Western flicks have slowly disappeared from theaters over the past 4 decades. Once in abundance with too many to count, we're now lucky to get maybe 1 a year and even then we're not guaranteed quality. Last year we were treated to Russell Crowe and Christian Bale duking it out in fantastic remake of '310 to Yuma'. This year Appaloosa hopes to join it as another film attempting to get the western genre off of life support. Its slow paced, very dialogue heavy, and at times it seems to drag. But what the film lacks in action it sure as hell makes up for in character development and the chemistry between the two leads is unmatched.
What makes Appaloosa so great is that although its a traditional western genre movie it has a modern day feeling. Director/Writer/Producer/Star Ed Harris plays Virgil Cole, and Viggo Mortensen is Everett Hitch. Both are for hire gunmen and descend upon the town of Appaloosa in search of work. They find out that an asshole by the name of Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) has just murdered the sheriff and two of his deputies. The frightened townspeople want things set right and after swift negotiations over the scope of their duties, Cole and Hitch take the job to go after Bragg's gang. Later we get the widow Mrs. Allison French (Renee Zellweger), who charms both men. Now there isn't a lot of action, so if your going into the theater expecting just big gunfights you will be sorely disappointed. If you expect a western with an atmosphere along the lines of Unforgiven then this film is for you. Overall the acting is superb with Viggo Mortensen stealing the show. The New Mexico and Texas landscape have a vibrate palette and the film captures that beautifully. I can't give Ed Harris enough credit because as a quadruple threat, he really delivered a great western.
Now Appaloosa is a great film but its not "classic" material, and the reasoning behind that is because of its pacing. Look I'm a big fan of character development but sometimes I felt like the film was holding my hand when the obvious was already stated. Renee Zellwegers Allison character was also just to unlikable for my tastes. I think if they had someone more capable and better suited in her role the movie would have been a lot better off. The running time is 114 minutes, but it felt about half hour longer. None of these negatives are truly detrimental to the enjoyment of the film itself, but had they been fixed it would have shot the film into the stratosphere.
Overall Appaloosa is a an enjoyable western, with a very talented cast to back it.
Not quite a classic but a step forward for the genre nonetheless.
Grade: B
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