora is where I derive my four-star rating. Absent it, this movie would only get two stars from me. The Western is one of the most overdone genres in the cinema. To be able to find a unique spin on it after so many have been done is a well accomplished task.

Another plus for "Quigley down Under" is its cast. The three main players in this movie; Selleck, San Giacomo, and Rickman; are all first-rate actors. That Tom Selleck has not become a film star similar to Tom Cruise or Robert De Niro amazes me. He has an ability to fill a screen like so few actors can. The one actor who comes to mind by way of comparison is Charlton Heston. They both have that ability to project the necessary emotions and feelings of a scene without much effort. Laura San Giacomo is also another actor that I have a hard time figuring out why she hasn't become a star. Her portrayal of Crazy Cora in "Quigley" should have been a springboard to better roles but it hasn't panned out. Rickman is probably the one from this movie to have the best movie career to date. Rickman is one of the best bad guys going and even when he plays an angel ("Dogma") he still has that sideways sneer that makes you wonder what kind of a criminal he would be if he didn't find acting.

"Quigley down Under" is not your typical Western, which is why it might not be for those who enjoy movies like "Unforgiven" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales". However, it is a good movie from a non-Western genre standpoint and one that I'd recommend.

Tom Selleck's best ever
Like many TV actors, "Quigley"'s star Tom Selleck gave much attention, during and after his small-screen career, to attempting to break into movies. If he'd been born in 1926, instead of 1946, he would probably have gained fame, not as Thomas Magnum, but in Western films and/or TV series like this one. Quigley is the role he was born to play, and in Quigley's adventures he has made, to my mind, the best movie of his career.

This slam-bang actioner, though often labelled a "Western," actually takes place, not in the American West, but in the Crown Colony of Western Australia, probably around 1875 (there are still convicts there). Selleck plays Matthew Quigley, a soft-spoken marksman from Wyoming, who answers an advertisement by Australian rancher Marston (Alan Rickman) for "the finest long-distance marksman in the world." After three months on a sailing ship, he steps ashore at the port of Fremantle, where he promptly gets into a brawl with what turn out to be three of Marston's men, come to meet him, and is mistaken by displaced "native-born Texian" Crazy Cora Cobb (Laura San Giacomo) for her husband Roy. At Marston Water he offers a display of his skill with his primary weapon, a customized Sharps .45 buffalo gun, and impresses everyone, including Marston, who describes himself as "a student of your American West" and is a fast draw, pinpoint-accurate, and quietly proud of it. Only now does Quigley find out that he was being hired, not to kill dingoes (Australian wild dogs) as he thought, but to clear Marston's lands of the native Aboriginies. He promptly throws Marston out the French window of his own house, but is eventually overwhelmed by Marston's crew and, with Cora, taken out to the desert to die. Managing to kill the two men who fetched them there, he recovers his rifle and big Stetson, but loses the buckboard and horses. Trying to walk out, he and Cora are found by a clan of Aboriginies, who take them in, and when a group of Marston's men appears to hunt the natives down, Quigley takes up his Sharps in their defense. Eventually he eliminates Marston and all but three of his men in a sort of one-man "long hunt," climaxed by a shootout in which, though wounded and battered and admitting that he "never had much use" for handguns (he doesn't even carry one), he kills three men so fast that his shots sound like one.

Though there's a good deal of violence in this video--in fact, it will probably be too intense for kids under the age of 12 or so--none of it is gratuitous: each instance either serves to further the story in some way or is portrayed as an inevitable result of the choices and character of the person acting or being acted against. Selleck's Quigley is a '90's version of the classic John Wayne hero: soft-spoken, quietly competent, modest and unassuming (he "spent a night" in Dodge City once, and describes it as "a nice place to get some sleep"), chivalrous toward women and even a little unsure of how to react to them. (His early interactions with San Giacomo's Cora, on the Fremantle docks and in their first outback camp, add a whimsical touch to the movie's tone and should draw laughs from all watchers.) He also has an iron code of behavior, and he doesn't hesitate to learn even from the primitive Aborigines: one of the most delightful sequences finds them teaching him to use a spear-thrower and to suck water out of the sand through a bamboo--after which he repays them by conducting a class in the making and proper use of a rawhide lasso. Rickman is the kind of villain you love to hate: smooth, silky, sneering, yet acting from what seem to him to be completely valid reasons. San Giacomo may be "touched in the head," but she's also earthy, practical, and fiercely loyal to Selleck and to the orphaned Aboriginie baby they find; her story of how she came to be in Australia is touchingly delivered.

And, like most of the best movies, "Quigley" can serve as a starting point for some penetrating family discussion. Parallels will quickly be seen between the Aborigines' situation and, not only the experiences of the American Indian, but the "ethnic cleansing" through which the former Yugoslavia suffered, and which kids may have studied in school. Quigley seems not to be revengeful against Marston and his crew of 20-odd tough English and Irish until they act against the Aborigines who have been his and Cora's friends, and even then a case can be made for his killing as many of them as he can hit: afoot and outnumbered, he doesn't want them in the area and angry at him; after the second Aboriginie drive and the accidental killing of a storekeeper's wife, he is simply resolved to keep them from doing any more harm.

Though action is the movie's keynote, it is above all the story of how three people inspire one another to certain inevitable acts--in short, like all the best stories, it turns on character. And its characters will remain in the memory for a long time to come. (A side-benefit is the blood-stirring score by Basil Poledouris, which was one of the first CD's I ever purchased.) The cinematography gives a powerful sense of the size and loneliness of the Australian outback (filming was done in Alice Springs and other Australian locations), as well as of how important it is that Quigley seems far better able to adjust himself to it than Marston's men are willing to do. Director Simon Wincer, though not of American birth, has turned out a movie which, while not strictly a "real" Western, should become a classic of the genre. By my criteria, it's definitely a 10--or perhaps even a 12.

