DVD Released July 16, 2009
Like many westerns before it, Ed Harris' second film as director is a study of two men: lawman Virgil Cole (Harris) and his trusted side-man Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen). While possessing a close friendship developed over many years, a healthy distance between them is maintained through their differences - Everett is wiser and savvier than his steadfast elder who has knows little of life outside his chosen profession. That is, until Renee Zellweger, as Allie French, arrives.
Virgil finds himself falling for this city girl from the East, dressed in her fancy outfits and able to play smooth tunes on the piano. This is a first for Virgil, it seems, and a distraction from the responsibility of protecting the New Mexico town of Appaloosa from roving criminal Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), who is wanted for the murder of the previous town sheriff.
Traditional in structure, and featuring the requisite gunfights, stand-offs and train journeys, the film is refreshing in its lack of urgency, frequently pausing for Virgil and Everett's meditations on life, relationships and gunslinging. Harris is simultaneously imposing and endearing as Virgil, a man who reads Emerson yet stumbles over complicated words. Mortensen, obscured under his wide-brimmed hat, is unflappably cool as always and ready to intervene when Virgil becomes blindly out of his depth.
Adapted from Robert B. Parker's 2005 novel, Appaloosa is neither a well paced thriller like 3:10 to Yuma, nor a revisionist piece like Unforgiven and suffers from being a little too routine. While the narrative wanders in its latter third, it nonetheless impresses through its understated photography and the well realized central relationship.
This superb single-disc DVD contains an excellent array of special features including a commentary track, behind the scenes documentaries and deleted scenes.
