Appaloosa

2008 • 116 minutes

About this movie

Academy Award-nominee Viggo Mortensen ("A History of Violence," "The Lord of the Rings" franchise) stars as Everett Hitch and Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Ed Harris ("A Beautiful Mind," "The Truman Show") stars as Virgil Cole in this Western directed by Harris himself. The paths of two gunmen tracking an escaped murderer and that of a beautiful, dangerous widow with an agenda of her own collide in the lawless western town of Appaloosa. In Appaloosa, they find a small, dusty town suffering at the hands of a renegade rancher with so little regard for the law that he has taken supplies, horse and women for his own and left the city marshal and one of his deputies for dead. Cole and Hitch, itinerant lawmen, are used to cleaning up after opportunistic thieves, but this time they find an unusually wily adversary--one who raises the stakes not by playing with the rules, but with emotions.

Ratings and reviews

Ed Harris did just what he set out to do and it all worked well. Its good to see an old time western with a realistic theme thats believable. The cinematography was well done, period dress pretty accurate and Viggo and Ed play well against each other. Its always fun watching Renée Zellweger and Jeremy Irons. The only misstep I saw were the construction materials used building the house. 2x4's? But thats just a minor misstep.Thanks for making it real boys.

Based on other reviews, I rented it. Good cast, acting and setting. Not on the same level as tombstone, unforgiven, 3:10 to Yuma, or Wyatt Earp. Plot and character development were lacking. No real impactful or memorable scene either.

All the performances here are just fine. The story rolls on like a tumbleweed though... This watches like a short story instead of a novel.