appaloosa. a 2008 film directed by ed harris. a movie that is 115 minutes long and extremely slow paced, with actors viggo mortenson, renee zellweger, jeremy irons and ed harris himself.
with a leading cast like that nothing should go wrong right?
right! nothing really did. except maybe it was a little too slow paced with a little less action. i think one would expect more action from a western film.
in new mexico territory, virgil cole (harris) and everett hitch (moretenson) are peripatetic and audacious lawmen, hired by desperate towns as marshall and deputy. the city of appaloosa is afraid of randall bragg (irons), a rancher with wealth and a gang of thugs who escape after every trouble they cause and therefore it is difficult to prove them guilty and get the law to hang them.
cole and hitch are hired and they contrive to arrest bragg and bring him to trial. while all this is going on, a widow, allison french (zellweger) arrives in town. pretty, refined, good natured, polite and smart, cole falls deeply in love and allison seems to return his love equally, however, there is more to allison than meets the eye.
excellent direction. great performances from harris and mortenson, in both the fast action and the slow romance. the fact that one cannot stand zellweger's character in this film makes her perfect and different from her other roles. i wouldnt say this film is over rated. it is a laidback western film with a little romance and quick dual gun fights, even if it just lasts a few minutes.
i am not too much a western film fan, but still, i wouldnt have missed this one. more than real action, i think this film was about character and trust, respect and honour, friendship and freedom.
great watch if you can digest the slow pace (which i can :-))
1 comment:
Hi and welcome back to the blogosphere! Missed your presence here, though I was privileged to have the pleasure of your company in the real world.
You mention in your review that you expect more action from a "western".
I'd like to humbly submit that the classiest westerns are actually very low on action and violence. This is particularly true of the old school westerns. Shane, one of the best loved of these classics, has only one instance of gunplay. High Noon's action begins only in the last fifteen minutes of the film. The last GREAT western, Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven also has very little "action", though I'll admit that it is pretty violent. John Wayne's most memorable films such as Rio Bravo and True Grit are very low on the action quotient.
A western is all about atmosphere.. a slow build up and a gut wrenching climax. Just watch the opening ten minutes of Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West to see what I mean.
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