Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck) is a cowboy and sharpshooter from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is an 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle. He answers a newspaper advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long distance shooting with four words, "Matthew Quigley 900 yards," written on a copy of the advertisement, punctuated by several closely spaced bullet holes.
When he arrives in Australia, he is met by employees of the man who hired him, Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman). Quigley tries to prevent them from forcing "Crazy Cora" (Laura San Giacomo) onto their wagon and beats the men until they learn that Quigley is the individual they were sent to pick up. Quigley is eventually taken to Marston's station in the Western Australianoutback. Upon seeing Quigley, Cora consistently calls him "Roy," much to Quigley's annoyance.
Marston is infatuated with stories of quick-draw gunslingers from the American Old West, believing himself to have been born on the wrong side of the globe, and amazed that Quigley has actually been to Dodge City. He informs Quigley his sharpshooting skills will be used to eradicate the increasingly elusive native Aborigines. Marston's killing of aborigines is technically illegal, but he implies that it is tolerated by the local military police with whom Marston has "an arrangement." Quigley, who believed he was hired to shoot dingos, finds the idea abhorrent.
Quigley not only turns down the job offer, he throws Marston out of his house twice. Marston's Aborigine manservant knocks Quigley over the head and Marston's men beat Quigley and Cora into unconsciousness and dump them in the Australian Outback two days away with no water and little chance of survival. However, Quigley manages to kill the two men, after which he and Cora are rescued by Aborigines. Recovering, they witness an attack by Marston's men on the Aborigines who helped them. Quigley kills three of Marston's men; a fourth escapes.
Cora reveals that she was from Texas. When her home was attacked by Comanches, she hid in the root cellar. To prevent her infant son from revealing their hiding place, she covered the baby's mouth and unintentionally suffocated him. When her husband, Roy, arrived home and learned of the child's death, he took Cora to Galveston, Texas and put her alone on the first ship leaving, which happened to be bound for Australia.
Escaping on a single horse, they encounter Marston's men driving Aborigines over a cliff. Quigley kills three more of the men and Cora finds an orphaned baby among the dead Aborigines. Caring for the baby helps Cora overcome her tragic past and she slowly begins to recognize Quigley as his real self and stops calling him Roy. Quigley rides alone to a nearby town leaving Cora and the infant Aborigine in the desert with food and water. In town, he obtains new ammunition from local German gunsmith named Grimmelman (Ron Haddrick) who is eager to help when he learns Quigley plans to kill Marston. He also learns that he has become a legendary hero among the Aborigines. Marston's men recognize Quigley's horse and attack him, cornering him in a burning building. Escaping through a skylight, Quigley returns to the gunsmith's and learns Grimmelman's wife was killed in the crossfire. He kills all but one of Marston's men, whom he sends back to Marston to tell him that Quigley is coming for him. While he is away, Cora and the baby are attacked by dingos. The baby cries and Cora nearly repeats her actions from the past; however she over comes her insecurity and tells the baby to cry as loud as he wants. Using guns taken from Marston's men, Cora shoots the dingos and saves her and the baby.
Later in tow, Cora gives the baby to Aborigines in the town for trade. Quigley leaves Cora with the townspeople and rides to Marston's ranch where he first shoots Marston's men from a distance. He even saves a round by patiently waiting until one of Marston's men walks in front of another man, to which Quigley shoots through the first, killing the man, to kill the second. Marston gradually loses more and more men to Quigley, until Quigley is eventually captured by Marston's last two men. Marston, who has noticed that Quigley only ever carries a rifle, decides to give him a lesson in the "quick-draw" style of gunfighting. As the two face off, Marston makes the first move, but is beaten to the draw by Quigley, who shoots Marston and his two remaining men. As Marston lays dying, referring to an early conversation concerning Colt revolvers, Quigley tells him, "I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it."
Marston's servant comes out of the house and gives Quigley his rifle then walks away from the ranch, stripping off his western-style clothing as he goes. Two black Aborigine women of Marston's also leave. As Quigley binds his wounds, a troop led by the hostile British Major Ashley-Pitt (Chris Haywood), the official with whom Marston had "an arrangement" and Quigley had met before, arrives. Ashley-Pitt informs Quigley that he is under arrest for murder and that he will be hanged. Quigley says that he "won't swing from no gallows," and Ashley-Pitt replies that in that case, Quigley will be shot "while bearing arms against the forces of Her Majesty, the Queen; while trying to escape, of course." As the troopers raise their rifles, a strong wind sweeps over the plain and suddenly the surrounding hills are lined with Aborigines, including Marston's servants. Though they take no direct hostile action, the troopers seem convinced that the Aborigines will attack if Quigley is killed, so they leave. After the troopers are gone, Quigley looks up to the hills to see that the Aborigines have vanished, except for Marston's manservant, who turns and walks away.