Great comedy
You will be laughing your tail off. Here is why:

Quigley (Tom Selleck), investigates a report on human right violations by the English settlers against the aboriginal population of Austria.

(Obviously, Quigley had improved the inter-racial relationships in his native Wyoming to perfection: black, indians, white, all live in equality, peace and harmony, and now he is on a mission to do the same in Austria)

Quigley quickly discovers the horrible truth, and being a superman, supperherro, suppersshooter, quickly brings justice. All bad guys (english, irish, scotch) are punished, aboriginals are free. No more slavery, genocide, collonialism and exploitation.

A blond Texan woman shares his passion and adopts a little black baby; the baby fell from a 200 feet cliff and survived!

Have fun!

Ernesto Ce Gevara

Western with a twist
This is an American Western to be sure, filmed in the outback! Classic good vs. bad! And lots of fun with the interaction between crazy Cora and Quigley! Fine acting all around and a nice twist at the end! Very enjoyable.

Boring CD, good movie
In glancing at the reviews I see that many of them are for the moive which is much better than the soundtrack. I've liked the title theme since I first heard it and always wanted the CD for that reason. Out of the 11 tracks I was disappointed to find that I really liked only about three selections, maybe one or two more than that. #1 Main Title is good and #11 Matthew Quigley amounts to about three different versions of the tune, it might be even better.
Out of the eleven tunes six have varying degrees of the theme worked into them in some way, thats what makes the CD boring, so little variety. I think I did like #4 Marston's Murderers, actiony but no Quigley bits. #4 Native Montage had no Quigley and certainly nothing Native to it, guess it was all right otherwise.
All I can really recommend this album for are the two Quigley selections, easily the best on the CD. Shiloh Rifle, the company that made the Sharps that Selleck used in the movie still uses the title selection on their website 12 years later, that's how good that tune is. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Tom Selleck plays Matthew Quigley, the cowboy hero in this traditional Western, set very untraditionally in Australia. After some macho silliness in the opening minutes, the story settles into a surprisingly evocative tale of Quigley, a sharpshooter who had come to the country to work for a land baron (Alan Rickman) and who is on the mend after a brutal attack. In the company of a woman (Laura San Giacomo) abused by that same baron, Quigley gets his strength and his shooting skills back while healing in the midst of aboriginal people as well as some stunning Australian settings.Director Simon Wincer (Phar Lap) brings a lot of integrity to this rare horse opera from contemporary Hollywood. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (61)

A Typical and Atypical Western
"Quigley down Under" stars Tom Selleck in the title role as an American sharpshooter who answers a help wanted poster for the best rifleman in the world. The job is in Australia and Quigley travels there not knowing exactly what the job is.

When he arrives in Australia, Quigley meets Crazy Cora, played by Laura San Giacomo. Cora is a slightly deranged American who believes Quigley to be her husband Roy. Cora continues to believe Quigley to be Roy even after he insists his name is Matthew Quigley.

When Quigley finally meets his new employer, Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman), he is disgusted to find out that Marston wants him to shoot Aborigines. Cora has become the self-designated defender of the Aborigines and gets abused by Marston for it. Quigley intervenes and winds up roughing Marston up a bit. Marston then has Quigley and Cora beaten and left in the desert to die.

"Quigley down Under" becomes, after this, a set piece movie about good versus evil. This is typical of the Western genre. In this Western though the good guys are a little "gooder" than usual. Both Quigley and Cora are pure hearts who only want what's right for the Aborigines. Cora is more determined to see it happen while Quigley is only interested in it so far as it gets him out of Australia alive.

The most interesting part of the movie is the relationship between Quigley and Cora. In most Westerns the woman is a one-dimensional cutout whose only raison d'etre is to stand by in horror as her man goes out to fight the bad guy. However, Cora is a fully fleshed out individual with both a history before Quigley and an existence independent of him. She still does the "stand by in horror" thing; but, it's with a sense of grace and composure you don't often get from that role.

From that relationship between Quigley and Cora is where I derive my four-star rating. Absent it, this movie would only get two stars from me. The Western is one of the most overdone genres in the cinema. To be able to find a unique spin on it after so many have been done is a well accomplished task.

Another plus for "Quigley down Under" is its cast. The three main players in this movie; Selleck, San Giacomo, and Rickman; are all first-rate actors. That Tom Selleck has not become a film star similar to Tom Cruise or Robert De Niro amazes me. He has an ability to fill a screen like so few actors can. The one actor who comes to mind by way of comparison is Charlton Heston. They both have that ability to project the necessary emotions and feelings of a scene without much effort. Laura San Giacomo is also another actor that I have a hard time figuring out why she hasn't become a star. Her portrayal of Crazy Cora in "Quigley" should have been a springboard to better roles but it hasn't panned out. Rickman is probably the one from this movie to have the best movie career to date. Rickman is one of the best bad guys going and even when he plays an angel ("Dogma") he still has that sideways sneer that makes you wonder what kind of a criminal he would be if he didn't find acting.

"Quigley down Under" is not your typical Western, which is why it might not be for those who enjoy movies like "Unforgiven" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales". However, it is a good movie from a non-Western genre standpoint and one that I'd recommend.

Tom Selleck's best ever
Like many TV actors, "Quigley"'s star Tom Selleck gave much attention, during and after his small-screen career, to attempting to break into movies. If he'd been born in 1926, instead of 1946, he would probably have gained fame, not as Thomas Magnum, but in Western films and/or TV series like this one. Quigley is the role he was born to play, and in Quigley's adventures he has made, to my mind, the best movie of his career.

