Viggo Mortensen Movie:

		List Price: $28.99		Label: New Line Home Video Salesrank: 2296 Released: January 13, 2009
		Our Price: $12.00
		Used Price: $9.60
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Paired as rivals in A History of Violence, Ed Harris (who also directs, produces and co-scripts) and Viggo Mortensen stand together as friends and for-hire peacekeepers Cole and Hitch in a character-driven, bullet-hard Western based on Robert B. Parkers novel. As the woman who arrives in town with only a dollar and a keen sense of survival, Renée Zellweger adds feelings--things that can get you killed--to a quest to bring murderer Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) to justice. Blood will spill in the town called Appaloosa.

Description of Appaloosa [Blu-ray]:
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 [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Directed by Ed Harris
2009-12-11 - I have always loved Ed Harris as a character actor. This time he acts in and directs Appaloosa. Harris plays Virgil Cole and Viggo Mortensen as Everett Hitch who together roam the western United States as hired guns and help out towns to be kept free from outlaws. They come to Appaloosa to help it get rid of Jeremy Irons who has killed the Deputy. After going on about cleaning the town, they encounter Widow Renee Zellweger who becomes a threat to their friendship.
The movie was based on a novel by Robert B Parker. Highlights of the movie include the scenery or landscape of New Mexico, the chemistry between the two leads i.e. Harris and Mortensen. I thought Zellweger was miscast and so was Jeremy Irons. The comedy between the two leads is funny but subtle. I though the scenes when Mortensen has to complete Harris's words are funny and so was the scene with the Chinese man in the café. Don't expect any sudden fireworks or explosion but some good acting and a thing called chemistry between the two male leads. I give it three stars 121009


One Of My Favorites
2009-12-09 - My husband and I first viewed this movie at our local theater and really liked it. Recently, a friend mentioned how much they liked it, which prompted me to order it from Amazon for my DVD collection. We have now watched it for the second time and found it to be even better the second time around. I highly recommend it to those who love good westerns. You won't be disappointed.

Appaloosa
2009-11-29 - Appaloosa is a great movie, made in the same way as great movies like "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". The historical accuracy is excellent. An old guy like me who has grown up watching great westerns (and some bad ones) can really appreciate the attention to detail in the set, the clothing and weapons, the tack on the horses and the acting. This is truly one of best movies to come out of Hollywood in a long time. It's also nice that this movie was made here in the US. (not that some of the ones made in Canada weren't good.) This is one DVD I will definately add to my collection.
The only thing I can say that I would like to have been different.....I would love to have been an extra!


A Well Executed Story, With A Sense Of Optimumness
2009-11-28 - I am a fan of western, in a different way than the most. I was born, raised and dreamt in a different culture, with a different language. However, Westrn was part of my young-adulthood reading. Although I enjoyed several spaghetti westerns, this western clicked somewhere deep within. Throughout the movie Viggo Mortensen managed to be on the sideline, in terms of action and such. The finishing cleans up the confusion a bit. The vindication of camaraderie could be a theme. However, I doubt it's that straight-forward. It was ultimately a good story, that can make any romantic very nostalgic. A part of my psyche cherishes that rugged life of wild-west, the chivalry, comradeship and such. It also connects me with the past memory of my feelings, [memory of feelings? go figure]--about my imagination of America, even before I was planning to come here. Within me, I always believed and carried a wild west. The way the man and his packhorse rode to the west, merging with the setting sun--lonely, but free, only companion are the horse and the dust of his trail, well, my soul yearns for it. The movie brough a part of that back.
Ed Harris and Vigo Mortensen--both acted well, so did Rene Zellweger. By the way, Rene Zellweger acted in a smilirly vulnerable role in another movie where her Jewish husband's brother bed her --result of her sexual frustration and loneliness. The movie does not have too much talking--and dialogues were meaningful, instead of being "filler-talks", cinematography is commendable, and I liked the soundtrack--the beats and instrumentation go well with the modern time. I think Ed Harris's greatest credit in this movie is to be able to use sound and dialogue to create a universal theme of friedship, romance, agression. greed, politics and sacrifice--in one nice amalgum. It seems the set was a small one. The make-up and costume seem great--especially the toguh, hardened look on both mai characters' faces.
I recommend the movie. Good show.

horrible
2009-11-25 - This was the first film in years that was so bad I turned it off. I watched over an hour but it did not improve. I love the actors but the story has been recycled over and again and the direction was questionable. If you can rent it first, if you love it buy it and say my review wasn't helpful. Either way go watch 3:10 to Yuma.