I saw Appaloosa this weekend. I have been wanting to see this film for a while now. It has been overlooked with other massive releases like The Dark Knight taking so much media coverage. The reviews have been mixed between standard and great. One review claimed it was one of the top 5 westerns of all time while another claimed it was a "solid effort". I thought it was definitely a great western although it was not top 5 material. Appaloosa is a film adaption of the 2005 novel, by Robert B. Parker, of the same name. The film is directed by Ed Harris and he stars in it along with Viggo Mortenson, Renee Zellwegger, Jeremy Irons. The film is about lawman, Virgil Cole (Harris) and his loyal friend and deputy Everett Hitch (Mortenson). The two are hired to defend a town from a murderous rancher (Irons). Things get complicated when Virgil takes a fancy to the rather promiscuous woman played by Zellwegger. The two friends know each other inside and out, but are not very intimate and the film deals in great detail with their relationship. Virgil wants to settle down and move in with his woman in a nice house and live out the remainder of his years. Everett on the other hand, is younger and wants to move on without anything to hold him down. This movie is no Tombstone. The gunplay is at a minimum and the wild chase scenes and train robberies do not exist. Instead Appaloosa runs in the same vein as Open Range, which is about relationships and the amazing visuals of the west. The acting in this film is suberb although at times Zellwegger's efforts seem forced. The soundtrack is great, evoking a strange parallel to the TV series, Firefly's, soundtrack. The visuals and cinematography in Appaloosa are really where the movie shines. Some of the locations and shots are truly epic. I thought this movie was a great movie, and unfortunately, I believe it was lost among all the great movies of 2008.
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