Appaloosa

Ed Harris has directed, co-written and stars in a fine new western entitled Appaloosa. That is the name of the town where all of the action takes place.

Virgil Cole (Harris) and his partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are peace keepers. That means that they are hired by various towns to keep the bad guys in check (which very often turns out not to be so peaceful). They are in Appalooosa to convict Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) of murdering several people. But things get complicated when a needy widow named Allison French (Renee Zellweger) arrives in town.

The film is not just a western. It has many interesting components and a psychological twist to it. It is a thinking person's western. There is action but you also have to do a bit of thinking.

Harris, who also directed the wonderful Pollack a number of years ago, does a good job here. The dialog is sharp and the script kept me wondering what would happen next. All of the acting top notch and I especially liked Mortensen as the cynical partner. It was also great to see Timothy Spall, Lance Henrikson and Ariadna Gil in supporting.

I urge you to see this film either on the big screen or on DVD (but the cinematography is so much better on the big screen). In this way we will be supporting Harris in the hopes that he will direct another film (and not take so many years to do it).