Snob Movie Review: Appaloosa

This movie is co-written, directed and stars Ed Harris. It opens in limited release on September 19th, and then wider October 3rd, 2008.

In a nutshell, Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen plays hired cop-buddies that are paid to clean up a town that is being ruled by a rancher (played by Jeremy Irons), who also killed a bunch of other lawmen at the beginning of the movie. A lady comes to town and complicates stuff.

I guess Ed Harris was thinking of making a straight up Western genre movie, as opposed to the more interesting Revisionist Western. He really made a mistake.

There is just so much wrong with this picture, that it's hard to understand what all of the buzz is about. Perhaps the main problem is that the lady, played by a horribly looking Renee Zelwegger, doesn't really complicate issues too much. No real love triangle develops, and Renee plays it completely melodramatic. I just don't understand the real purpose of this character.

Jeremy Irons tries his best as an evil Rancher, but ends up playing a caricature of Daniel Plainview. Ed Harris is also unconvincing as a strict law man. It's painful to watch him trying to convince the audience that he's actually enjoying this.

Did I mention that there's a band of Native Americans? I mean, INJUNS! Another calamity is the lone Asian guy in the cafe. I believe the direction must have been "Play the most stereotypical Chinese guy you can think of!".

At the end of the day, this is one of the most indulgent, directionless and pointless pictures of late. Neither tribute or critique of the Western genre, Appaloosa takes the worst parts of the genre and makes them even worse.