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Frozen River

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New on DVD & Blu-ray for the Week of 1/11/09

Jen's Pick of the Week:

Appaloosa

All Roads Lead Home

Appaloosa

August Evening

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Appaloosa (2008)

Director: Ed Harris

When you have ghosts, you call the Ghostbusters, but when you’re in the Old West and evil-doer Jeremy Irons guns down your marshal and his deputies in cold blood and you want your town back, the best people to call are the quiet but tough freelance lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch (played by Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen respectively). Of course being that phones weren’t exactly a logical luxury back in the dangerous town Appaloosa in the Old West territory of New Mexico in the 1880’s, luckily for the town councilmen, when word of the lawless, powerful murderer Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) gets around, the two men who’ve been keeping the peace for several years ride into town, figuring they’ll be able to do the same without any trouble.

“It’s what we do,” one of them dryly remarks and the other replies, “It is, ain’t it?” The subtle give-and-take banter in the earnest and laid-back yet commanding portrayals of its believable leads owe a great deal not just to the chemistry between Harris (who co-wrote the film and also directed) and Mortensen, working together for the first time since Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, but it also seems like it’s derived directly from the old classic westerns of the era of John Wayne.

It isn’t hard to imagine Rio Bravo stars John Wayne and Dean Martin sliding into these roles and it’s this old-fashioned feel—a deliberate choice by Harris who wanted to keep his film “in the classic mode”—that sets it apart from the modern, ultra-violent “revisionist approach” that’s made a comeback as of late (Entertainment Weekly, pg. 48; 8/22/08).

Based on crime writer Robert B. Parker’s novel, Harris further explained to EW that he brought the book to the Toronto Film Festival specifically to get it into the hands of his Violence costar while promoting their earlier film. And although “it’s a totally awkward proposition, handing another actor a book like that,” Harris continues, his gamble paid off and the two turn in Oscar worthy performances and the one that’s the most impressive comes directly from Mortensen (ever the chameleon losing himself in a role whether it’s this or Violence or last year’s brilliant Eastern Promises) as the sensitive, intelligent gunslinger who backs up Cole with an eight gauge-- no questions asked.

When Cole falls for a beguiling young widow, the flirtatious pianist Allison French (Renee Zellweger), something in the men’s dynamic changes as Cole, blinded by his affection is filled with tunnel vision, unable to make solid judgments when it comes to his new love. The camaraderie between the men, even when events escalate and threaten to tear them apart is what drives Appaloosa as an old-fashioned character piece that’s an obvious homage to the best of the genre, making Harris’ decision not to just insert senseless violence and ridiculous shoot-outs far more admirable as we realize his utter devotion to the classics that not only inspired him but made America fall in love with the genre in the first place.

It's been said that the western has evolved with each decade and more specifically that allegorically speaking you can tell what’s going on in the world by the type of character John Wayne was playing from the young, innocent, ever eager cowboy in the 30’s through the world-weary, beaten down and angry version a few decades later. This film seems to draw directly from the heyday of the 50’s—showing the danger of the Old West and the tendency to make lawmen jaded as in a funny scene right off the bat as Cole asks Zellweger's French if she’s a whore and she asks him how long he’s been killing people instead of “keeping the peace.” Yet there’s an optimism about Cole and a silent devotion and compassion in Hitch that makes what’s not being said in the sparse screenplay just as important as the joking slightly Elmore Leonard inspired dialogue.

Although this is sure to be overlooked in a sea of bigger and more expensive ad campaigns all fighting for Oscar and Harris even acknowledged in the same EW piece that “you can count on one hand—or maybe half a hand—the number of Westerns that were box offices successes in the past,” I’d urge you to take a chance on it whether you’re a student of the genre or one who normally would avoid it at all costs. Because, in the purity, simple beauty and classic style that is Appaloosa, Mr. Ed Harris has crafted something that feels both old and new, which is an incredibly refreshing combination for theatergoers in 2008.

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The Best of the Western Genre

Carlito's Way

Director: Brian De Palma

To say that Brian De Palma loves movies is an understatement. Film buff De Palma has turned cinematic homage into an art form referencing pictures that span the globe and nearly every work he creates can be analyzed not only in the manner of entertainment but film students will delight in exploring the varied influences that pour from several frames. Some are more prominent than others such as Obsession, De Palma’s uneven spin on Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Scarface which was a remake of the 1932 gangster classic, Blow Out that came from Antonioni’s foreign Blow-Up and of course, De Palma’s most discussed homage of the shootout on the staircase with a baby carriage going down the train station steps in The Untouchables that was directly inspired by Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin.

In Carlito’s Way which reunites the director with both the star of Scarface (Al Pacino) and one from Casualties of War (Sean Penn), De Palma has another climax that’s indicative of the one used in Untouchables although it was his second choice after hoping to shoot the film’s finale in the World Trade Center which after the first attack was unavailable in ’93. That homage, while accidental, is one of a few others that call attention to themselves in more subtle ways such as using the same name for Al Pacino’s character’s nightclub (El Paraiso) as a food stand from Scarface and filming a tense hospital scene that recalls Pacino’s brilliant work in a similar scene from Coppola’s The Godfather and indeed, the exterior is the same as the one in the mafia classic (IMDb).

Carlito’s Way which was adapted by Jurassic Park and Spiderman screenwriter David Koepp from two novels by Edwin Torres chronicles Carlito “Charlie” Brigante (Pacino), who after being released from prison in the 70’s on a technical appeal after serving five years finds himself struggling with the decision to go straight after he is caught in the crossfire of a brutal shootout and drug deal gone bad. Using the money he claims from the crime to buy his way into the New York nightclub business, the Puerto Rican ex-con tries to reconnect with old flame Gail (Penelope Ann Miller) and rectify his feelings of indebtedness to his shady attorney David Kleinfeld (Sean Penn). Nearly impossible to recognize under the makeup, wig and costuming of the time period, Penn who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance (along with Miller) reportedly signed on to do the film solely to make enough money to fund The Crossing Guard, his second work as a director (IMDb).

Featuring impressive character work by actors ranging from an impossibly young Viggo Mortensen as a wheelchair bound con, John Leguizamo as a dangerous up-and-comer that Pacino (possibly reminded of himself) tries desperately to avoid, and Luis Guzman among others, Carlito’s Way is a compelling if minor gangster film that is unfortunately hindered by a lame voice over at the film’s end that is so filled with clichés and pseudo "wiseguy" speak it may cause unintentional laughter. Disappointing to end the film on such a forgettable, B-movie cheesy note but even weak De Palma is better than a majority of post Scarface gangster films that would populate the Tarantino-inspired (a De Palma fan himself) late 90’s.