I for one am disgusted that this movie doesn't have a higher rating. I would only be happy with 9 stars or more personally. This movie has everything. A pure classic. And the main character Matthew Quigley is a true honorable figure that we should all aspire to be more like. I'd recommend it to anybody

Sharpshooter Matt Quigley (Tom Selleck) travels from Wyoming to Western Australia hired by ranch baron Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman). He rescues Crazy Cora (Laura San Giacomo) from a bunch of rough men. She keeps calling him Roy. It turns out that the men work for Marston. Marston reveals that he needs Quigley to hunt down Aborigines which Quigley takes offense to. Quigley and Crazy Cora are left to die in the desert.This is an old fashion western out in the Australian outback. It's a bit too old fashion. Quigley is impossibly good especially for a gunslinger. What did he think he was going to do in Australia? For a man who shoots for a living, he objects to the job too quickly. He should at least shoot somebody first. Maybe Marston's men try to kill him for the gold in the Outback. Maybe he refuses to kill the children. These are the nuances this movie needs. Selleck is playing too much of a hero and too simple. He lacks the complex characteristics to filled the big screen.

Quigley Down Under is directed by Simon Wincer and written by John Hill. It stars Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo and Alan Rickman. Music is by Basil Poledouris and cinematography by David Eggby. Plot sees Selleck as Matthew Quigley, a Wyoming cowboy and sharp shooting rifleman who answers an advertisement to go to Western Australia as a hired sharp shooter. If proving his worth, he's to work for Elliot Marston (Rickman), but when Marston outlines his sick reasons for hiring Quigley, the pair quickly become on a collision course that can only see one of them survive. It was written in the 1970s by John Hill, where it was hoped that Steve McQueen would take on the lead role, but with McQueen falling ill and Clint Eastwood allegedly passed over, the project sat on ice until 1990. In came Selleck and the film finally got made. Just about making back its money at the box office, Wincer's movie deserved far better than that. It's competition in the Western stakes in 1990 were Costner's beautiful and elegiac Dances With Wolves and the Brat Pack bravado of Young Guns II, both vastly different films from each other, and both considerably different from Quigley Down Under. If those two films contributed to the average response to the Selleck picture? I'm not completely sure, but viewing it now one tends to think that the 1990 audience just wasn't ready for such a delightfully old fashioned Oater, one that features a straight and simple narrative to tell its tale.It's safe to say that anyone after deep psychological aspects will not get that here. There's some serious themes in the story, such as the horrid genocide towards Aborigines, while the deft kicks at the British are fair enough even to a British guy such as myself. But in the main this is old time Western fare, where it may be as predictable as a horse doing toilet where it pleases, but it's fun, brisk, gorgeous to look at, and there's never a dull moment within. Wincer (Lonesome Dove) directs with assuredness and the trio of cast leads are great value. Where Selleck cuts an impressive figure of a tough guy high on principals and with a comedy glint in his eye, Rickman is suitably attired all in black and bang on form for sneering, cocksure, villainy, while Giacomo is pretty and works neatly alongside Selleck as a spunky, lively, sidekick type who carries some sad emotional baggage along. There appears to be quite some division amongst fans and critics as regards Poledouris' (Conan the Barbarian) score. Whilst I agree that it does at time veer close to being too boisterous, it sits well within the type of film the makers are going for. It carries with it a sort of Magnificent Seven flavouring, imbuing the story with a rightful sense of adventure. It also flows freely with Eggby's classical capturing of the Western Australian locations. Eggby (Mad Max/The Man From Snowy River) utilises the scope format on offer to deliver some truly gorgeous back drops, while the brown and yellow hues are most appealing to the eyes. Costuming and sets are spot on for period detail, and Quigley's Sharps Rifle is an absolute beast of a weapon. The simple structure and telegraphed nature of the story stops it from being a true classic of the genre. But it's got so much going for it and is high on rewatchability, to make Quigley Down Under (not the best of titles either) essential viewing for fans of old fashioned Westerns. 8.5/10

