![Appaloosa [Blu-ray]](http://cdn.hometheaterforum.com/c/c1/50x50px-ZC-c1494aa1_B001LRJH0K-61u8BIpvIlL.jpg)
My earliest memory of Ed Harris is his performance as John Glenn in Philip Kaufman's brilliant The Right Stuff in 1983. Since then I've held his work in the highest regard, inclusive of his work as both director and lead as the title actor of Pollock (2000). When Appaloosa hit theaters I was there.
This is a film about the friendship of two hired lawmen in the west in 1882. The film is a traditional western in its basic story telling and textures. The characters are so beautifully written and hewn that it could have been directed by Hawks or Ford. Although the men are gunfighters, Appaloosa isn't a film about gun fighting. It tells its story with a slow, deliberate, methodical pace, and adds information as it moves along. Photographed by Dean Semler, who knows how to shoot a western, the film gives us a small town with all of the bright sunlight, grit, dust and grime intact.
One of the extras on this Blu-ray is a series of scenes deleted from the final cut of the film. Usually these scenes are fill for a DVD. In this case, almost every one moves the film along, adds information or probably would have made the film even better than it is had time not been an issue. I'm hopeful that a longer cut (not a Director's Cut -- we have that) will arrive in the future.
Appaloosa is a terrific, beautifully crafted film, well represented on blu-ray.
Highly Recommended.
RAH
This is a film about the friendship of two hired lawmen in the west in 1882. The film is a traditional western in its basic story telling and textures. The characters are so beautifully written and hewn that it could have been directed by Hawks or Ford. Although the men are gunfighters, Appaloosa isn't a film about gun fighting. It tells its story with a slow, deliberate, methodical pace, and adds information as it moves along. Photographed by Dean Semler, who knows how to shoot a western, the film gives us a small town with all of the bright sunlight, grit, dust and grime intact.
One of the extras on this Blu-ray is a series of scenes deleted from the final cut of the film. Usually these scenes are fill for a DVD. In this case, almost every one moves the film along, adds information or probably would have made the film even better than it is had time not been an issue. I'm hopeful that a longer cut (not a Director's Cut -- we have that) will arrive in the future.
Appaloosa is a terrific, beautifully crafted film, well represented on blu-ray.
Highly Recommended.
RAH
