In "Appaloosa," which is set in the New Mexican territory of 1882, Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen are a pair of frontier lawmen hired by the citizens of Appaloosa to wrest control of the town from a gang of ruffians (led by Jeremy Irons) after they shoot down the marshal and his deputies in cold blood. Renee Zellweger also shows up as a promiscuous widow who captures the eye and eventually the heart of the newly appointed sheriff (Harris).
Co-written by Harris and Robert Knott (from a novel by Robert B. Parker) and directed (rather ploddingly) by Harris, "Appaloosa" pays homage to the time-honored traditions of the Western genre, as the forces of Good, represented by Harris and Mortensen, square off against the forces of Evil, embodied by Irons and his cohorts.
There's not much that is truly new here, except perhaps for a refreshingly novel moral slackness in the lead female character. Yet, while the characterizations are rich, the relationships complex and the performances authentic, the movie itself suffers from a bad case of inertia, loping along at an enervating pace when it should be racing ahead at a full-on gallop.
There's substance of a sort to "Appaloosa;" it's just a question of whether you'll be able to stay awake long enough to fully absorb and appreciate it.
Co-written by Harris and Robert Knott (from a novel by Robert B. Parker) and directed (rather ploddingly) by Harris, "Appaloosa" pays homage to the time-honored traditions of the Western genre, as the forces of Good, represented by Harris and Mortensen, square off against the forces of Evil, embodied by Irons and his cohorts.
There's not much that is truly new here, except perhaps for a refreshingly novel moral slackness in the lead female character. Yet, while the characterizations are rich, the relationships complex and the performances authentic, the movie itself suffers from a bad case of inertia, loping along at an enervating pace when it should be racing ahead at a full-on gallop.
There's substance of a sort to "Appaloosa;" it's just a question of whether you'll be able to stay awake long enough to fully absorb and appreciate it.