Appaloosa

(2008) dir. Ed Harris
viewed: 11/05/08 at Opera Plaza Cinemas, SF, CA

Though I hated them growing up, I’ve become a sucker for Westerns in my adult life.  There just aren’t that many of them made nowadays.  Last year, though, we had both a good mainstream Hollywood Western, James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma (2007), which was pretty solid and entertaining.  And we also had the amazing The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Andrew Dominik’s moody, tremendous film about legend-making and its interaction with the actual.  So, that was pretty impressive.  Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man (1995) is one of my favorite films, so I heartily believe that the Western, while not a popular genre anymore, still has great room for cinematic development.

That said, Ed Harris’ Appaloosa isn’t necessarily a major film on any level.  It’s a fairly entertaining film, with a few good scenes, some pretty appealing character development, between stars Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris, as well as Renée Zellweger as a trampy lady.  But all in all, it’s sort of a smattering of tropes and character, without a very compelling story.  It’s sort of like Ed Harris thought, “Man, Viggo Mortensen and I would look real cool as two cowboys, wouldn’t we?” and then went about developing the characters to make them sort of interesting.  And then you throw in Jeremy Irons as your bad guy…well, you’ve got a Western then, ain’t you?

Like I said, it’s fine.  I kind of liked it, but it’s not as good as either of the 2007 Westerns that I mentioned, and no doubt not as good as hundreds of Westerns from the catalog of history.

I guess that is sort of the thing in making a Western in these days.  They appeal for the style and the depiction of America’s past, a vision of the country and a quality of life (rough quality), that is bygone.  But outside of the appeal of the aesthetics and the standards of the genre, these days, to make a Western, it seems like you should have more of a reason, perhaps you need more of a reason just to get it made.  Which reminds me of yet another good Western of recent years, The Proposition (2005), a Western in Australia, much more brutal and driven.

I don’t mean to shortchange Ed Harris.  It’s just that it’s not up to the standards one might hope for.