Howdy y'all. Just about to head off to the airport and head back home after a wicked time here in Austin at Fantastic Fest. My thanks and gratitude go out to festival programmers and their staff. I'm going to get this review of the one Secret Screening that I did manage to make it into. All in all it sounds like they were all hit and miss. None of them really seemed to hit it out of the park this year. I questioned my devotion to Todd yesterday afternoon when it appeared that the Secret Screening of Rocknrolla was far from full, but I was committed to finishing my review for Martyrs and adding another vote to our mix.
Two friends, Virgil and Everrett, played by writer/director Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, are hired to police a small town is suffering under the rule of a ruthless rancher, Randall Bragg. played by Jeremy Irons. Bragg has recently killed the former sheriff and his deputies and these two are called in to restore order to the town of Appaloosa. They soon find things get more complicated by the arrival of a young widow, Allison French, played by Renee Zellweger.
My jaw began to hurt and my heart sank as soon as she appeared on screen. My own personal misgiving about ol’ squinty aside, her character, Allison French, is despicable, bouncing from man to man. Whoever is king of the hill you’ll find Allison French there at his side as quick as she can walk over to him. Any man who does not see through her charade is dumb as fuck and deserves what’s coming to him. After all that is the point of the film isn’t it? The tagline for Appaloosa is Feelings Get You Killed. We knew this back then and we know it now. Women will bring you to ruin.
The other concern that I had with this film was the dialogue in the film. If it was homage to old westerns or not it felt unnatural and stiff. Rather than being fresh and vibrant it felt old and stale. With the exception of a few good laughs in the film the dialogue felt awkward. Characters felt like cookie cutter examples taken from a textbook probably titled, 'So you want to make a western'.
Appaloosa is the end result of someone who has studied and participated in film for long enough to have completed a project that is technically precise and accomplished. Ed Harris has made a complete film that looks nice, makes the most of its landscape and surroundings and looks authentic. It is just that in the end of Ed Harris’ film you really don’t care what happened in it. This is the end result. Men may have been tough and hard as nails but dumb as bricks when it comes to women. They may have been strong enough to turn away a group of ranch hands with mere words but when it came to women they had neither the fortitude nor the know how to deal with them.
All in all Appaloosa is fine. It is not a bad film. It is just instantly forgettable. There is nothing special or outstanding about this film that would set it apart from any other film in the western genre. And because it wasn't a standout film for me there really isn't a lot more that I can say about it.
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