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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 1824
Released: January 13, 2009 |
| Our Price: $1.30 |
| Used Price: $1.09 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In Marshal Virgil Cole and deputy Everett Hitchs line of work, you shoot quick, you shoot clean, and you reload straightaway. No remorse. No looking back. No feelings. Feelings get you killed. Paired as rivals in A History of Violence, Ed Harris (who also directs, produces and co-scripts) and Viggo Mortensen stand together as longtime friends and for-hire peacekeepers Cole and Hitch in this character-driven, bullet-hard Western based on Robert B. Parkers novel. Blood will spill in the town called Appaloosa.
Description of Appaloosa:
The Western has been an endangered species, on and off, for something like 40 years now. Welcome to Appaloosa, Ed Harris's film of the Robert B. Parker novel--first because it exists at all, but even more because Harris as star, director, and co-screenwriter (with Robert Knott) has managed to bring it to the screen with no hint of fuss or strain, as if the making of no-nonsense, copiously pleasurable Westerns were still something Hollywood did with regularity. Harris plays Virgil Cole, one of those ace gunfighter-lawmen whose name need only be mentioned to make a saloon go still. Cole and his shotgun-toting partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) accept a commission to enforce law and order in the New Mexico town of Appaloosa. That basically means protect it from rapacious rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons, looking right at home on the range), who murdered the previous town marshal like swatting a fly. Life becomes complicated when, about the time Bragg has been jailed to await trial, a fancy-dressing piano player calling herself Mrs. French (Renée Zellweger) steps down off the train. Cole commences to have feelings, and as he ruefully reminds Hitch, "Feelin's can get ya killed."
In his second directorial effort (following the 2000 biopic Pollock), Harris takes his cue from novelist Parker's often deadpan-comic touch, allowing action and character to accumulate in accordance with an overall eccentric rhythm. (The film's main disappointment is that it would benefit from more running time to allow things to stew a bit longer, especially in the second half.) The character work is choice, from the moment Tom Bower, James Gammon, and Timothy Spall step into view as Appaloosa's civic leaders; the director's father Bob Harris contributes a cameo as a mellifluous-tongued circuit judge, and an age-thickened Lance Henriksen turns up midfilm as gunman Ring Shelton, trailing affability and menace. In collaboration with Dances With Wolves cameraman Dean Semler, Harris sets up shots and scenes in such a way that we often see into and out of Appaloosa's various buildings simultaneously, to excellent dramatic and atmospheric effect, and there's a thrillingly vertical dynamics to a scene involving a train at an isolated water stop. The action is lethal when it needs to be, but never dwelt upon. "That was over quick," Hitch observes after one gun battle. Cole's response says it all: "Everybody could shoot." --Richard T. Jameson
Appaloosa Reviews:
a somewhat flawed western 
2009-11-08 - In this movie Virgil Cole is a lawman for hire
with his companion , Everett Hitch,who carries an 8 gage shotgun.
They are hired to pacify the town of Appaloosa.
The rich influential Bragg has killed the previous Marshal and his deputies.
When a widow woman enters the picture, things get more complex.
A witness comes forward and Bragg is arrested and tried, but escapes
twice on the way to trial
and finally is pardoned by his friend President Chester A. Arthur.
In Appaloosa things go from bad to worse until a strange conclusion.
This acting is good, but the plot is just kind of basic.
The characterizations are kind of one dimensional, so that
the macho sort of drowns out the feelings that you probably should have for them?
Bad movie with good gunfight scenes 
2009-10-22 - This movie was a disappointment. Ed Harris was not a very good cowboy which was a surprise to me because I usually like his work. Maybe it was his lack of tough guy facial hair or maybe my real problem came down to the character he was playing who had a weakness when it came to women which made him seem weak overall. Viggo did well in his role, but I think both actors were hampered by the story which was a poorly recycled version of High Plains Drifter. Renee Zelweeger was also very annoying. On a positive note, Appaloosa did have realistic gunfight scenes that reminded me of "Open Range."
Super Great Movie! A Must See For Everyone! 
2009-10-14 - There are already several reviews about the storyline and the movie itself, so all I will say is that we saw this movie on HBO and enjoyed it so much, that we immediately bought it on DVD as a gift for my daddy.
And the Amazon merchant we bought it from had a great price, great value, and super fast shipping. It arrived as promised and as expected.
Very pleased 
2009-10-07 - I thought this was one the the best and most authentic movies of the West that I have seen thus far.
Great Movie - for those who appreciate story/plot/character-driven films
2009-10-05 - Go read Roger Ebert's review.
This movie is not 3:10 to Yuma (the remake w/ Bale and Crowe). There's definitely less action. However, the film plays like you're reading a dime novel. Gritty characters. You can almost taste the dust and feel the biting wind. I'm not a big fan of Renee Zellweger. But, personal bias aside she really puts on a good performance - as does Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, AND Jeremy Irons (how can you not love that combination?)
It may be slow to some, but like I said, it plays like you're reading a dime novel.
If you liked this, you'll like David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" The movie does have its action sequences, but it's more a story about characters and their moral dilemmas.
