Quigley Down Under [HD]

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...

The American Wild West Meets The Aboriginal Dreamtime
An American sharpshooter (Tom Selleck) with a powerful, experimental rifle takes to the high seas in the late 1800's and sails across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. His name is Matthew Quigley and he has been hired by Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman) to rid the wealthy landowner down under of the numerous packs of dingos (wild dogs) attacking his livestock. At Least that's what Quigley thinks he's being hired to do.

Shortly after arriving on this foreign shore Quigley learns the horrible truth about his assignment. The cruel and despotic Marston doesn't like Aborgines wandering through across his land and has decided to solve the problem by exterminating them. Quigley has been hired to carry out the job. His refusal to take the job marks the beginning of an epic battle between Marston and his men against Quigley as he fights to defend the indigenous population.

Action/Adventure in its truest tradition, with the lines clearly drawn between the forces of good and...

Good old fashoned western
As the title character, Matthew Quigley, Tom Selleck, plays an American sharpshooter hired by an Australia landowner, Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman) to kill dingoes. On arriving in Australia, Quigley immediately becomes entangled with Crazy Cora (Laura San Giacomo) who thinks he is her husband. When Quigley and Cora arrive at Marston Waters, he finds that he has been hired to kill Aborigines instead of dingoes. He objects by knocking Marston through double glass doors. Marston has both he and Cora beaten and left in the Australian desert to die. Saved by Aborigines, Quigley spends the rest of the movie protecting both them and Cora from Marston ending in an old fashioned OK Corral type shoot-out.

The plot is weak - typical western fare with very good "good guys" and very bad "bad guys" - but the actors are exceptional. Selleck plays his typical take all comers, macho man who can out fight and out shoot any man, but has absolutely no idea what to do with a woman. His total...

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