This slam-bang actioner, though often labelled a "Western," actually takes place, not in the American West, but in the Crown Colony of Western Australia, probably around 1875 (there are still convicts there). Selleck plays Matthew Quigley, a soft-spoken marksman from Wyoming, who answers an advertisement by Australian rancher Marston (Alan Rickman) for "the finest long-distance marksman in the world." After three months on a sailing ship, he steps ashore at the port of Fremantle, where he promptly gets into a brawl with what turn out to be three of Marston's men, come to meet him, and is mistaken by displaced "native-born Texian" Crazy Cora Cobb (Laura San Giacomo) for her husband Roy. At Marston Water he offers a display of his skill with his primary weapon, a customized Sharps .45 buffalo gun, and impresses everyone, including Marston, who describes himself as "a student of your American West" and is a fast draw, pinpoint-accurate, and quietly proud of it. Only now does Quigley find out that he was being hired, not to kill dingoes (Australian wild dogs) as he thought, but to clear Marston's lands of the native Aboriginies. He promptly throws Marston out the French window of his own house, but is eventually overwhelmed by Marston's crew and, with Cora, taken out to the desert to die. Managing to kill the two men who fetched them there, he recovers his rifle and big Stetson, but loses the buckboard and horses. Trying to walk out, he and Cora are found by a clan of Aboriginies, who take them in, and when a group of Marston's men appears to hunt the natives down, Quigley takes up his Sharps in their defense. Eventually he eliminates Marston and all but three of his men in a sort of one-man "long hunt," climaxed by a shootout in which, though wounded and battered and admitting that he "never had much use" for handguns (he doesn't even carry one), he kills three men so fast that his shots sound like one.

Though there's a good deal of violence in this video--in fact, it will probably be too intense for kids under the age of 12 or so--none of it is gratuitous: each instance either serves to further the story in some way or is portrayed as an inevitable result of the choices and character of the person acting or being acted against. Selleck's Quigley is a '90's version of the classic John Wayne hero: soft-spoken, quietly competent, modest and unassuming (he "spent a night" in Dodge City once, and describes it as "a nice place to get some sleep"), chivalrous toward women and even a little unsure of how to react to them. (His early interactions with San Giacomo's Cora, on the Fremantle docks and in their first outback camp, add a whimsical touch to the movie's tone and should draw laughs from all watchers.) He also has an iron code of behavior, and he doesn't hesitate to learn even from the primitive Aborigines: one of the most delightful sequences finds them teaching him to use a spear-thrower and to suck water out of the sand through a bamboo--after which he repays them by conducting a class in the making and proper use of a rawhide lasso. Rickman is the kind of villain you love to hate: smooth, silky, sneering, yet acting from what seem to him to be completely valid reasons. San Giacomo may be "touched in the head," but she's also earthy, practical, and fiercely loyal to Selleck and to the orphaned Aboriginie baby they find; her story of how she came to be in Australia is touchingly delivered.

And, like most of the best movies, "Quigley" can serve as a starting point for some penetrating family discussion. Parallels will quickly be seen between the Aborigines' situation and, not only the experiences of the American Indian, but the "ethnic cleansing" through which the former Yugoslavia suffered, and which kids may have studied in school. Quigley seems not to be revengeful against Marston and his crew of 20-odd tough English and Irish until they act against the Aborigines who have been his and Cora's friends, and even then a case can be made for his killing as many of them as he can hit: afoot and outnumbered, he doesn't want them in the area and angry at him; after the second Aboriginie drive and the accidental killing of a storekeeper's wife, he is simply resolved to keep them from doing any more harm.

Though action is the movie's keynote, it is above all the story of how three people inspire one another to certain inevitable acts--in short, like all the best stories, it turns on character. And its characters will remain in the memory for a long time to come. (A side-benefit is the blood-stirring score by Basil Poledouris, which was one of the first CD's I ever purchased.) The cinematography gives a powerful sense of the size and loneliness of the Australian outback (filming was done in Alice Springs and other Australian locations), as well as of how important it is that Quigley seems far better able to adjust himself to it than Marston's men are willing to do. Director Simon Wincer, though not of American birth, has turned out a movie which, while not strictly a "real" Western, should become a classic of the genre. By my criteria, it's definitely a 10--or perhaps even a 12.

Great comedy
You will be laughing your tail off. Here is why:

Quigley (Tom Selleck), investigates a report on human right violations by the English settlers against the aboriginal population of Austria.

(Obviously, Quigley had improved the inter-racial relationships in his native Wyoming to perfection: black, indians, white, all live in equality, peace and harmony, and now he is on a mission to do the same in Austria)

Quigley quickly discovers the horrible truth, and being a superman, supperherro, suppersshooter, quickly brings justice. All bad guys (english, irish, scotch) are punished, aboriginals are free. No more slavery, genocide, collonialism and exploitation.

A blond Texan woman shares his passion and adopts a little black baby; the baby fell from a 200 feet cliff and survived!

Have fun!

Ernesto Ce Gevara

Western with a twist
This is an American Western to be sure, filmed in the outback! Classic good vs. bad! And lots of fun with the interaction between crazy Cora and Quigley! Fine acting all around and a nice twist at the end! Very enjoyable.

