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The Western has been an endangered species, on and off, for something like 40 years now. Welcome to Appaloosa, Ed Harris's film of the Robert B. Parker novel--first because it exists at all, but even more because Harris as star, director, and co-screenwriter (with Robert Knott) has managed to bring it to the screen with no hint of fuss or strain, as if the making of no-nonsense, copiously pleasurable Westerns were still something Hollywood did with regularity. Harris plays Virgil Cole, one of those ace gunfighter-lawmen whose name need only be mentioned to make a saloon go still. Cole and his shotgun-toting partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) accept a commission to enforce law and order in the New Mexico town of Appaloosa. That basically means protect it from rapacious rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons, looking right at home on the range), who murdered the previous town marshal like swatting a fly. Life becomes complicated when, about the time Bragg has been jailed to await trial, a fancy-dressing piano player calling herself Mrs. French (Renée Zellweger) steps down off the train. Cole commences to have feelings, and as he ruefully reminds Hitch, "Feelin's can get ya killed."
In his second directorial effort (following the 2000 biopic Pollock), Harris takes his cue from novelist Parker's often deadpan-comic touch, allowing action and character to accumulate in accordance with an overall eccentric rhythm. (The film's main disappointment is that it would benefit from more running time to allow things to stew a bit longer, especially in the second half.) The character work is choice, from the moment Tom Bower, James Gammon, and Timothy Spall step into view as Appaloosa's civic leaders; the director's father Bob Harris contributes a cameo as a mellifluous-tongued circuit judge, and an age-thickened Lance Henriksen turns up midfilm as gunman Ring Shelton, trailing affability and menace. In collaboration with Dances With Wolves cameraman Dean Semler, Harris sets up shots and scenes in such a way that we often see into and out of Appaloosa's various buildings simultaneously, to excellent dramatic and atmospheric effect, and there's a thrillingly vertical dynamics to a scene involving a train at an isolated water stop. The action is lethal when it needs to be, but never dwelt upon. "That was over quick," Hitch observes after one gun battle. Cole's response says it all: "Everybody could shoot." --Richard T. Jameson
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
beautiful western well directed and well played,
By Marie-Noël Corriveau "french canadian" (Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Ce commentaire est de: Appaloosa [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
This film is directed with talent par Ed Harris who plays also a solid role with his friend Viggo. I am not a fan of westerns but the images, the omnipresent wind, the scenery, the friendship between the 2 men, the ladies who live in such a harsh environment ...I watched it with pleasure and admiration.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
This Overlooked Western is a Real Pleasure,
By
Ce commentaire est de: Appaloosa (DVD)
Ed Harris co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the film. You have to want it bad to work that hard! Viggo Mortenson co-stars, and both actors do fine work. I can understand why some people didn't like the film... there are no special effects, nothing blows up, and cars don't magically fly three hundred feet through the air. Also, there are no impossibly-quick draws here, or heroes in the common understanding of the word. It is a western - it takes its time, like riding a horse, through a subtle plot. And it ends with someone riding off into the sunset. If you liked Unforgiven, Open Range, or are a fan of older westerns, then you will like this film... just sit back and enjoy.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Character Study in a shoot-em-up or v.v.?,
By
Achat Amazon vérifié(Quest-ce que cest?)
Ce commentaire est de: Appaloosa [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
This is the most entertaining western I've seen in years. Harris has directed a series of fine actors whose personalities are so clearly drawn that we understand them like we do our favorites in a sit-com, then plunked them down in the middle of the Old West. The plot goes back and forth between the comedic / dramatic, and the classic western / modern relationship genres without warning: in what other western does the sheriff shoot the bad guy and then come home to the little woman who complains he's too concerned about career and spends all his time at the office? The prisoner slung over the horse, vs the sheriff who wants him 'sequestered' because he's trying to better himself by improving his vocabulary, a la Reader's Digest? A Mexican standoff (no Mexicans) with the best one-liner this side of Butch and Sundance.One reviewer complains that Appaloosa is anti-climatic and leaves a lot of things unresolved. In that sense it is like George Bush.
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