Appaloosa
Ed Harris’ steady hand as co-writer/director, on evidence in his Oscar-winning 2000 film “Pollack” (a great movie of a great artist if you haven’t seen it) and this film- an adaptation of a 2005 novel by Robert B. Parker, lead to a personal triumph in the earlier film. With “Appaloosa,” however, one couldn’t help but conjure memories of 1993’s “Tombstone,” with Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and a sensational Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday as they lead up to the battle at the OK Corral, or feel like Harris was impeading on well-worn territory with his homage to the work of Eastwood, Ford, and others who turned the Old West into a moral battleground. Well, make no mistake- this is no “Unforgiven” or “The Searchers,” or really “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” but you’d be mistaken to say that this film doesn’t have anything to offer. But does it have anything new is the question? Like last year’s underrated “3:10 to Yuma,” one is inclined to say no, but that doesn’t mean it has nothing to offer period.
Harris stars as Virgil Cole, a lawman-for-hire who is- with his partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen)- brought into the small town of Appaloosa to apprehend Randall Briggs (Jeremy Irons), a rancher who killed the town’s last sheriff when he came to his ranch inquiring about the murders of a man and his wife. Virgil’s justice is swift and simple- follow his law or get locked up; if you refuse, you’re gonna get shot. Further complicating the issue is Allison French (Renee Zellweger), new to the town as well. Virgil takes a liking to her, but in the Old West, anything goes.
All of the elements are in place for Harris. Though his film meanders a tad too long at times, it’s a film that John Ford- the American master whose forte was in the western (see “The Searchers” if you don’t believe me)- is no doubt smiling down from Heaven on. Harris has a great respect for the genre’s classic themes- the way women can help redeem their men (although as played by Zellweger, in one of her best performances, Allie has some surprises and presents some dilemmas for all of these men; the ways enemies sometimes depend on one another to survive (Irons prowls charismatically with unchecked villainy); and the brotherhood between men (Harris and Mortensen dig deep into their characters, and reveal a bond that doesn’t seem capable of being broken, although circumstances do fracture it at times). Yes, Harris includes shootouts, double-crosses, and classic Western elements, but the film’s strength comes in its’ reverence to the material and the legacy it follows, and in how the film ends not with a shootout but a moral battle where character wins out over corruption that makes fools of even the most honorable people. “Appaloosa” isn’t looking to reinvent the genre- just honor it with a keen eye and open heart.