Boring CD, good movie
In glancing at the reviews I see that many of them are for the moive which is much better than the soundtrack. I've liked the title theme since I first heard it and always wanted the CD for that reason. Out of the 11 tracks I was disappointed to find that I really liked only about three selections, maybe one or two more than that. #1 Main Title is good and #11 Matthew Quigley amounts to about three different versions of the tune, it might be even better.
Out of the eleven tunes six have varying degrees of the theme worked into them in some way, thats what makes the CD boring, so little variety. I think I did like #4 Marston's Murderers, actiony but no Quigley bits. #4 Native Montage had no Quigley and certainly nothing Native to it, guess it was all right otherwise.
All I can really recommend this album for are the two Quigley selections, easily the best on the CD. Shiloh Rifle, the company that made the Sharps that Selleck used in the movie still uses the title selection on their website 12 years later, that's how good that tune is. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Good movie, Great Olivia
This was a good movie, although I think Olivia Newton-John needs to quit making Dale Shores movies. Jasmine Wilde (ONJ) is a one hit wonder who is now working in an animal shelter. Her daughter Issy (Chloe Rose Lattinzi, who is her real life daughter) wants to become a singer and go to Hollywood to record. She does not know about her mother's success, but finds out after she finds some magazines in her mothers's closet with Jasmine on the cover.
Olivia and Chloe are both great in this movie, (Although Chloe didn't inherrit talents as great as Olivia's) and any Olivia Newton-John should see this one. The movie was filmed "on location" in Australia, even though it was supposed to be in Georgia and Hollywood. Good movie, Great Olivia. She alson sings the song, Trust Yourself, which she wrote, and playes it on the guitar.

Mild Girls.
Flop-magnet Del Shores just can't stop giving Olivia Newton-John terrible roles. First he saddled her with a cameo in his long forgotten sit-com, 'Ned And Stacey', then she starred in his grim TV movie, 'A Christmas Romance'. Next followed a blink-and-you'll-miss-it role in his big screen (at last, Del!) theatre-emptier 'Sordid Lives' and now, it's back to TV again (really?!) for 'The Wilde Girls'.

It carries all the traits of Shores' previous efforts. Namely a dreadful script, rotten direction and a production quality that suggests it was financed by the loose change from someone's purse. Newton-John plays a middle-aged sickly singer who hasn't had any success for 20 years, coping with a bratty teenage daughter. Obviously, the role was an enormous stretch for her(!) but she's absolutely useless in this. She can grin like a lunatic, true, can shed a few tears on cue as well, but there is NOTHING in between. She's as empty and redundant as a Koala Blue shop.

Newton-John's real life daughter, the charmless Chloe Rose Lattanzi, plays Izzy, her screen daughter, so you'd think there'd be a little chemistry, but there isn't. That said, young Chloe is a much better actress than her mum, but frankly, who isn't? I think 'The Wilde Girls' is a sort of vehicle for the talents of Chloe. She sings a bit, but isn't very good and she certainly hasn't her mother's outstanding beauty, also, this film will do her budding career no good at all. I suspect than in a few years, this will become to Chloe what 'Toomorrow' is to Olivia.

The plot? Oh who cares! Suffice to say it's as predictable and dull as any bad TV movie you've ever seen, but-yey!-it all ends happily and is over quite quickly too.

Another example of Newton-John's staggering ineptitude as an actress and her complete allergy to anything remotely successful, 'The Wilde Girls' should be quietly binned. Don't waste your time.

Mother and Daughter.
The Wilde Girls is a movie about a woman's secret past. Starring Olivia Newton-John as "Jasmine"; and her daughter Chloe Rose as "Izzy". This is Chloe's feature length film debut. It is a bittersweet story of a single mother trying to raise a daughter. Jasmine was a loose woman, she did drugs, she played around, she got pregnant...and she was a popular singer. She assumes all responsibility for her wild past...and is determined to raise her daughter right.
Fortunately...or unfortunately, Izzy turns out to be just like her mother. She dreams of one day being a singer. An apple does not fall too far from the apple tree. Jasmine is determined not to allow Izzy to make the same mistakes she once did. She tries to persuade her child that the music industry is cruel and unusual and that it is because of this inherent evil that she left it all behind, for a simpler, more rewarding life. She also tells Izzy that her father chose to remain in that world...rather than to be with her.
Jasmine eventually reaches the conclusion that as a loving mother she must allow her child to figure out for herself what she wants to do with her life. This revelation inspires her to write and perform a new song, "Trust Yourself". Worth listening to.
Izzy faithfully follows in her mothers footsteps and performs an interesting rendition of "Rockin Robbin", much to Jasmine's delight. Izzy is discovered and follows her dreams to Los Angeles. She has several misadventures and meets her father for the first time. She decides that she is not ready for Los Angeles...yet, and that she likes her father. She invites him...to fly back home with her...in order to surprise Jasmine.
Oh! There truely is a "Kodak" moment in this film. It is the final scene where Jasmine, Izzy and her father all perform a song together. That moment unfolds when you can see the natural relationship between mother and daughter...between Olivia and Chloe. Olivia does something...with her hands...a simulation of flight. I can just see the joy on her face. I loved that part.

always a treat, olivia newton-john
For those of us with an affection for olivia newton john, any new project is a treat we can count on from this most credible performer. This lovely movie features olivia with her truly talented daughter chloe rose. The subject and story is humorous, heartwarming and quite simply entertaining. It is so much fun to see this mother/daughter coming of age responsibly themed movie with campy humor. The movie luckily features olivia doing what she does best, singing live with what is probably the purest voice in pop history. Highlights include a beautiful self-penned duet with her daughter and fun scenes such as an in-charactor -depressed livvy in pigtails, watching trash daytime tv binging on junk food. ...somehow seeing oreo cookies in that famous smile can make you fall in love with olivia all over again. The girl next door, the sexy powerful survior, an artist and a lady. For many, a guilty pleasure, but after all, she's been part of our entertainment families since she slipped into black leather in grease. I've watched it 5 times on showtime and the video is now on order. Go ahead, she's the one that we want

