Appaloosa is a western film that is based on a novel by the same name, which was written by crime writer Robert B. Parker.
The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger, Jeremy Irons and Ed Harris, who also directed and co-wrote the movie with Robert Knott.
This movie is not your typical western film with tons of shoot’em-up scenes.
The 1880s old western scenario involves two friends, marshal Virgil Cole (Harris) and his deputy Everett Hitch (Mortensen), who are hired to defend the small town of Appaloosa from a rural gang, who’s leader is a murderous rancher named Randall Bragg (Irons.)
This film has a lot of dialogue with very few action scenes. Even though the movie was only two hours long, it felt like it was a three hour film.
Though there are some moderately surprising moments in the film, don’t expect Appaloosa to have the same action or drama similiar to past western films, such as Unforgiven or Wyatt Earp.
The movie does have some humorous moments when sometimes Cole (like a typical rural cowboy) would have trouble saying “big words,” such as "disparaging." Hitch, of course, would be right there to help him out in pronouncing certain words.
As mentioned in the film, Cole and Hitch go way back as gun slinging drifters, so you can really tell they have a close bond and that they always look out for each other. Nothing seems to break up their friendship, despite Cole’s new love interest named Allison French, (Zellweger), who at first tries to get in between their friendship but fails to do so.
The film’s ending proves how strong Hitch and Cole’s friendship really was.
I really enjoyed the chemistry between Harris and Mortensen.
The only problem I had with the movie was Irons’ character, Randall Bragg. Irons is a great actor and does play a pretty good villain in most of his films. However, in Appaloosa, I really expected more from his character, which wasn’t really impressive.
Appaloosa is worth seeing just for the acting alone from this ensemble cast.
Appaloosa is rated R and contains some violence, brief nudity, and language.
The DVD was released on January 13, 2009.
Reviewer's Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Written by: Bridget Campos
Originally posted on February 8, 2009
Link: http://thecelebritycafe.com/movies/full_review/12792.html
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