The Film Thugs Movie Show

Westerns have become an interesting breed of film lately. There seems to be this desire to reinvent them by going back to what they once were. The few attempts to do "commercially cool" takes on the genre have met with critical as well as commercial failure (Wild Wild West, Jonah Hex, Posse, that one with Madelyn Stowe about the women, I am not even going to bother looking up the name). The Western is a simple genre to do well, but a difficult genre to do great because of that.

Now, there are two different types of people. Those who like Westerns, and those who don't. The former being known, colloquially, as "men." Am I saying that only men like Westerns? No, there are some bad ass women out there who are fans as well. I am saying that if you don't like Westerns you are not a man. It's not a nice thing to say, but sometimes the truth hurts.

You don't have to love them, and you don't have to like all of them. But if there isn't one Western out there that gets your attention.... Well, you get what I'm saying.

The Western is the foundation of American film. As soon as someone figured out that moving pictures could be used to convey a narrative Edwin S. Porter gave us, "The Great Train Robbery." If you look at it, America's first great contribution to the arts is the Western. We created it, and the rest of the world went nuts for it. Yes it is uniquely American, but it is also completely universal. Every country that is worth a shit has taken a shot at this genre. In some instances they showed us what could be done with it, I'm looking at you Italy. But with that exception no matter how international they became, the Western has always been an American story.

What is fascinating about this type of film is how no matter where they are made, no matter the slant taken on the genre, they are always rooted firmly in one theme, "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." Think about it. The ideas of honor, having a code, right and wrong as absolute black and white concepts permeate every one of them. Even when the good guy is a bad guy he will always be the most morally centered character with the clearest code of what makes right and what makes wrong.

Basically, the simpler the story, the better the Western. It usually goes something like this, a guy comes to an area that needs help with x, he takes care of x, he rides off.

With that in mind, I watched "Appaloosa," co-written, directed by, and starring Ed Harris as a hired gun who, along with his partner Viggo Mortensen comes to the small town of Appaloosa to help with a problem. The problem is that Jeremy Irons' character is a bit of a prick who has a bit of power and a group of men who think they can do as they please, when they please and suffer no consequences. When Irons shoots down a Marshall, things turn desperate.

This is, in many ways a very typical Western. It is slow, that is to say measured. The difference here is that "slow" means the director has no idea how to pace the thing and it feels like it takes forever, and "measured" means the director knows exactly what they're doing and want to draw the tension and mood out. This film builds and takes its time doing so. That is what makes it, and the other films of this genre work.

The landscape of the west is always a bit part of these films and Harris uses the natural background beautifully, especially the wind. For anyone who has ever been to a flat area without much in the way of buildings to slow it down, you know how the wind kind of wreaks havoc on everything, and Harris allows that to happen to amazing visual affect.

Ultimately, all I can say about "Appaloosa," is that if you like Westerns you will like this film. If you don't you probably won't. It is a classically styled, classically paced, and classically crafted movie that plays on the classic themes of justice, loyalty, and a man doing what he has to do in order to do what is right.