A Family Tradition
Well, Olivia has taken part in some pretty impressive productions, but the production of her daughter is surely one of the best. Chloe is quite a talent and her musical performances in the movie are on the same paar as a young Mariah Carey. She is sincere and multi-dimensional in her performance which enhances an otherwise so-so film. Swoosie Kurtz is at her comic best as the brassy best friend to Olivia, who of course is unforgettable in any role. A bright start to Chloe's professional career and a fun time with Olivia and Swoosie. It deals with some good issues about growing up, following a dream, taking drugs, single parenthood, and relizing our parents had lives before they were our parents. All in all, a must see for everyone ages 13+.
For those fans of Olivia Newton-John, there is a brief return in the movie to the same boardwalks featured in her rollerskating scenes in "Xanadu" as well as some stellar performances by her. Chloe gives some great performances of "Rockin Robin", "At Last", and other songs. Olivia sounds better than ever singing "Trust Yourself" and "You Loved Me Into It." ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Pretty Awful
This movie was awful! Ashley Rose Orr, while a talented tap dancer, and singer (actually a little better than Temple was in terms of the latter), is a terrible actress. She plays the character as the Shirley that we saw on screen in her movies whether she's playing her on screen or off screen persona. So what we get is an overly cutesy, and wholly unrealistic (not to mention uninteresting) portrait. If one wants to see that side of her, one can just watch one of her movies. The only bright light here is Connie Britton's portrayal of Gertrude Temple. I don't think it was terribly realistic, but at least it was well acted. The Poor Little Rich Girl is definitely a better investment.

OK
Ashley Rose Orr was nothing like Shirley Temple. Shirley had sparkle and pizazz. Ashley looked like a child trying to pretend to be Shirley. What kept me interested were the dance numbers. There wasn't very much information about her fame and life. All they really covered was how her contract changed from time to time how Fox changed to 20th Century Fox and that she didnt get Dorothy in Wizard of Oz (which im so glad she didnt b/c it would have just been aother Shirley Movie nothing big) otherwise. Ashley acts nothing like shirley would have acted off screne, looks nothing like her, sounds nothing like her, and why is a 10 year old playing a 5 year old?

I LOVE THIS MOVIE!
This is one of my favorite movies! I watch it over and over again w/o getting sick of it! Although I thought Ashley Orr didnt really have the Shirley charm, she was pretty good! This is such a great movie and I can go a week w/o watching it!

child star a great movie!
this movie was so good. it is a great movie for the whole family. i loved this movie i personally think they should show the movie more often.

ashley is nothing like Shirley!!!!!!!!
I don't want to offend Shirley Temple(shes my favorite actress), but I did not like this movie at all. I have read Child Star, and the movie is nothing like the book! Plus, Ashley Orr did a terrable job as Shirley! Shirley had a differant, yet very cute, voice, which ashley does not have, and by trying to copy Shirley's voice she made it worse! If you want to know more about Shirley, then read Child Star, by Shirley Temple; Shirley Temple American Princess, by Anne Edwards; Or watch one of the real Shirley Temple movies. DON'T buy this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I Love Shirley Temple, But I HATE this movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... Read more

Reviews (61)

A Typical and Atypical Western
"Quigley down Under" stars Tom Selleck in the title role as an American sharpshooter who answers a help wanted poster for the best rifleman in the world. The job is in Australia and Quigley travels there not knowing exactly what the job is.

When he arrives in Australia, Quigley meets Crazy Cora, played by Laura San Giacomo. Cora is a slightly deranged American who believes Quigley to be her husband Roy. Cora continues to believe Quigley to be Roy even after he insists his name is Matthew Quigley.

When Quigley finally meets his new employer, Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman), he is disgusted to find out that Marston wants him to shoot Aborigines. Cora has become the self-designated defender of the Aborigines and gets abused by Marston for it. Quigley intervenes and winds up roughing Marston up a bit. Marston then has Quigley and Cora beaten and left in the desert to die.

"Quigley down Under" becomes, after this, a set piece movie about good versus evil. This is typical of the Western genre. In this Western though the good guys are a little "gooder" than usual. Both Quigley and Cora are pure hearts who only want what's right for the Aborigines. Cora is more determined to see it happen while Quigley is only interested in it so far as it gets him out of Australia alive.

The most interesting part of the movie is the relationship between Quigley and Cora. In most Westerns the woman is a one-dimensional cutout whose only raison d'etre is to stand by in horror as her man goes out to fight the bad guy. However, Cora is a fully fleshed out individual with both a history before Quigley and an existence independent of him. She still does the "stand by in horror" thing; but, it's with a sense of grace and composure you don't often get from that role.

From that relationship between Quigley and Cora is where I derive my four-star rating. Absent it, this movie would only get two stars from me. The Western is one of the most overdone genres in the cinema. To be able to find a unique spin on it after so many have been done is a well accomplished task.

Another plus for "Quigley down Under" is its cast. The three main players in this movie; Selleck, San Giacomo, and Rickman; are all first-rate actors. That Tom Selleck has not become a film star similar to Tom Cruise or Robert De Niro amazes me. He has an ability to fill a screen like so few actors can. The one actor who comes to mind by way of comparison is Charlton Heston. They both have that ability to project the necessary emotions and feelings of a scene without much effort. Laura San Giacomo is also another actor that I have a hard time figuring out why she hasn't become a star. Her portrayal of Crazy Cora in "Quigley" should have been a springboard to better roles but it hasn't panned out. Rickman is probably the one from this movie to have the best movie career to date. Rickman is one of the best bad guys going and even when he plays an angel ("Dogma") he still has that sideways sneer that makes you wonder what kind of a criminal he would be if he didn't find acting.

