Appaloosa is a 2008 American Western film based on the 2005 novel of the same name by crime writer Robert B. Parker. The film was directed by Ed Harris and co-written by Harris and Robert Knott. Appaloosa stars Harris alongside Viggo Mortensen. The film premiered in the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, was released in select cities on September 19, 2008 and expanded into wide-release on October 3, 2008.
Plot
Based on the 2005 Western novel by Robert B. Parker, Appaloosa is centered around lawman Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), two friends who are hired to defend a lawless 1880s town from a murderous rancher (Jeremy Irons). Their efforts are disrupted and friendship tested by the arrival of a woman (Renée Zellweger).
Upon drifting into a troubled Western outpost and discovering that the helpless locals are being terrorized by a ruthless rancher and his brutish hired hands, two rugged, straight-shooting peacemakers decide to stick around and put things right in this Western adapted from the novel by Robert B. Parker, and directed by Ed Harris.
Bragg (Jeremy Irons) is a rancher who believes himself to be above the law, a stance that's forever cemented when he guns down the town sheriff and his two deputies in cold blood. Horrified, the defenseless townspeople pray for the day a savior will arrive in town to free them from Bragg's suffocating grasp. Soon thereafter, Virgil (Ed Harris) and Everett (Viggo Mortensen) stride into town atop two mighty steeds, their confident presence signaling the beginning of a new era if the locals will only grant Virgil the complete power he needs to bring Bragg to justice. After pinning on his new sheriff's badge, Virgil appoints Everett his deputy and ushers in an era of uneasy peace. Later, when the local stagecoach arrives in town, a woman named Allison (Renée Zellweger) catches Virgil's eye, prompting a die-hard renegade to consider a calm life of domestication. As Virgil's feelings for Allison grow, both begin to wonder if a life together is truly in the cards. Meanwhile, a temporarily subdued Bragg begins to display signs that he may not be finished with this town just yet.
The movie shares many narrative similarities with the 1959 Western Warlock, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn and Richard Widmark. There is also another Western named The Appaloosa with Marlon Brando, but it shares no relation with Harris' film.
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