Appaloosa - B-

In theaters. Rated R, 101 minutes. Trailer.

With its sweeping vistas, complicated cowboys and violence, the Western genre has been thoroughly mined by filmmakers. With Appaloosa, director Ed Harris struggles to introduce anything new or compelling to the substantial canon. Harris stars as Virgil Cole, a lawman for hire in 19th century New Mexico; his sidekick is Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen). The two make for an odd couple and Renee Zellweger's Ali doesn't improve the chemistry. A variation on the Wyatt Earp story, this screenplay is based on the Robert B. Parker novel of the same name. Click below for more of Aragorn and Pollock Go West:

As Cole and Hitch ride into Appaloosa, the town is lawless after its town marshall and deputies are murdered by Bragg (Jeremy Irons) in cold blood. The two are hired to enforce the law according to their whims in the town. After a few brief uninspiring and uninteresting run-ins with Braggard and his crew, they finally nail Braggard for the murder of the marshall and the film turns into 3:10 to Yuma for about 25 minutes. Complicating everything is the appearance of Ali and Virgil's immediate love of her. She drops into the town without any backstory and right into Virgil and Everett's life. She is only loyal to Virgil when he's around, but he doesn't mind it so much because "he's only really been with whores and squaws." Everything turns out in the end, except any real point to the movie.

Virgil Cole is a classic cowboy badass - legendary with a gun, stunted emotions, bravery and no formal education. Hitch completes him with his West Point education, soft spoken manner and pragmatism. The two of them have several dry and funny scenes together, but their weird gay partner type relationship never really clicked for me. Irons is wasted as the Northerner Braggard, a role that could have been great if allowed to flourish instead of the boring Ali storyline.


Harris crafts some beautiful shots of the New Mexico terrain, but that's not hard to do. Mostly the film felt like it didn't know what it was. Sometimes it was trying to show the portrait of a tortured soul (he does that well - see Pollock (B+)), while other times its a serial western and then a love story. Not enough shooting in the film and way too much Zellweger. A disappointment.