"Quigley down Under" is not your typical Western, which is why it might not be for those who enjoy movies like "Unforgiven" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales". However, it is a good movie from a non-Western genre standpoint and one that I'd recommend.

Tom Selleck's best ever
Like many TV actors, "Quigley"'s star Tom Selleck gave much attention, during and after his small-screen career, to attempting to break into movies. If he'd been born in 1926, instead of 1946, he would probably have gained fame, not as Thomas Magnum, but in Western films and/or TV series like this one. Quigley is the role he was born to play, and in Quigley's adventures he has made, to my mind, the best movie of his career.

This slam-bang actioner, though often labelled a "Western," actually takes place, not in the American West, but in the Crown Colony of Western Australia, probably around 1875 (there are still convicts there). Selleck plays Matthew Quigley, a soft-spoken marksman from Wyoming, who answers an advertisement by Australian rancher Marston (Alan Rickman) for "the finest long-distance marksman in the world." After three months on a sailing ship, he steps ashore at the port of Fremantle, where he promptly gets into a brawl with what turn out to be three of Marston's men, come to meet him, and is mistaken by displaced "native-born Texian" Crazy Cora Cobb (Laura San Giacomo) for her husband Roy. At Marston Water he offers a display of his skill with his primary weapon, a customized Sharps .45 buffalo gun, and impresses everyone, including Marston, who describes himself as "a student of your American West" and is a fast draw, pinpoint-accurate, and quietly proud of it. Only now does Quigley find out that he was being hired, not to kill dingoes (Australian wild dogs) as he thought, but to clear Marston's lands of the native Aboriginies. He promptly throws Marston out the French window of his own house, but is eventually overwhelmed by Marston's crew and, with Cora, taken out to the desert to die. Managing to kill the two men who fetched them there, he recovers his rifle and big Stetson, but loses the buckboard and horses. Trying to walk out, he and Cora are found by a clan of Aboriginies, who take them in, and when a group of Marston's men appears to hunt the natives down, Quigley takes up his Sharps in their defense. Eventually he eliminates Marston and all but three of his men in a sort of one-man "long hunt," climaxed by a shootout in which, though wounded and battered and admitting that he "never had much use" for handguns (he doesn't even carry one), he kills three men so fast that his shots sound like one.

Though there's a good deal of violence in this video--in fact, it will probably be too intense for kids under the age of 12 or so--none of it is gratuitous: each instance either serves to further the story in some way or is portrayed as an inevitable result of the choices and character of the person acting or being acted against. Selleck's Quigley is a '90's version of the classic John Wayne hero: soft-spoken, quietly competent, modest and unassuming (he "spent a night" in Dodge City once, and describes it as "a nice place to get some sleep"), chivalrous toward women and even a little unsure of how to react to them. (His early interactions with San Giacomo's Cora, on the Fremantle docks and in their first outback camp, add a whimsical touch to the movie's tone and should draw laughs from all watchers.) He also has an iron code of behavior, and he doesn't hesitate to learn even from the primitive Aborigines: one of the most delightful sequences finds them teaching him to use a spear-thrower and to suck water out of the sand through a bamboo--after which he repays them by conducting a class in the making and proper use of a rawhide lasso. Rickman is the kind of villain you love to hate: smooth, silky, sneering, yet acting from what seem to him to be completely valid reasons. San Giacomo may be "touched in the head," but she's also earthy, practical, and fiercely loyal to Selleck and to the orphaned Aboriginie baby they find; her story of how she came to be in Australia is touchingly delivered.

And, like most of the best movies, "Quigley" can serve as a starting point for some penetrating family discussion. Parallels will quickly be seen between the Aborigines' situation and, not only the experiences of the American Indian, but the "ethnic cleansing" through which the former Yugoslavia suffered, and which kids may have studied in school. Quigley seems not to be revengeful against Marston and his crew of 20-odd tough English and Irish until they act against the Aborigines who have been his and Cora's friends, and even then a case can be made for his killing as many of them as he can hit: afoot and outnumbered, he doesn't want them in the area and angry at him; after the second Aboriginie drive and the accidental killing of a storekeeper's wife, he is simply resolved to keep them from doing any more harm.

Though action is the movie's keynote, it is above all the story of how three people inspire one another to certain inevitable acts--in short, like all the best stories, it turns on character. And its characters will remain in the memory for a long time to come. (A side-benefit is the blood-stirring score by Basil Poledouris, which was one of the first CD's I ever purchased.) The cinematography gives a powerful sense of the size and loneliness of the Australian outback (filming was done in Alice Springs and other Australian locations), as well as of how important it is that Quigley seems far better able to adjust himself to it than Marston's men are willing to do. Director Simon Wincer, though not of American birth, has turned out a movie which, while not strictly a "real" Western, should become a classic of the genre. By my criteria, it's definitely a 10--or perhaps even a 12.

Great comedy
You will be laughing your tail off. Here is why:

Quigley (Tom Selleck), investigates a report on human right violations by the English settlers against the aboriginal population of Austria.

(Obviously, Quigley had improved the inter-racial relationships in his native Wyoming to perfection: black, indians, white, all live in equality, peace and harmony, and now he is on a mission to do the same in Austria)

Quigley quickly discovers the horrible truth, and being a superman, supperherro, suppersshooter, quickly brings justice. All bad guys (english, irish, scotch) are punished, aboriginals are free. No more slavery, genocide, collonialism and exploitation.

A blond Texan woman shares his passion and adopts a little black baby; the baby fell from a 200 feet cliff and survived!

Have fun!

