appaloosa

i just got back from seeing appaloosa, the new ed harris/ viggo mortrensen western.
i really liked it. it's the second time ed harris directed a film, and the second time he stars in a movie he's directing ('pollock' was the first). it's capably directed, if not a little clunky.

the movie is slow, deliberately slow. it is meant very much to be a classic western. the dialog is fantasticly curt and wry. the humor never seems out of place, and is never distracting. the two leads are as great as you would expect them to be. and it's fun to see them as partners rather than enemies ('a history of violence'). the sparse dialog allows for some great moments of silent understanding, and sometimes even tension.

to say the movie is slow, does not mean there's no action. with an 'unforgiven' flavor, the gunfights are appropriately real and explosively short.

it's a good movie. it's definitely worth seeing. but i'd love to hear what you guys think.
-pete