As long as there have been movies there have been Westerns, a distinctly American genre that explores the life and lawlessness of the frontier. Though the heyday of the Western has passed, there are always new films—Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and last year’s 3:10 to Yuma come to mind—that infuse the genre with new life.         

Actor and director Ed Harris has now put his stamp on the Western with the excellent Appaloosa. Based on the 2005 novel by Robert B. Parker, the plot is relatively straightforward: murderous rancher Randall Bragg (played with vile panache by Jeremy Irons) allows his men to terrorize the town. The wealthy merchants of Appaloosa hire federal marshal Virgil Cole (Harris) and deputy Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) to enforce some frontier justice, but things get complicated when  Allison French (Renée Zellwegger), an attractive woman with a roving eye, comes to town. She turns Virgil into a lovesick pup and threatens to come between the marshal and his deputy.

At the center of this stately, well-crafted character study is the friendship between the lawmen. Cole and Hitch have an easy, laconic shorthand—they speak with actions more than words.

There’s plenty of exciting gunplay in Appaloosa, but it never seems gratuitous. This is one of the most realistic Westerns ever put on film. The movie has a dusty realism that gets all the period details right. Harris is especially good as a man of righteous honor whose inexperience with the opposite sex leaves him vulnerable.

Zellweger brings several shades to her character—she is not always likable but always compelling. And Mortensen is the moral center of the movie, a man who must compromise his principles to offer his friend a chance at happiness.      

Appaloosa proves that the American Western is still relevant and going strong.

By Robert Rossiello