Appaloosa (2008) – on rental. One of the movie genres that I miss watching a lot is the American Western. There hasn’t been very many of these over the years, but the ones which had appeared have been mostly good e.g. Wyatt Earp, Silverado, Tombstone, Open Range – which I really liked – and the very recent 3:10 to Yuma.
For the curious, ‘Appaloosa’ refers to a horse breed. But funnily, the film has little to do with the horse. Heck – I’m not even sure if the word came up in the film. Putting that aside, the film is centered on two lawmen who get hired to to defend a town against a brutal rancher.
There’re no young hot male bods in Appaloosa: the film stars three older but yet still very manly actors: Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris as the two friends, and Jeremy Irons as the rancher. I always enjoy watching films with the latter two actors. Thrown into the mix is Renée Zellweger who plays the love-interest. Lance Henriksen also shows up, and who plays a character of shifting loyalties. This isn’t his first Western, so he looks and talks the part well enough.
The film is a sort of pet-project of Ed Harris’, who produced, directed and starred in the production. He plays the uber-cool, older and more experienced of the two peacekeepers. Mortensen does a low-key companion who has the most respect for his mentor. The both have great chemistry as great friends, and their moments of quiet dialog where they muse about women, the law, the meaning of a word, and more women are very fun to watch.
The film’s script seems to hold true to what life was like in the old West from 130 years ago. How women were perceived, what men were looking for, and that in many respects how conflicts stemmed from money, territory, and power. The show has a lot of well-written dialog, and like 3:10 to Yuma, the gun fights are short, to the point but yet thrilling.
On the overall: pretty good if movies in this genre are your thing. Open Range remains for me the best Western film in recent years though.
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