Appaloosa (Ed Harris, 2008): USA

Reviewed by Collier Grimm. Viewed at the Metro Four Theater, Santa Barbara, CA.

If you’re looking for facial hair to upstage an actor, look no farther than Ed Harris’s Appaloosa.  The actor, director and co-writer sidesteps the grandeur of a classic John Houston Western, and instead opts for in-depth character studies, a frequently stagnant camera, and unique moments of comedy. Harris has re-envisioned the Western genre set in a small town with a big name. He has traded out lengthy gun battles for two male leads that practice Latinate words, and overzealous villains for a somewhat femme fatal-like Zellwegger. One would be hard pressed to find a woman character with more than two lines in any classic American Western.

However, Harris does pays homage to some of classic cinema’s favorite Westerns. The camaraderie between Virgil Cole (Harris), and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortenson) is a nod to popular 1960’s buddy-buddy films like Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. The idea that both men work as traveling lawmen for hire somewhat parallels John Wayne’s unconventional hero in, The Searchers.

Jeremy Irons plays Bragg, an Appaloosa rancher who plays by his own rules. His performance is deliciously subtle, yet his practiced New Mexican dialect is more distracting than it supplements his method acting. Once the town hires Cole and Hitch to “clean things up,” all seems well…until recently widowed Ms. French (Renee Zellweger), starts dropping her bloomers left and right.

I found Appaloosa to be a much more entertaining take on the re-vamped Western genre. Last year’s There Will Be Blood moved at a turtle’s pace, while 3:10 to Yuma was a forgettable remake. If you’re looking for something with a new twist, a giant mustache, and lots of open plains, saddle up for Appaloosa.

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Published:
10.07.08 / 7am
Category:
Films