Ernesto Ce Gevara

Western with a twist
This is an American Western to be sure, filmed in the outback! Classic good vs. bad! And lots of fun with the interaction between crazy Cora and Quigley! Fine acting all around and a nice twist at the end! Very enjoyable.

Boring CD, good movie
In glancing at the reviews I see that many of them are for the moive which is much better than the soundtrack. I've liked the title theme since I first heard it and always wanted the CD for that reason. Out of the 11 tracks I was disappointed to find that I really liked only about three selections, maybe one or two more than that. #1 Main Title is good and #11 Matthew Quigley amounts to about three different versions of the tune, it might be even better.
Out of the eleven tunes six have varying degrees of the theme worked into them in some way, thats what makes the CD boring, so little variety. I think I did like #4 Marston's Murderers, actiony but no Quigley bits. #4 Native Montage had no Quigley and certainly nothing Native to it, guess it was all right otherwise.
All I can really recommend this album for are the two Quigley selections, easily the best on the CD. Shiloh Rifle, the company that made the Sharps that Selleck used in the movie still uses the title selection on their website 12 years later, that's how good that tune is. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Another Blair B-Bomb
This movie, in which Linda Blair's character becomes romantically involved with an Australian of questionable morals, actually features a rather solid storyline, as well as a decent performance by Linda, but is dragged down by the poor performance of the male lead. Male viewers might agree that the movie's high point is the shower scene! ... Read more

Reviews (61)

A Typical and Atypical Western
"Quigley down Under" stars Tom Selleck in the title role as an American sharpshooter who answers a help wanted poster for the best rifleman in the world. The job is in Australia and Quigley travels there not knowing exactly what the job is.

When he arrives in Australia, Quigley meets Crazy Cora, played by Laura San Giacomo. Cora is a slightly deranged American who believes Quigley to be her husband Roy. Cora continues to believe Quigley to be Roy even after he insists his name is Matthew Quigley.

When Quigley finally meets his new employer, Elliott Marston (Alan Rickman), he is disgusted to find out that Marston wants him to shoot Aborigines. Cora has become the self-designated defender of the Aborigines and gets abused by Marston for it. Quigley intervenes and winds up roughing Marston up a bit. Marston then has Quigley and Cora beaten and left in the desert to die.

"Quigley down Under" becomes, after this, a set piece movie about good versus evil. This is typical of the Western genre. In this Western though the good guys are a little "gooder" than usual. Both Quigley and Cora are pure hearts who only want what's right for the Aborigines. Cora is more determined to see it happen while Quigley is only interested in it so far as it gets him out of Australia alive.

The most interesting part of the movie is the relationship between Quigley and Cora. In most Westerns the woman is a one-dimensional cutout whose only raison d'etre is to stand by in horror as her man goes out to fight the bad guy. However, Cora is a fully fleshed out individual with both a history before Quigley and an existence independent of him. She still does the "stand by in horror" thing; but, it's with a sense of grace and composure you don't often get from that role.

From that relationship between Quigley and Cora is where I derive my four-star rating. Absent it, this movie would only get two stars from me. The Western is one of the most overdone genres in the cinema. To be able to find a unique spin on it after so many have been done is a well accomplished task.

Another plus for "Quigley down Under" is its cast. The three main players in this movie; Selleck, San Giacomo, and Rickman; are all first-rate actors. That Tom Selleck has not become a film star similar to Tom Cruise or Robert De Niro amazes me. He has an ability to fill a screen like so few actors can. The one actor who comes to mind by way of comparison is Charlton Heston. They both have that ability to project the necessary emotions and feelings of a scene without much effort. Laura San Giacomo is also another actor that I have a hard time figuring out why she hasn't become a star. Her portrayal of Crazy Cora in "Quigley" should have been a springboard to better roles but it hasn't panned out. Rickman is probably the one from this movie to have the best movie career to date. Rickman is one of the best bad guys going and even when he plays an angel ("Dogma") he still has that sideways sneer that makes you wonder what kind of a criminal he would be if he didn't find acting.

"Quigley down Under" is not your typical Western, which is why it might not be for those who enjoy movies like "Unforgiven" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales". However, it is a good movie from a non-Western genre standpoint and one that I'd recommend.

Tom Selleck's best ever
Like many TV actors, "Quigley"'s star Tom Selleck gave much attention, during and after his small-screen career, to attempting to break into movies. If he'd been born in 1926, instead of 1946, he would probably have gained fame, not as Thomas Magnum, but in Western films and/or TV series like this one. Quigley is the role he was born to play, and in Quigley's adventures he has made, to my mind, the best movie of his career.

This slam-bang actioner, though often labelled a "Western," actually takes place, not in the American West, but in the Crown Colony of Western Australia, probably around 1875 (there are still convicts there). Selleck plays Matthew Quigley, a soft-spoken marksman from Wyoming, who answers an advertisement by Australian rancher Marston (Alan Rickman) for "the finest long-distance marksman in the world." After three months on a sailing ship, he steps ashore at the port of Fremantle, where he promptly gets into a brawl with what turn out to be three of Marston's men, come to meet him, and is mistaken by displaced "native-born Texian" Crazy Cora Cobb (Laura San Giacomo) for her husband Roy. At Marston Water he offers a display of his skill with his primary weapon, a customized Sharps .45 buffalo gun, and impresses everyone, including Marston, who describes himself as "a student of your American West" and is a fast draw, pinpoint-accurate, and quietly proud of it. Only now does Quigley find out that he was being hired, not to kill dingoes (Australian wild dogs) as he thought, but to clear Marston's lands of the native Aboriginies. He promptly throws Marston out the French window of his own house, but is eventually overwhelmed by Marston's crew and, with Cora, taken out to the desert to die. Managing to kill the two men who fetched them there, he recovers his rifle and big Stetson, but loses the buckboard and horses. Trying to walk out, he and Cora are found by a clan of Aboriginies, who take them in, and when a group of Marston's men appears to hunt the natives down, Quigley takes up his Sharps in their defense. Eventually he eliminates Marston and all but three of his men in a sort of one-man "long hunt," climaxed by a shootout in which, though wounded and battered and admitting that he "never had much use" for handguns (he doesn't even carry one), he kills three men so fast that his shots sound like one.

