Appaloosa

On the immediate surface "Apaloosa" occurs as an old school Western grounded in the battle of good against evil. For the most part first time director/ writer Ed Harris's "Apaloosa" is the traditional tale of gunslingers hired to protect the town against the malevolent rancher, who terrorizes the town of Apaloosa. This slithery and wily Rancher is Randall Bragg, well played by Academy Award Winner Jeremy Irons. Irons is amazing. In the opening Bragg (Irons) kills the town Marshall and his deputies in cold blood. So there is no question surrounding Bragg's character. Harris and Viggo Mortensen play Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, who are lawmen for hire. The town of Apaloosa signs a contract with Virgil and Everett paying them to protect the town from Bragg. As part of the deal Apaloosa surrenders legal jurisdiction and autonomy to Cole and Hitch. This is pretty straight forward until femme fatale widow Allison French (Renee Zellwegger) arrives in town. Virgil takes a quick fancy to Allison, but her motives are vague and questionable at best. Will she threaten Virgil's partnership with Everett?

First off, I ultimately liked "Apaloosa", because Viggo Mortensen is awesome as Everett. Despite the movie's quirky idiosyncrasies, Mortensen commands the heroic presence as the sensible man of honor. Mortensen is the Western hero in the tradition of Clint Eastwood. As Everett, we always know where Mortensen stands, and he is both charismatic and cool. In a great scene a rival asks Everett about Virgil's gun prowess. Everett says plainly, "I haven't seen anyone as good as Virgil." Mortensen's Virgil salvages the movie's sense of honor.

As mentioned previously, "Apaloosa" is not really all that traditional just below the surface. And this is not necessarily a good thing. This is not the anti-hero masterpiece of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven". In one sense, I think Harris would like it to be. For one thing although Harris's Virgil is brave and noble, he is an apparent partial nut job. He goes nonlinear on some hoods in a saloon, among other weird out bursts. Harris's Virgil is not an educated man, and clumsily forces his diction and stumbles through Emerson. Instead of coming off as charmingly eccentric, his Virgil occurs as a little weird. Renee Zellwegger is an amazing actress, but here she struggles to carry off pretty. Her character Allison also has the propensity to have sex with virtually any man with a pulse. Straight and narrow Virgil in love with psycho whore Allison is not the most conventional love story, nor is it the story's most endearing plot line. Again, this may be more artifact of the screenplay by Harris and Robert Knot based on Robert B. Parker's best selling novel.

In spite of its quirkiness and kind of nutty characters, Harris manages to reign in the movie as it concludes-- opting for the more heroic. There is a great scene before one the climatic showdowns where Allison asks Virgil and Everett, "Aren't either of you at all afraid?" Virgil says, "…I guess I don't think about that so much." Also in "Apaloosa" the action is not leveraged for the utmost drama. Director Harris's action sequences lack crispness—the gun fight blocking is mostly single shot, without any interesting angles. Aside from the last gun fight, most of the action is diluted of high drama. The action is well done, just not spectacular.

"Apaloosa" is an amalgamation of the traditional Western with the idiosyncratic melodrama of the new. The overall effect is compelling, and also makes you scratch your head. Viggo Mortensen's strong and charismatic performance as Everett Hitch eventually wins out, and makes "Apaloosa" worth watching.

Many in Hollywood believe the western is dead, but every couple of years or so along comes a new western to breathe life into the old standbys: OPEN RANGE, 3:10 TO YUMA, and of course TV's DEADWOOD. APPALOOSA is such a film that follows a typical storyline as a couple of lawmen battle an outlaw gang in a small town.

It's the kind of story that's been done hundreds, if not thousands, of times. But the strength of APPALOOSA lies not in the plotting but the script, which is alive with warmth and humour. Harris plays a borderline maniac with a quick trigger finger, Mortensen his more reasoned companion who favours his brain over his heart. Both actors exude quiet menace and are quite brilliant in the parts.

Unfortunately there's a problem further down the cast list: namely Renee Zellweger as a love interest. I don't understand where Zellweger's popularity comes from, because I think she's awful, and nowhere more so than here. Still, the casting director makes up for it with a couple of meaty roles for veteran actors Jeremy Irons and Lance Henriksen.

Harris wrote the screenplay, produced and directed the film. His love shows in the finely-crafted screenplay and the expert direction, which invests the occasional action scene with flair and life. My only complaint with the story is the ending, which is a little muted. But that's APPALOOSA all over: it's a film about people living life in the West rather than a shoot-em-up flick. I liked it.

There are always the men who live breathe violence and the women who hold their breath. Two famous ¨town tamer¨ named Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Stitch(Viggo Mortensen)come hired by the citizens (Timothy Spall, James Gammon) to rid a rancher ( Jeremy Irons), and his hoodlums (Lance Henriksen, among others). The villagers are suffering under the rule of the cruel Baronland. Virgil and Everett as lawmen are appointed deputies to bring peace and put some cartels warning that wearing of guns or other weapons in the little town is banned. Virgil meets a youngster widow named Allison (Renee Zellweger) and the problems emerge and complicate. But the town council afraid the raw methods carried out by the duo. Then the kingpin landowner appears and threats them.

This is a tremendously exciting story of a sheriffs-for-hire who had only one more killing to go. It begins as a slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with interesting characters and solid plot. The tale is almost grim , a pacifiers come to a town just in time to make sure its citizenry but later the events get worse .Good modern Western with exciting battle of wits between obstinate marshals and an astute killer who begins to psych him out. Stylish, fast paced , nice performance, solid, meticulous and violent look with several shootouts .The highlights of the movie are the kidnapping and the climatic showdown at the ending. Phenomenal and great roles for Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen as veteran drifters and embittered gunfighters, they're the whole show. Vivid and lively musical score fitting rightly to action Western by Jeff Beal. Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by Dean Semler. The motion picture is stunningly directed by Ed Harris who is preparing its following, he also directed another good film titled ¨Pollock¨ . Watchable results for this outlandish Western.

Appaloosa as a western is okay, as a movie its okay, but as a character study it's great. Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen are two of the most underrated actors (not stars) in Hollywood. Viggo should have had two or three Oscars by now. His rendition of Everett Hitch made the whole movie more than worthwhile. He's a man of little words but great thought. He also an observant man, of things and people. He's loyal but with practicality. He knows what the two of them do and why they do it and he know enough about Virgil not to step on his toes. But he also knows when to say what he as to say and leave it at that. I'm never that impressed by Renee Zellweger but in this movie she sort of fit in. 7/10

One reviewer remarked how "Ed Harris understands (the) Western (genre)" I couldn't agree more. This film is a delight. The writing is solid, the dialog sparked with humor, the heroes are more than caricatures and cardboard cut-outs, the villains are worthy anti-heroes and the back-up is wonderful. The performances of Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons as the main protag-/antagonists are sterling. Harris is the lonely paladin, uncompromising in his ethic, drawn in by the warmth and softness of a needful woman, artfully and convincingly played by Renee Zellweger; Mortensen is the slightly jaded sidekick who both respects and doesn't completely understand his hero. A parallel villain is offered by Lance Henrikson, a kind of poor man's Clint Eastwood, giving an interesting twist to the story. Some comic relief is offered by veteran character actor, James Gammon and fine British actor Timothy Spall without reducing the tension in the story line or reverting to a burlesque. The mythic theme of the knight-errant works well in this presentation brought to light by the competent direction of Ed Harris. My only fear is that it being devoid of ballet-type ritual killings, CGI and only a mild spattering of violence, it will likely fly under the radar of much of today's theater goers, which is a shame. It's a fine film.