Film Review

Title: Appaloosa

Director: Ed Harris

Cast: Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, Renée Zellweger

Genre: Western

Runtime: 114 min.

Rated: R

Released: September 19^th 2008

Reviewed By: Alan Jones (Toronto Correspondent - Canada)

Word from the Toronto Film Festival slated Appaloosa as the first traditional Western since Kevin Costner’s Open Range. I’m not sure why James Mangold’s 3:10 To Yuma isn’t considered traditional, but otherwise, that statement seems to ring true. However, Ed Harris’ new film isn’t just a traditional Western, it’s a damn good Western. The plot, though it initially seems familiar, is given fresh life in the screenplay by Harris and Robert Knott. For his second foray into directing after the Oscar nominated Pollock in 2000, Harris’ has assembled an impressive cast and has crafted a taut motion picture.

The story takes place in the town of Appaloosa; Virgil Cole (Harris) and his deputy, Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), have been summoned by the town aldermen to become the town marshal and find a way to rid the town of Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), a local parasite who likely murdered the previous marshal. Also arriving in town is Alli French (Renée Zellweger), a widow who becomes involved with Cole. While all this sounds awfully derivative, it is efficiently directed and well paced, and the plot soon takes a fresh turn. Harris handles these aspects of the film deftly, and carefully unpacks the psychology of the characters.

The acting is uniformly excellent. Harris plays Cole as a man who is incredibly capable of his job. He is ruthless in his upholding of the law, and willing to go to any length necessary to get his man. But Harris also lets us know how impotent this man is in carrying out a relationship. Cole is the logical extreme of the masculinity usually represented in Westerns. He is so masculine that he can barely relate to a possible life partner. His partner doesn’t even know if he’s married or not. Zellweger plays Mrs. French as an insecure and manipulative woman who is far removed from the damsels of Westerns during the studio era (Grace Kelly in High Noon comes to mind). Mortensen plays Hitch as an intelligent man who can easily see Cole’s faults, but still respects him. Irons is suitably menacing as the villain, but the movie isn’t about the villain, it’s about the hero, Virgil Cole.

Appaloosa explores the themes of putting too much authority into the hands of one who might not deserve it. The town aldermen are forced to give their town to Cole, who is prone to throwing temper tantrums and often oversteps his already generous amount of authority. At one point, Hitch claims he doesn’t care too much about the law, he just figured it was “a legal way to be a gunman”. During one scene, Cole wards off Bragg’s men by threatening to kill Bragg, who is being held prisoner. When another set of gunmen use the same technique with Mrs. French, Harris shows us the consequences of such ruthless methods of marshalling.

But this movie isn’t just psychology and character examination. It’s also full of some very well done action scenes. Harris and Mortensen step into the Old West with ease. Both actors are eminently watchable and their banter is one of the highlights of the film. The movie is well made and well acted and is probably better than many of the higher profile movies coming out in the next month or two.