Though there's a good deal of violence in this video--in fact, it will probably be too intense for kids under the age of 12 or so--none of it is gratuitous: each instance either serves to further the story in some way or is portrayed as an inevitable result of the choices and character of the person acting or being acted against. Selleck's Quigley is a '90's version of the classic John Wayne hero: soft-spoken, quietly competent, modest and unassuming (he "spent a night" in Dodge City once, and describes it as "a nice place to get some sleep"), chivalrous toward women and even a little unsure of how to react to them. (His early interactions with San Giacomo's Cora, on the Fremantle docks and in their first outback camp, add a whimsical touch to the movie's tone and should draw laughs from all watchers.) He also has an iron code of behavior, and he doesn't hesitate to learn even from the primitive Aborigines: one of the most delightful sequences finds them teaching him to use a spear-thrower and to suck water out of the sand through a bamboo--after which he repays them by conducting a class in the making and proper use of a rawhide lasso. Rickman is the kind of villain you love to hate: smooth, silky, sneering, yet acting from what seem to him to be completely valid reasons. San Giacomo may be "touched in the head," but she's also earthy, practical, and fiercely loyal to Selleck and to the orphaned Aboriginie baby they find; her story of how she came to be in Australia is touchingly delivered.

And, like most of the best movies, "Quigley" can serve as a starting point for some penetrating family discussion. Parallels will quickly be seen between the Aborigines' situation and, not only the experiences of the American Indian, but the "ethnic cleansing" through which the former Yugoslavia suffered, and which kids may have studied in school. Quigley seems not to be revengeful against Marston and his crew of 20-odd tough English and Irish until they act against the Aborigines who have been his and Cora's friends, and even then a case can be made for his killing as many of them as he can hit: afoot and outnumbered, he doesn't want them in the area and angry at him; after the second Aboriginie drive and the accidental killing of a storekeeper's wife, he is simply resolved to keep them from doing any more harm.

Though action is the movie's keynote, it is above all the story of how three people inspire one another to certain inevitable acts--in short, like all the best stories, it turns on character. And its characters will remain in the memory for a long time to come. (A side-benefit is the blood-stirring score by Basil Poledouris, which was one of the first CD's I ever purchased.) The cinematography gives a powerful sense of the size and loneliness of the Australian outback (filming was done in Alice Springs and other Australian locations), as well as of how important it is that Quigley seems far better able to adjust himself to it than Marston's men are willing to do. Director Simon Wincer, though not of American birth, has turned out a movie which, while not strictly a "real" Western, should become a classic of the genre. By my criteria, it's definitely a 10--or perhaps even a 12.

Great comedy
You will be laughing your tail off. Here is why:

Quigley (Tom Selleck), investigates a report on human right violations by the English settlers against the aboriginal population of Austria.

(Obviously, Quigley had improved the inter-racial relationships in his native Wyoming to perfection: black, indians, white, all live in equality, peace and harmony, and now he is on a mission to do the same in Austria)

Quigley quickly discovers the horrible truth, and being a superman, supperherro, suppersshooter, quickly brings justice. All bad guys (english, irish, scotch) are punished, aboriginals are free. No more slavery, genocide, collonialism and exploitation.

A blond Texan woman shares his passion and adopts a little black baby; the baby fell from a 200 feet cliff and survived!

Have fun!

Ernesto Ce Gevara

Western with a twist
This is an American Western to be sure, filmed in the outback! Classic good vs. bad! And lots of fun with the interaction between crazy Cora and Quigley! Fine acting all around and a nice twist at the end! Very enjoyable.

Boring CD, good movie
In glancing at the reviews I see that many of them are for the moive which is much better than the soundtrack. I've liked the title theme since I first heard it and always wanted the CD for that reason. Out of the 11 tracks I was disappointed to find that I really liked only about three selections, maybe one or two more than that. #1 Main Title is good and #11 Matthew Quigley amounts to about three different versions of the tune, it might be even better.
Out of the eleven tunes six have varying degrees of the theme worked into them in some way, thats what makes the CD boring, so little variety. I think I did like #4 Marston's Murderers, actiony but no Quigley bits. #4 Native Montage had no Quigley and certainly nothing Native to it, guess it was all right otherwise.
All I can really recommend this album for are the two Quigley selections, easily the best on the CD. Shiloh Rifle, the company that made the Sharps that Selleck used in the movie still uses the title selection on their website 12 years later, that's how good that tune is. ... Read more

Description

For centuries their names have stood for mindless brutality - Huns, Goths, Vikings and Vandals. The real truth about the barbarians who marched across Europe during the Dark Ages is more shocking than what you may know!See how the sturdy walls and gorgeous mosaics of the Roman Empire, centuries in the making, were swept away almost overnight by marauding tribes. Witness their bold new style of warfare, lightning fast and unforgiving in its ferocity. Step inside the camps of these nomadic peoples, whose aggression was generally motivated by greed.Yet the same feral instincts which drove their conquests also fuelled brilliant innovations, like sophisticated farming techniques and sleek sailing vessels that redrew the boundaries of the known world.Where did the barbarians come from? Where are the descendants of these brutish people today? The answers will stun you! ... Read more