Appaloosa

This refreshingly straightforward horse opera of the “town tamer” school stars Ed Harris (who also directed) as steel-nerved lawman Virgil Cole, who arrives with his long-time deputy Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) in the New Mexico town of Appaloosa, where he has been hired to bring law and order. Things come to a head when Cole arrests for murder ruthless cattle baron Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), who retaliates by having the marshal’s new lady friend (Reneé Zellweger) kidnapped. Adapted from a novel by hard-boiled crime fiction writer Robert B. Parker, Appaloosa sports more wry and witty dialog than is normally found in films of this type. The action is plentiful but not gratuitous, and the frontier locations are picturesquely lensed by ace cinematographer Dean Semler.

Shelf Talk: Good westerns are hard to come by, but this one compares favorably with Tombstone, Unforgiven and Open Range, so if your patrons liked those, chances are they’ll be drawn to Appaloosa. Harris doesn’t have much marquee value these days, but you can probably get promotional mileage out of Mortensen’s name, most recently attached to Eastern Promises.