Yesterday we saw "Appaloosa." I had been looking forward to it. I thought Appaloosa would refer to a horse breed, but it was the name of the town, and no other explanation was offered.
Disappointed. I hope there aren't too many spoilers in what follows.
The opening was standard formula western plotting: the towns people can't handle the criminal element and they hire a gunman.
It starts to have some humor when the Ed Harris character can't find the fancy word he wants for his point and looks to Viggo who always has one for him. Ed Harris? He never got dirty, never shaved, but never got whiskers either. Hell, he's almost as old as I am and is balder and more wrinkled than I. At our age we do not chase ladies who are the same age as my daughter.
Of course, Renee was not exactly a lady, although she saw reality better than the other characters. She did what she had to do.
The bad guy played by Jeremy Irons was too old too. All these guys are 20 years older than the real ones. The real ones were in rocking chairs or pushing daisies at that age.
Viggo looked authentic. He even had a white line on his forehead where his hat kept the sun off. The real cowboys and woodsmen I knew were white as a sheet except for their face, a V-shaped pattern on their chest exposed by an open collar below their neck, and their hands. His beard and hairdo were much like the photos of real period cowboys.
The movie opened with a very brave and authentic looking marshal going in to Jeremy Irons ranch to arrest a couple of cowboys. Irons said he couldn't spare them. The Marshal said "Cut them two out." Irons opens fire, as did the twenty or so gunhands standing their with them.
Iron's is supposedly a rich rancher, but there was not a single cow, nor even a corral or barn for that matter.
Ed Harris repeats this scenario almost exactly by riding up on the gang which outnumbered him ten to one. Irons doesn't have his troops open fire this time, but if he had the result would have been similar.
Another scene has the gunhands getting orders to back off from Irons, who has both Ed's and Viggo's guns pointed right at his head. That was a little more like it.
I liked the camaraderie and loyalty between Viggo and Harris. It was very believable.
I have an old friend like that, so I know. We joke that if one falls off a cliff and breaks his leg the other is to leave him there but take his pistol. The truth is, either of us would die to protect the other.
The town set Appaloosa was authentic, although a little more weathered than I would expect for a young town in the middle of the dessert. Windows were 19th century wavy glass, not perfect. Little or no paint. The hotel was very reminiscent of the Meade Hotel in Bannack, a true ghost town that I've seen this very summer. The rest of the buildings were a little more refined than Bannack's. Unlike Bannack, there was no apparent means of support for the town, although the railroad did go through.
There was one scene that seemed completely disconnected from the movie. It was a few shots of a cougar watching the train go by. I thought it was going to develop the story but it was just hanging there.
I would probably buy the video, but I wouldn't go back to see it in the theater. My wife had the same reaction. |