The next scene shows Quigley seeking to buy passage back to America. The ticket clerk has a wanted poster beneath his desk identifying Quigley. He holds a pistol beneath the desk and asks for the passenger's name. Before Quigley can answer, Cora comes into the ticket office and stands just inside the door. They exchange a long glance, and Quigley tells the clerk that he is "Roy Cobb" and asks for two tickets. The clerk then puts the pistol down.
As Quigley and Cora walk along the wharf to the ship, she reminds him that he once told her she had to say two words before he would make love to her. Quigley stops, looking confused, and asks her what the words were. As she walks past, she says, smiling broadly, "Matthew Quigley." Quigley turns Cora around, she removes his hat and runs her fingers through his hair, and they embrace in a passionate kiss.
John Hill first began writing Quigley Down Under in 1974, and both Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood were considered for the lead, but by the time production began in 1980, McQueen was too ill and the project was scrapped.[2] In the mid 1980s Tom Sellec heard of it and UAA got involved; the film was almost set up at Warner Bros with Lewis Gilbert as director but it fell over during pre-production. Simon Wincer then beams director, who felt a good story had been ruined by numerous rewrites from people who knew little about Australian history, so he brought on Ian Jones as writer. They went back to the original draft, re set it from the 1880s to the 1860s and made it more historically accurate.[3]
The film was made by the newly formed Pathe Group, then under Alan Ladd Jnr. It was Ladd's enthusiasm for the project which helped get it financed.[3]
The firearm used by Quigley (Selleck) is a custom 13.5 pound (6 kg), single-shot, 1874 Sharps Rifle, with a 34-inch (860mm) barrel.[4] The rifle used for filming was a replica manufactured for the film by the Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company of Big Timber, Montana.[5] In 2002 Selleck donated the rifle, along with six other firearms from his other films, to the National Rifle Association, as part of the NRA's exhibit "Real Guns of Reel Heroes" at the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia.[6]
Although several scenes of the story depict violence and cruelty toward and involving animals, a film spokesperson explained that no animal was harmed, and special effects were used. For example, Quigley and Cora are reduced to consuming "grub worms" (actually blobs of dough) for survival. A pack of dingos attacks Cora, and she finally saves herself by shooting the animals. Those animals were specially trained, and were actually "playing" for that scene, which was later enhanced by visual and sound effects. Several scenes involve falling horses; they were performed by specially-trained animals and were not hurt. When a horse falls off a cliff, the "horse" was a mechanical creation. The film's producer stated that a veterinarian was on the set whenever animals were being used in filming.[8]
Reception
Critical responses were mixed, with Quigley having a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[9]Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, arguing that it was a flawed but respectable neo-western, and particularly praising San Giacomo's performance: "[T]his may be the movie that proves her staying power. [...] She has an authority, a depth of presence, that is attractive, and her voice is deep and musical."[10]
The film, however, was not a financial success in theaters, roughly recouping its budget.
The film, specifically the protagonist's skill with his rifle, has led snipers to refer to the act of killing two targets with a single bullet as 'a Quigley'.[11]
Quigley Sharps rifle
Quigley says of his gun:
It’s a lever-action, breech loader. Usual barrel length’s thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It’s converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred and ten grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred and forty grain paper-patched bullet. It’s fitted with double set triggers, and a Vernier sight. It’s marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further.
Three fully functional .45-110 rifles matching the above description were built for the film in 1989 by the Shiloh Rifle Co. of Big Timber, Montana, United States. They also had a 15+1⁄4 inch length of pull to fit Selleck's tall frame, a full octagon heavy barrel with a blue finish, and weighed 13+1⁄2 pounds. Due to the weight, one of the rifles was sent back to Shiloh to be refitted with an aluminum barrel so it could be swung faster (as a club) in fight scenes. After the filming concluded, Selleck kept all three rifles, and had two of them reconditioned by Shiloh Rifle Co.[12]
In 2006 Selleck donated one of the rifles used in filming to the NRA for a fundraising raffle. In March 2008 that rifle was sold for $69,000 through the James D. Julia auction house.[13] The company which created the rifle for the movie (Shiloh Rifle Co.) also offers production models (1874 Sharps Buffalo – "Quigley") for sale to the public, with an approximate $3,300 price.[14] An Italian company (Davide Pedersoli & C.) sells a copy of the Shiloh rifle under the name S.789 1874 Sharps Quigley Sporting.[15]
An annual Matthew Quigley Buffalo Rifle Match is held in Forsyth, Montana (180 miles from Big Timber) on Father's Day weekend. The shoot is the largest of its kind in America, attended by around 600 shooters, with targets out to 800 yards.[16]
