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movie review - Appaloosa

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is a Western about two men who hire themselves out as law enforcement muscle in the western territories of the US in the late 19th Century. The duo is comprised of a more senior fellow, and one who is somewhat his junior, the younger man following the other out of respect and a recognition that their way of living requires not just the ability to enforce the law but also people at your side you can trust.

They hear of work in the frontier town of Appaloosa following the murder of the sheriff and his deputies by a local gang leader. They tangle with that gang immediately, but this isn't a straight-forward story of good-guys versus bad-guys. Complicating things enormously is the appearance of a woman in town who professes to be a widow. She, for want of a better word, ensnares the senior member of the duo. That man is a fairly simple sort, living by a strict code and attempting to better himself with vocabulary and clumsy attempts at behaving like a regular person capable of interacting with other humans.

I enjoyed the slow pace, the lack of moral clarity, and the general vibe of impending trouble for the fellow caught between an unfaithful woman and an unfaithful town. The performances from all of the leads are terrific, and I appreciated that the plot didn't follow normal Western lines, weaving away from enormous shoot-outs and instead focusing on the characters and engaging you as a viewer with rational dialog and smart moves by all the players.

Recommended.