Review of Appaloosa (2008) by Viktor B — 19 Jul 2013

Appaloosa is a nice try at the western genre, but it's not particularly interesting for its two hour run time, and not even such an aesthetic, good-looking setting and a great cast makes this film a recommendable western. I felt no tension whatsoever throughout the movie, and even worse, the film tries to also focus on a love triangle, and considering the film does a poor job at making this romance anything interesting, everything becomes an overall tedious, boring experience. Even if it does have all the visuals necessary to meet the western setting "standard" for movies, for some odd reason that I can't exactly pin down, Appaloosa really doesn't feel much like a movie at all, and more like a TV movie. It's a shame, considering westerns are my favorite genre, yet this movie ultimately feels like a let-down and wasted potential for being one of the next big modern westerns and the revival of a once huge genre. Yet, despite these flaws, I can still respect this movie.

Appaloosa is about a rancher who's terrorizing the small town of Appaloosa, New Mexico, named Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons). After some lawmen head over to his ranch to try to arrest him and his gang for previous crimes, Randall shoots both of them, and the town decides to hire two lawmen, Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy, Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortenson) to protect the town and take down Randall. Along the way, a woman named Allison (Renee Zellweger) arrives in town, and Virgil starts a relationship with her. Appaloosa has some good to average acting, but Ed Harris, Viggo Mortenson, and Jeremy Irons are fairly impressive. Ed and Viggo have some decent chemistry, although nothing special, but they're likable leads and they help drive this film a little. I also really liked Jeremy Irons here, and at first he seemed miscast, but as time grew, I found him to be a more adequate villain. He's not as menacing or cold-blooded as he should've been, but he was an interesting character enough. The one character I really didn't like at all was Renee Zellweger, and she really has no purpose at all other than to take away from the main story and the other interesting characters. Her performance is clumsy and boring, and not convincing as a romantic interest whatsoever. Her romantic subplot takes up at least half of the film, and it's not even slightly interesting, especially when her acting comes off as awkward. Ed Harris showed some good emotion, at least, yet it left me thinking what his character found so appealing about her.

Thankfully, in between the romance is, of course, the main plot regarding Randall Bragg. Hopefully it can make up for the romantic flaws, right? Not really, and although it's more compelling than the romance, it lacks any tension or suspense whatsoever. There are long stretches in these bits that drags to boredom, where nothing much happens at all. Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy a deliberate, slow paced movie such as Once Upon a Time in the West, but the reason why I loved that movie is because it was actually captivating. I like a good silence that builds up tension in a western, and those silences practically defined the genre. However, here, these silences add up to nothing except dragged on scenes without any suspense. Not even the actual shootouts are good, and they feel bland, as well as there being a very few amount of them. It's not like I need a shootout every second or something, but if you're going to have a shootout, either add tension or make them entertaining. Even the finale suffers, and it's a very anti-climatic resolution. Logically, it makes sense, but the way it was executed was dull and made me yearn for more. Admittedly, some of the dialogue was actually really good, it's just that the problems lie in the execution.

Appaloosa is an unsatisfying western that I had high hopes for, but I was let down. It feels cluttered and messy, and it really could've been a lot better. It started off as a film I really wanted to see, but gradually, it became worse and worse until the unsatisfying climax. I really wanted to like this movie, but I didn't at all, although it isn't completely devoid of good. Despite some good performances, some good dialogue, and decent chemistry, there really isn't much else to be offered. It's a standard western with a straightforward plot, and I like westerns with those kind of plots, it's just that it was worse than your average because of all these flaws that bring it down. It has the ideas down, just not the execution. Appaloosa is a bad western that falls very short of a solid one, and it really could've been a lot better. I still respect it for trying, though.