Director Ed Harris is no shortage of humor

A western classical and humorous.

You turn less and less of westerns and it's a shame. The output on the screens of "appaloosa" is a good, very good news. Because it is a western "à l'ancienne". Not a stereotype, spaces, saloon, thrust, "défouraillage"... is missing. Including the "necessary" dose of misogyny. Eight years after its first achievement, the life of the painter "Pollock", Ed Harris change of kind by adapting "Appaloosa", the novel by Robert Parker. And proves his virtuosity.

Appaloosa is the name of a breed of horse mounted by the Indians. It is also one of a small mining town of New Mexico in the 1880s. The town lives under the rule of the ranch owner Randall Bragg (the excellent Jeremy Irons). The teigneux has designs on the copper mines. It is of the type to not bear the slightest dissatisfaction. Also he kills the sheriff and his two deputies. Thus begins the film. Ok. Bragg is in lace or dialogue. Question of climate no doubt; Sun tape on the Rio Grande. Virgil Cole (Ed Harris in person) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are of the same ilk. But they are across the barrier (of the ranch) and this changes the equation. They are there because the frightened notables have appealed to them. Classic. They embody the law and order and they are not the type to get lost in the legalism. In case of dispute, they have a colt 45 and a size 8 (a weapon of 1.30 m and 5 kilos), used for duck hunting. If necessary, they do use. They have stopped their job design: "Kill is not my job." I only respect for the law. But it is sometimes a consequence. "In the case of Flash, they know that they will not have the font of fonts on the back. It is a plus.

An air of "Rio Bravo"

"appaloosa" has a small family with Hawks's "Rio Bravo": a beautiful story of friendship, women also. Of course, Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) is more elegant than John t. Chance (John Wayne): anthracite grey jacket, bronze vest, black trousers and striped shirt. Impeccable. Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) is not bad, with its three quarters in whipcord, his whiskers and his goat to the Custer. But it is not an alcoholic as Dude (Dean Martin). As in Hawks, the woman chooses the male and, necessarily, seme disorder in the friendship of two men. Renée Zellweger is perfectly in the role of Allison French, narcissistic woman who does not hesitate to interrupt a conversation between Virgil and Everett to choose the color of the curtains. Director Ed Harris is no shortage of humor. He dons his hero he interprets with sobriety, of slight stuttering. It is always wrong kind for a cowboy. And he made this hardened single, which has had only light saloons, a type embarrassed, empêtré, girls in his future good small husband costume. This ironic distance is any "appaloosa" salt, the ideal film for breathing a little during the financial crisis.