Emmy award winning "Lonesome Dove" director Simon Wincer teamed up with "Magnum, P.I." star Tom Selleck to make three westerns. "Quigley Down Under" was the first of their collaborations. "The Crossfire Trail" (2001) was their second western, and "Monte Walsh" was their third outing. These two sagebrushers were made-for-TV, while "Quigley Down Under" was a theatrical, big-screen release. This overrated but entertaining oater set in scenic Australia concerns a rugged Wyoming cowboy who is a crack shot with a Sharps lever-action Buffalo rifle. The eponymous protagonist has crossed the Pacific Ocean in a sailing ship to help a rancher eliminate predatory dogs gnawing away at his livestock. At least, this is what Quigley is led to believe when he shows up at the sprawling ranch of Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman of "Die Hard") who has hired him primarily to slaughter the native Indigenous Aborigines. As it turns out, Quigley (Tom Selleck of "The Shadow Riders") doesn't share Marston's racist sentiments. The two men tangle in a brawl on the first night that they meet,and Marston lets his men gang up on Quigley and beat him senseless. Although the setting is Australia, Wincer and "Heartbeeps" scenarist Joe Hill have appropriated every western cliché, so nothing really comes as a surprise in this predictable morality tale about good versus evil. An amiable if sometimes unsavory shoot'em up develops between Marston and Quigley. The body count goes into double-digits as Marston sends his men to kill Quigley. When our hero isn't swapping lead with the villains, Quigley gets involved in an amusing relationship with a prostitute named 'Crazy' Dora (Laura San Giacomo of "Suicide Kings") and she takes a shine to him. Indeed, she refers to him as Roy and this becomes a running joke throughout the action because they have never met. Basically, Quigley considers Dora an annoyance.Tom Selleck looks every inch the role of a frontiersman with his Buffalo Bill facial hair. Moreover, he decks himself out in chaps, suspenders, and a ten-gallon Stetson that virtually makes him look the spitting image of Steve McQueen from "Tom Horn." Mind you, "Quigley Down Under" surpasses "Tom Horn" because our hero is the sympathetic underdog who takes on an army of gunmen and never stops no matter what the odds. Instead of the U.S. Cavalry, Wincer gives up British redcoats riding Western Australian outback. Rather than redskins on the war path, we are given the equivalent: largely peaceful Aborigines. Marston's treatment of this ethnic group is nothing short of vicious. In one scene, Marston's riders drive several Aborigines to their deaths when they run them off a mountain cliff. The Aborigines die while Cora watches and Quigley loads up his long gun and begins picking off the riders. A furious Marston offers 50 pounds of gold to anybody who can take care of Quigley. Earlier, Marston's men had gotten the better of Quigley and had planned to deposit his unconscious body in the middle of the desert with Cora and let Mother Nature relieve them of Quigley. Our hero is far from dead when he is driven into the wilderness and awakens in the back of a wagon with Dora alongside him. Marston's men have brought along Quigley's rifle. According to Quigley, he can hit bull's eye from 900 yards out. Repeatedly, after Dora and he struggle to return to civilization, he must shoot two or three secondary villains."Mad Max" lenser David Eggsby captures the rugged splendor of the Australian outback. The most memorable thing about his Aussie oater is composer Basil Poledouris' fantastic score that has touches of Elmer Bernstein and Jerome Moross in its majestic theme. After a while, things get a little drawn out until the end when Marston's men get the drop on Mathew Quigley and it looks for certainty that he has met his match. Throughout "Quigley Down Under," Marston and Quigley argue about guns. Quigley prefers rifles while Marston fancies himself as a Western gunslinger. The only surprise occurs in the concluding showdown where Quigley demonstrates his speed and accuracy with a firearm other than his Sharps. Rickman excels as a treacherous villain who hates the Aborigines. "Quigley Down Under" qualifies as a fun western with some violent moments.