Appaloosa

Ed Harris directed, starred, and co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Knott. The source is a 2005 novel by Robert B. Parker, who is not known as a western writer at all but for the Spenser crime books, which gives the film an unusual register: the dialogue is clipped, dry and often funny. The story is set in 1882 in the New Mexico town of Appaloosa, where city marshal Virgil Cole arrives with his deputy Everett Hitch to enforce the law against a rancher who controls the area. Harris plays Cole, Viggo Mortensen plays Hitch and Jeremy Irons the rancher, with Renée Zellweger as the woman who comes between them. The gunfights are deliberately brief. When a weapon is drawn the business is over in seconds; there is none of the extended Hollywood duel here. It was shot around Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Austin. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet westerns built around wordless loyalty between two men rather than action. Who it is not for: anyone expecting sustained tension. The rhythm is low and the middle section noticeably slows.