Ed Harris, an actor I admire a lot, has stepped behind the camera only twice so far, to sit in the film director’s chair. His third film is now in pre-production. The second one, which I saw last night, is from 2008 and is called ‘Appaloosa‘. It is a western in which Harris casts himself in the lead role, as he had done in 2000 with ‘Pollock’, a very different film. Appaloosa is the name of the town in New Mexico where the story is set in the 1880s. There is no such town on the map, but there is a breed of horse with that name. The film is special and different, one of those Westerns that follows the rules of the genre by providing a respectable amount of gun duels, battles with Indians and stories about justice on the moving frontiers of America at the time, but at the same time tries to say more about real life and the feelings of the heroes. It’s actually quite a modern story of friendship and love, which could very well have taken place in another place or century.
Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are two guns-to-hire who are on the good side of the law. Appaloosa notables hire them to defend the town from the actions of rancher Randall Bragg, a thug who terrorizes the peaceful residents and who assassinated the previous sheriff. Establishing the rule of law is not easy when laws do not really exist in the frontier territories of those times. Things get even more complicated when the beautiful Mrs. French appears, a poor but sophisticated widow who hides secrets in her past and who will awaken the passions of the three men. Will the friendship between the two heroes last?
The denouement will come after many adventures and gun duels that will satisfy fans of the genre. ‘Appaloosa‘ is filmed like a classic western in which the atmosphere of frontier America of those times is very well brought to the screen. of life. The dialogues between Virgil Cole – the fearless but sometimes lacking words sheriff – and Hitch – the more cerebral and well-versed deputy – take up a large part of the story. Men who have been through wars and the adventures of conquering the West seem clumsy precisely when it comes to relationships with women. Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen (the later with an impossible makeup though) are very suitable in these roles. On the other hand, I was surprised by Jeremy Irons, who makes one of the less inspired roles of his career, in my opinion, failing to nuance his ‘bad guy’ character enough. Renée Zellweger, also, failed to reveal the motivations of her character – Alli French. When is this woman honest? Who does she really love? The feminine mystery, you will say. Maybe. Anyway, in the end we are left with the same dilemmas as the male heroes of the film. But also with enough reasons to think about this film and its characters even after watching it.