APPALOOSA
Starring: Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons and Renee Zellweger
Directed By: Ed Harris
R for some violence and language
By John Delia
Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen are terrific together in Appaloosa, but although the story starts out with a bang, it drags in the middle then fizzles at the end. If you are a die-hard western film lover and just can’t get enough saloon fights, Indian raids and lawmen watching their jailbirds, then Appaloosa should be a perfect fit for you.
The film opens with the sheriff of Appaloosa getting gunned down by tough old rancher Randall Bragg (Irons) leaving the small western town without law enforcement. The town has an idea who killed their sheriff, but has no proof. Notorious lawmen for hire, HYPERLINK "http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800012404" Virgil Cole (Harris) and Everett Hitch (Mortensen) happen along and fill the vacancy. Bragg’s men, not knowing there’s a new sheriff in town start shooting up the saloon, so Cole and Hitch bring them down. Finding out about the incident, Bragg goes to town to settle the score, but Cole gets the drop on him and realizes that a lot of men will die in a street fight. When one of his men decides to out Bragg as the killer of the sheriff, Cole and Hitch go for the arrest. But like in most horse operas, things don’t go as planned.
This is Ed Harris’s first attempt as a screenwriter and second at directing. His directorial debut for the film Pollock, the life of the famous painter, was a huge success landing Marcia Gay Hardin a best supporting Oscar in 2001 and a nomination for Harris for Best Actor. But with Appaloosa Harris stumbles, much like Kevin Costner did directing Open Range by allowing the film to drag in parts. With Appaloosa, Harris just can’t seem to end a scene, adding more than the audience needs to grasp what’s going on. The performance by Zellweger was awful, appearing out of nowhere and stunting the plot with an implausible attempt at sex appeal.
Harris’s uneven storyline filled with more vistas than you want to see, long scenes of him sitting in front of the jail house and a schoolboy attempt at wooing Zellweger’s character gets the film in trouble from which it never seems to recover.
However the acting on the part of Harris and Mortensen is outstanding. The two partners in law enforcement fit together very nicely as buddies and killers. Here is where the film should have been focused. Maybe if Harris had Michael Bay or Ridley Scott direct his film, I would have enjoyed it more, because they certainly would have cut it and shaped it with a lot of two gun firepower.
The film does contain some brief violence and use of harsh language, so be forewarned.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Appaloosa fails with long film shots and a feeble storyline. (2 of 5 stars)
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