A pair of lawmen (Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen) out to save a Western town from a rancher’s tyrannical reign find their bond, and their mission, tested by the arrival of a double-dealing widow (Renee Zellweger).

Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen are just brilliant and funny. Appaloosa is a truly and perfectly realized film of a genre (Western) that I’m growing more fond of every year. 2007’s 3:10 to Yuma starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, and HBO’s Deadwood have brought life back into the genre with invigorating and less sexist and isolating force.

Harris and Mortensen’s Virgil and Everett are every bit as engaging and perfectly acted as Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer’s Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday in 1993’s Tombstone. The only difference, Harris and Mortensen were much funnier. Appaloosa has both a dramatic and slightly comedic undertone that plays well throughout the film and which both Harris and Mortensen pull off without much effort and to the audience’s delight. After seeing Mortensen in so many very dramatic and sometimes very dark roles, it was nice to see him in a different theatrical comedic light.

Appaloosa is a very well written (Robert Knott and Ed Harris), directed (Ed Harris) and acted film. It’s sure to be a classic. In fact, I plan to buy it as soon as it comes out on DVD!

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