Movies
By the book western.
Both figuratively and literally. "Appaloosa" is based on a Robert B. Parker novel of the same name which some critics claimed wasn't a masterpiece but pretty damn good. You could say the same for the movie.
The cast is stellar with Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger and Jeremy Irons, and Harris directed. It tells the tale of two gunmen (Harris and Mortensen) who make a living cleaning up crime ridden old west towns in a heavy handed, brutal manner and their newest job pits them against a malignant crew headed by Irons in a dusty New Mexican hamlet.
Now I'm a sucker for westerns. I've probably seen all the A list and a good chunk of the B list movies in this genre going back to the Duke's 1930 breakout film "The Big Trail". In my later years I've relaxed my judgement and just accept the older ones for what they are, basically period examples of film making. Westerns from the last couple of decades or so I'm more critical of because there's no excuse for sloppiness or wooden acting or dopiness, a lot of which can be found in John Wayne's Republic years for example. I always liked the themes in this genre and if the cinematography is good, the vast sweep of western landscapes.
Appaloosa is good for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it has it all. When you think about these movies virtually everything that comes to mind found a way into this one and Harris integrates it all with a deftness that was a joy to watch. He also apparently was anal as hell about authenticity and every stitch and weapon, every set, the mannerisms and lingo were true for 1882. Sticklers for the real thing won't find much to quibble.
It's actually a fine character study tucked neatly into a taut melodrama. You get to know these people. Harris and Mortensen (at his best IMO) had been together for a long time and were as comfortable in their silences as they were in their scrapes. Zellweger does a good job straddling the fine line between a manipulatrix and a frightened woman in a violent world. Irons, apparently in his first western, plays up his mob boss persona admirably. Harris uses tension throughout really well and the violence, as we're told in the bonus features, has to always advance the story.
One small element in the film - the ever popular quirky weapon, a plot device used often from Dirty Harry's magnum to Indiana's whip to Javier Bardem and his pneumatic punch. Here it's Mortensen's 8 gauge shotgun, a market hunting blunderbuss that was so heavy it would be mounted on a swivel to shoot entire flocks of birds out of the sky, but as they said in Romancing the Stone, "bastards have brothers".
Both figuratively and literally. "Appaloosa" is based on a Robert B. Parker novel of the same name which some critics claimed wasn't a masterpiece but pretty damn good. You could say the same for the movie.
The cast is stellar with Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger and Jeremy Irons, and Harris directed. It tells the tale of two gunmen (Harris and Mortensen) who make a living cleaning up crime ridden old west towns in a heavy handed, brutal manner and their newest job pits them against a malignant crew headed by Irons in a dusty New Mexican hamlet.
Now I'm a sucker for westerns. I've probably seen all the A list and a good chunk of the B list movies in this genre going back to the Duke's 1930 breakout film "The Big Trail". In my later years I've relaxed my judgement and just accept the older ones for what they are, basically period examples of film making. Westerns from the last couple of decades or so I'm more critical of because there's no excuse for sloppiness or wooden acting or dopiness, a lot of which can be found in John Wayne's Republic years for example. I always liked the themes in this genre and if the cinematography is good, the vast sweep of western landscapes.
Appaloosa is good for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it has it all. When you think about these movies virtually everything that comes to mind found a way into this one and Harris integrates it all with a deftness that was a joy to watch. He also apparently was anal as hell about authenticity and every stitch and weapon, every set, the mannerisms and lingo were true for 1882. Sticklers for the real thing won't find much to quibble.
It's actually a fine character study tucked neatly into a taut melodrama. You get to know these people. Harris and Mortensen (at his best IMO) had been together for a long time and were as comfortable in their silences as they were in their scrapes. Zellweger does a good job straddling the fine line between a manipulatrix and a frightened woman in a violent world. Irons, apparently in his first western, plays up his mob boss persona admirably. Harris uses tension throughout really well and the violence, as we're told in the bonus features, has to always advance the story.
One small element in the film - the ever popular quirky weapon, a plot device used often from Dirty Harry's magnum to Indiana's whip to Javier Bardem and his pneumatic punch. Here it's Mortensen's 8 gauge shotgun, a market hunting blunderbuss that was so heavy it would be mounted on a swivel to shoot entire flocks of birds out of the sky, but as they said in Romancing the Stone, "bastards have brothers".
posted by nolocontendere at 10:21 PM
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