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74.227.28.8
This was solid entertainment for a western (which I am not fond of). Ed Harris are Viggo Mortensen and two hired guns who do their thing on the right side of the law. They are hired by a nice town, Apaloosa, to restore peace which has been shattered by Jeremy Iron's gunslinging "cattlemen".
Interloping into the action is Rene Zellweiger as Mrs. French. She arrives nearly penniless and Harris takes an instant shine to her. Harris arranges a place to stay and a job for her and end's up being her man (of the moment).
This film has several interesting turns and twists and is overall a solid piece of work...but not a great work. Harris co-wrote the story and directed and did well as the often tongue-tied Marshall. Viggo was solid as the faithful deputy and friend with Irons and Zellweiger being excellent yoemen.
This is worth the admission and cowboy films really pull out the old folks like nothing else as witnessed by multiple walkers in the audience.
Follow Ups:
...to it. Written by Robert Parker of Spenser fame - one of my favorite detectives.
Kind of slow with a lot of Parker banter between Harris and Viggo. Think toned down Spenser and Hawk, with less snap and irony. Solid acting on their parts and Jeremy Irons'.
Zellweiger's acting seems kind of strange, especially when she first lands in town.
My biggest disappointment was the cinematography - one of the things that would draw me to the big screen instead of waiting for the DVD - it was grainy and washed out in shades of tan and yellow.
Interesting, not many other choices at the Cineplex.
I'd give it a C+.
The 2 leads are just fine as the usual laconic tough-as-nails gunfighters. The evilness of the bad guys is established at the first scene, so you know exactly where this is headed.
But it meanders a lot. The climactic gun battles are rather short and anti-climactic. A movie like this is such a known quantity for anyone who's grown up with the movies, there should be a visceral thrill when it all goes down. And there wasn't much of one. As far as well written dialog, it's not terrible, but a single episode of Deadwood beats it handily. The leads are good though. Worth seeing for them.
(nt)
I think I shall have to see it, as I like westerns, and I like some of
the actors in it.
I still think no one - except mabye Arthur Penn with Little Big Man and
Missouri Breaks - can touch Peckinpah as a director of westerns. Altho
Whoever did "The Proposition" surely is right up there with ol' Sam.
Mike
.....some mighty fine taste there, pardner.For a rollicking good time see "The Professionals". The one with Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin.........It is great fun in the Saturday afternoon double feature kind of way. In Technicolor, to boot.
Full of old-time studio star power and not a dull moment. With a real good, believable love story with a twist - me-man-you-woman type - not some namby-pamby existential hero with a neo-existential mid-life crisis not solvable with a gun. ;~)
Edits: 10/05/08
..one thing I've decided is that Mortensen is the most exciting, most charismatic actor working today. His posture in the final shootout with Jeremy Irons is brilliant and in itself worth the entire cost of admission.
I like Harris' acting work very much too, over the years, but his direction of this film is uneven. Most of the supporting actors including Irons have no great demands made of them. Neither do they rise of their own accord.
Beautiful scenery, occasionally inventive photography and editing. I liked the full screen facial shots. The overall look is too clean-cut for the time and the sweaty, dusty New Mexico background.
Mortensen is the best thing in it. As I said, he alone raises the film to see-it-again status. And I'm sure in so doing, I'll see more in the whole film to like.
I love a western.
simplicity.
Ed is a poor director, period. This stricly is by the numbers boring directing.
And Ed is NO leading actor, either. He certainly can't carry a film. He looks just like what he always has: an aging high school football star.
Viggo I also elevated to a high status after that gripping portrayal as the Russian hit man in "Eastern Promises." But.... in this film, he does nothing more memorable than polish his shotgun barrel, endlessly. No good lines, no memorable anything except for the stance in the final shootout.
Jeremy Irons, rather unbelievably, showed some great skill with a rifle in the beginning and then, in a critical scene, couldn't hit a standing target? But I'm being unfair in analyzing this film.
It's a good, entertaining popcorn film, no more.
The very limited "Open Range" was superior because of the rapport between its principals, even though I'm no fan of either one of them.
... I felt that Mortensen did well enough with little through most of the film. He is such a magnetic figure. When I saw his intensity and his physical posture in that endgame scene with Irons it was delicious to watch. He had studied, prepared himself for the part. He exuded power and certainty.
Open Range was as romantic a picture but far more harmonious and substantial beginning to end. A better picture. The climactic gunfight was "right". When you decide to face a man to kill him, that's what you do, you don't talk it over with him first. You put yourself into the most favorable position and do it, first.
I also think of Paul Newman in ...Judge Roy Bean. When he knew the assassin was in town, he laid in the loft and blew that big 'ol funny hole in his back.
There's that great scene in Unforgiven where Gene Hackman schools Saul Rubinek on how a gunfight unfolds. Lots of bullets miss their intended targets for lots of good reasons when you consider to take another man's life.
Of course this is all make-believe stuff. Great fun to argue about the dynamics of movie gunslinging.
My grandaddy told me about witnessing a gunfight when he was just a kid. He said the air was so charged with tension and fear he shit his pants.
"There's that great scene in Unforgiven where Gene Hackman schools Saul Rubinek on how a gunfight unfolds. Lots of bullets miss their intended targets for lots of good reasons when you consider to take another man's life."
Get the deluxe edition of Tombstone, which contains factual information about the fight, including Wyatt Earps diagrams shortly before his death about where the gunfighters were, and the routes they took during the fight. The written material recites how many bullets were shot, and how so few bullets actually landed in flesh, despite the fact that the gunfighers shot while within feet of each other. Which makes the fight sequence in Open Range appear more realistic than any other Western fight scene that comes to mind.
Two more good westerns: Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, the ones that came out close together in the '90s. I need to see these again soon.
I actually thought Mortensen played a far more interesting character than did Harris. In general, I do like Ed Harris in the movies . . .
Zwellweger was almost nauseating and almost derailed the movie (I don't care whether the movie was true to the book or not, I only saw the movie). Too pouty, whiney, annoying . . .
The most interesting third was the middle third, which began by transporting the convicted man by train. In fact, I wish that had just expanded on the middle third for an entire feature film.
I did appreciate the "realistic" gunfights . . . usually it only takes one-bullet-per-participate.
2 and 3/4 stars
as her makeup was devoid of "glamor". And, yes, Viggo still lacked the real weatherbeating he should have sported. It was nice to see Lance Henriksen back on the big screen.
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