First Hit: Westerns are not in favor as a popular film genre, but this one developed characters and was truly wonderful to watch.
Ed Harris plays Virgil Cole a city marshal for hire. Cole and his partner, Everett Hitch (played by Viggo Mortensen), go from town to town as they clean up the mess the town’s people cannot clear up themselves.
In Appaloosa they are hired because rancher Randall Bragg (played by Jeremy Irons) is blocking growth of the town’s budding mining business. Two of Bragg’s men killed a man from Chicago and when the current town marshal goes out to get the two men; Bragg shoots the marshal and his two deputies dead.
Therefore the town hires Cole and Hitch to bring order, but to do so the town must obey Cole’s rules. Adding additional characterization and interest to the film is Renee Zellweger (as Allison French) playing a woman who is enticing and a strong weakness for wanting to be loved or in a man’s arms.
The beauty of this film is that this film doesn’t rush to create the characters, it lets them develop. It gives them space to let the audience in little by little. Sometimes it is it only a couple of sentences but they are enough to color in a deeper view of whoever is in the scene. Towards the end, Hitch sits down next to Cole and says, I have some things I need to say to you. And in two cryptic sentences, a new level of understanding is played out. There are other scenes of honesty between these two men that show a deep, true, honest, and respectful friendship.
Overall: I like the way the film unfolded. I liked that it didn’t fill it’s space with special effects. And, I liked the way the characters were allowed to develop, grow and change as the film went on.