Appaloosa (2008)

Ed Harris plays Virgil Cole; Viggio Mortensen is his shotgun-toting sidekick Everett Hitch.

They ride into the town of Appaloosa where a marshal and his deputies have been gunned down, and no one knows quite what to do about a man named Randall Bragg and his band of ruffians.

Virgil and Everett have an idea; they’re specialists when it comes to this kind of trouble.

But a difference arrives in Appaloosa in the form of pretty widow Ally French (Renee Zellweger), who has $1 to her name and take an immediate liking to Virgil.

As for him, well, he’s never met a woman quite so pretty, quite so educated, quite so “clean.”

But as he gets more involved with Ally, complications arise with Bragg.

Virgil finally gets the witness he needs to throw the man in jail.

But that just attracts two fast guns — the Shelton brothers — to town. Hired by Bragg’s men no doubt.

Virgil and Hitch will soon find out.

Virgil will also find out a rather startling revelation about Ally, one Hitch already suspects.

Review:

With his slow and easy directing style front and center, Ed Harris brings us one of the best 21st Century Westerns. It seems fresh without relying on weird developments or bizarre characters and while dealing with a familiar plot — two lawman taking on a powerful badman who can afford to hire killers to do his bidding.

Much of the original feel comes from the character of Ally French, played from Renee Zellweger. She’s one of the best developed, non-gunfighting females characters we’ve seen in a while — a widow afraid of being alone, afraid of being penniless, afraid of being homeless. All those fears push her into the arms of whatever man happens to be the strongest at the moment, to ensure her own survival above all else.

Directed by:
Ed Harris

Cast:
Ed Harris … Virgil Cole
Viggio Mortensen … Everett Hitch
Renee Zellweger … Ally French
Jeremy Irons … Randall Bragg
James Gammon … Earl May
Lance Hendrickson … Ring Shelton
Adam Nelson … Mackie Shelton
Bob Harris … Judge Callison
Gabriel Marantz … Joe Whitfield
Ariadna Gil … Katie

Score: Jeff Beal

Runtime: 115 min.

Memorable lines:

Bragg: “I told you you’d never hang me.”
Virgil Cole: “Never ain’t here yet.”

Everett Hitch, lying wounded alongside Virgil after a gunfight witht he Sheltons: “That happened quick.”
Virgil: “Everyone could shoot.”

Bragg: “You a drinking man, marshal?”
Virgil: “Not so much.”
Bragg: “And Mr. Eight-gauge (shotgun) over there?”
Everett: “Not so much.”
Bragg: “Hard to like a man who doesn’t drink a little.”
Virgil: “But not impossible.”

Allie: “So tell me, Mr. Cole, how long have you been killing people for a living?”
Virgil: “Well, Allie, I don’t kill people for a living. I keep the law. Killing is sorta a side thing to that.”

Virgil: “Never met a woman like her. Mostly I’ve been with whores and that squaw lady I told you about. She speaks well and dresses fine. She’s good looking. She can play the piano. She cooks good. And she’s very clean. She chews her food real good. But, if appears she’ll fuck anything ain’t gelded.”
Everett: “I’m not certain that’s quite right.”
Virgil: “What do you think’s right?”
Everett: “I think she wants to be with the boss stallion.”
Virgil: “There’s only one stallion in a herd.”
Everett: “At a time.”

Adriana Gil as Katie with Viggio Mortensen as Everitt Hitch in Appaloosa (2008)

Renee Zellweger as Allie French with Viggio Mortensen as Everett Hitch in Appaloosa (2008)