Reviewed by

Christopher Armstead

Even though I liked the movie ‘Copying Beethoven’ and I liked Ed Harris in that movie, I gotta admit that Ed Harris playing Beethoven was a bit of a stretch. Mr. Harris is a good enough actor that he managed to pull it off. More or less. Kind of. In a way. But Ed Harris in a western playing a borderline illiterate hired gun with anger management issues? Not that I want to pigeonhole my man, but yeah, I’m thinking they might’ve just grooved a fastball right into his wheelhouse. But then Mr. Harris also directed this film ‘Appaloosa’ based on a novel by Robert B. Parker, he of ‘Spencer’ fame, and I’m thinking Mr. Harris probably needed a simpler character to handle in between yelling Action! And Cut! And watching dailies every night. The result was a very good movie. It’s a different kind of western than what I think most of are used to, but a good one nonetheless.

Randall Bragg is bad man. Played by Jeremy Irons who in reverse I see more as Beethoven than a bloodthirsty western scalawag. We know Bragg is a bad man because when the local Marshall and a couple of deputies trek to Bragg’s ranch to request that he relinquish a couple of his men who have murdered a man and raped and murdered this man’s wife, Bragg shoots these men dead just like he was shaking their hands. Well the good people of Appaloosa have had enough of Bragg and his men abusing their town and have thusly sought some external assistance in bringing some law and order to these parts and to that end they have requested the services of one Virgil Cole (Harris) and his right hand man Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortenson). The only requirement that Mr. Cole has for his services, outside of a hefty payment, is that his word is law, no matter what that word might be. The small consortium interviewing Mr. Cole balks at first, but it is obvious they have to choose a poison and Cole’s is much easier to swallow than Bragg’s.

No sooner does Virgil sign the paper is he and Everett forced to lay to rest some of Bragg’s rather disrespectful ranch hands, upsetting Bragg mightily, but he chooses to save his wrath for another time. Also Appaloosa has just received a pretty new resident in the piano playing widow Mrs. French (Rene Zellwegger) who promptly snatches up Virgil’s heart. As Virgil has pointed out to his man Everett the woman takes a bath every night. Now that’s class baby. In between loving this woman our hired lawmen still have a job to do, and what Virgil really wants is to do bring Bragg to justice for killing this marshall and he gets his opportunity when one of Bragg’s ranch hands risks all to testify against him.

The film switches tone a bit as it turns into a bit of courtroom drama, and switches yet again into a hunt and chase picture, then to a relationship movie and then back to a classic western with shootouts and the like until the eventual dusty road showdown that we would expect from a film such as this. More or less.

‘Appaloosa’ is a different kind of western, certainly not one in the traditional vein with bad men in black versus good guys in white. It’s also not as morally murky as the spaghetti westerns or as dark as the late career Eastwood westerns. It is, in my opinion, completely its own kind of movie. Virgil Cole is flawed but he is an honorable man. Yes he will kill and not feel bad about it, but he does need some justification to do this, no matter how slight. The same applies to Everett Cole who is even more honorable which Virgil sees as a flaw in the psyche of his good friend, but this a friend who knows, understands and has some limited to control over Virgil’s ability to fly off the handle.

You gotta love the inclusion of Lance Henrikssen, who seems born to do this stuff and who plays a hired gun and adversary to Virgil, even though his character is certainly not a good man, he and Virgil live by the same code. The only characters who don’t have some kind of reasonable code to govern their behavior are the Jeremy Irons character who lives by the code of doing whatever he damn well pleases and the Renee Zellwegger character who lives by the code of doing whoever she needs to do get by.

The acting was top notch as one would expect, the settings were great and this was a true western through and through despite the different way that Harris approached the story. There was a showdown at the end but even that was different and certainly somewhat anti-climactic. But all in all I think if anyone is a fan of the western genre of films, then ‘Appaloosa’ is a film that shouldn’t be missed because it embodies all that I think we expect out of Western, it just does it an different way. And truth be told that is somewhat refreshing.