Are you a fan of the WESTERN genre? I am! I was
raised on it!
Of course I'm referring mostly to TV. As a kid, I
watched Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, and more! Then in
the 50s, I sat glued with my family to the TV, enjoying such classics as Have
Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, Bonanza, Cheyenne, Wyatt Earp, and so many
others.
What did the early westerns have in common? They were
"sanitized"!
By that I mean, the cowboys were mythic, aggrandized,
idealized folk heroes. There was no blood on the screen when folks got
shot. Everyone dressed well and looked as if they'd just arrived from a
fancy clothing shop! The cowboys
seemed mannerly, kind, good natured, cultured, and sophisticated.
Moreover, most of the westerns were morality plays.
Do you remember how Papa Cartwright would lecture his three sons? Or how
about the dad on The Rifleman who used his weekly adventures to
"raise" his young son?
Yes indeed, the good were good, and the bad were bad.
Truth to tell, the good guys were not all good, and the bad
guys were not all bad. No one rode off into the sunset after a good
gunfight. There was dirt and grit in the streets, and drinkers,
prostitutes, and scoundrels abounded. And when folks got shot, they
bled!
Most of all, the "cowboy" was hardly a hero at
all! The word was used to describe
the uncouth, unmannerly, often drunk ranch hands who came to town to burn off
steam.
Enter Clint Eastwood.
In 1995, he decided to portray the west as it really was. In The
Unforgiven, a ruthless past killer seeks a bounty issued by a group of
prostitutes out for revenge. He
joins up with other rogues, meets a sadistic sheriff, and in a climatic ending,
hits the bottle in a bone-soaking rain on his way to killing six men! Step aside, John Wayne. Time for a dose of reality!
Appaloosa is like The Unforgiven. It shows us the
west as it probably was. It
strives to “unsanitize” life on the American frontier
Never a spoiler, I'll only give the overall gist of the
film. Two men, who just happen to make a living by killing people, ride
into town, seeking their favorite job: sheriff! Killers?
Sheriff?
By all means. If we look at the real Wyatt Earp, his morals
were dubious. He and his brothers were even put on trail for murder after
the famous OK Corral shootout.
Enter our current anti-heroes: They admit to having
only one area of expertise: taking lives.
They also admit it's a darn good thing they get to do so with the law on
their side!
What makes this pair unique is that, in spite of their
basic vicious nature, they are honest, just, and even have a certain likability
about them. They enforce the law
with fairness, even if it means shooting a few ruffians.
Watch Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen dazzle you with dry,
cowboy-style conversation. See Renee Zellweger deftly play the floozy who
creates havoc with the men. And watch Jeremy Irons be a very, very bad
dude! Count on seeing dusty
streets, amoral villains, and lots of gunplay.
But most of all, see the wild west once more as it truly
was. This film shows you the dust,
grime, and roughness of the cowboy days. No singing cowboys here!
Appaloosa is a great film that will stay with you.
