I think this is the second modern western in a row I watch with some homoerotic undertones. I guess I know how to pick them.
Appaloosa is one of the most generic westerns I have ever watched. After a while it turns into a checklist of western clichés it has to tick off and that becomes very distracting. Other than a great duo in the main characters, it doesn't really offer anything worth watching in my opinion other than watching great actors being great.
After a sheriff and his deputies are killed. The small town of Appaloosa hires gunmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch to take care of the city. They are a strict duo and everything falls into jeopardy when a young woman arrives to the town.
The main selling point for this movie is the relationship between the main characters. Other than giving some great performances by Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, they really create this believable dynamic of friends and partners that has been that for many years. Another great performance is made by Jeremy Irons, but no surprise there, he gives a great villain performance. The way Cole and Hitch speak together, how they trust each other no matter what and how one is a bit slower where the other helps out. This is a great relationship and both characters oozes charm. I love how Hitch walks around with his huge shotgun everywhere, how Cole keeps is cool no matter what, such a cool duo. Some of the minor characters acting isn´t the best though.
There is a lot of technical issues I did not like about the movie. Some of the shots are really ugly, showing people half in frames, forgetting to show what I would see as important in others. The lighting isn´t the best at times with a lot of over exposure. The editing is at times to abrupt, throwing us into the next scene that don´t feel connected to the last. It is not a technically well done film.
I really liked the classic western score to begin with. It´s nothing original, but I just love that style. It fell a bit into the background towards the end, but it´s a good score overall.
While you could say the technical aspects are the worst part about this movie I would say it´s how generic it is. It feels like a movie where things just happen, or else we have no movie. The movie starts by moving at breakneck speed, really disorienting me and then slowing down to a painful level. It ends up being a western trope movie, where all of a sudden it feels like the creators just went through a checklist to make sure they hit as many clichés as possible. This makes the movie feel so disconnected from itself, as events just kind of happen. The romance feels forced, the trips feel pointless, everything leading up to the finale feels pointless, because it feels like you are not telling your story but a western story that need to have all the western things in it. Robbers, good guys, bad guys, betrayals, romance, natives, trains, horses, shootouts, it just becomes this generic mass that is not worth watching.
The problem is I see the potential in here, but it all demands making elements they included more or less ambiguous. By literally spoiling that the villain is the villain in the beginning of the movie, you end up doing a disservice to a later plot point. If this was ambiguous, it would make it so much more interesting about Coles moral code and if he is really right or wrong. There is this anger outburst by Cole all of a sudden in the movie that is never brought up again, focus on that, make the character more complex and the story more interesting. Then there is the twist later that needed more explanation too as the ending leaves so much more to be desired. The ending is so abrupt and once again a focus on skewed moral codes could have been a great focus of the movie but it sadly never takes this great opportunity.
I also needed some of the scenes to have more weight to them. All the things that happens more or less has no consequences for anyone, even elements that should have. There is a shootout where people get shot, cut to next scene where everyone is okay. Good guys do a bad thing, after one conversation everything is okay. The movie feels like nothing really matter here.
Overall I enjoyed some aspects of Appaloosa and I wish it´s better elements where used more. Remove the romance, focus on the duo. Make it a story about lawmen maybe abusing their power a bit too much. Make some elements more ambiguous, makes us question the story a bit more. There you have a movie with more weight and consistency than this way too generic movie.
Appaloosa is one of the most generic westerns I have ever watched. After a while it turns into a checklist of western clichés it has to tick off and that becomes very distracting. Other than a great duo in the main characters, it doesn't really offer anything worth watching in my opinion other than watching great actors being great.
After a sheriff and his deputies are killed. The small town of Appaloosa hires gunmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch to take care of the city. They are a strict duo and everything falls into jeopardy when a young woman arrives to the town.
The main selling point for this movie is the relationship between the main characters. Other than giving some great performances by Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, they really create this believable dynamic of friends and partners that has been that for many years. Another great performance is made by Jeremy Irons, but no surprise there, he gives a great villain performance. The way Cole and Hitch speak together, how they trust each other no matter what and how one is a bit slower where the other helps out. This is a great relationship and both characters oozes charm. I love how Hitch walks around with his huge shotgun everywhere, how Cole keeps is cool no matter what, such a cool duo. Some of the minor characters acting isn´t the best though.
There is a lot of technical issues I did not like about the movie. Some of the shots are really ugly, showing people half in frames, forgetting to show what I would see as important in others. The lighting isn´t the best at times with a lot of over exposure. The editing is at times to abrupt, throwing us into the next scene that don´t feel connected to the last. It is not a technically well done film.
I really liked the classic western score to begin with. It´s nothing original, but I just love that style. It fell a bit into the background towards the end, but it´s a good score overall.
While you could say the technical aspects are the worst part about this movie I would say it´s how generic it is. It feels like a movie where things just happen, or else we have no movie. The movie starts by moving at breakneck speed, really disorienting me and then slowing down to a painful level. It ends up being a western trope movie, where all of a sudden it feels like the creators just went through a checklist to make sure they hit as many clichés as possible. This makes the movie feel so disconnected from itself, as events just kind of happen. The romance feels forced, the trips feel pointless, everything leading up to the finale feels pointless, because it feels like you are not telling your story but a western story that need to have all the western things in it. Robbers, good guys, bad guys, betrayals, romance, natives, trains, horses, shootouts, it just becomes this generic mass that is not worth watching.
The problem is I see the potential in here, but it all demands making elements they included more or less ambiguous. By literally spoiling that the villain is the villain in the beginning of the movie, you end up doing a disservice to a later plot point. If this was ambiguous, it would make it so much more interesting about Coles moral code and if he is really right or wrong. There is this anger outburst by Cole all of a sudden in the movie that is never brought up again, focus on that, make the character more complex and the story more interesting. Then there is the twist later that needed more explanation too as the ending leaves so much more to be desired. The ending is so abrupt and once again a focus on skewed moral codes could have been a great focus of the movie but it sadly never takes this great opportunity.
I also needed some of the scenes to have more weight to them. All the things that happens more or less has no consequences for anyone, even elements that should have. There is a shootout where people get shot, cut to next scene where everyone is okay. Good guys do a bad thing, after one conversation everything is okay. The movie feels like nothing really matter here.
Overall I enjoyed some aspects of Appaloosa and I wish it´s better elements where used more. Remove the romance, focus on the duo. Make it a story about lawmen maybe abusing their power a bit too much. Make some elements more ambiguous, makes us question the story a bit more. There you have a movie with more weight and consistency than this way too generic movie.