Appaloosa
Short description
Appaloosa is a Western set in the New Mexico town of Appaloosa, where the local sheriff has been killed and the residents live under the control of rancher Randall Bragg and his men. The town council hires Virgil Cole and his deputy Everett Hitch, two lawmen who travel from place to place restoring order, to take on the job. The two friends set about confronting Bragg, but the arrival of a young widow, Allie French, complicates both their work and their partnership.
Ed Harris directed the film, his second feature after Pollock in 2000, and wrote the screenplay with Robert Knott; both also produced. Harris plays Virgil Cole, with Viggo Mortensen as Everett Hitch, Renée Zellweger as Allie, Jeremy Irons as Randall Bragg, Timothy Spall as Phil Olson and Ariadna Gil as Katie. The film was released on 19 September 2008 and runs 115 minutes.
Made for a budget of 20 million US dollars, Appaloosa took in roughly the same amount worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.7 from more than 63,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.6 from around 1,100 votes. A critics' rating of 6.7 from 165 reviews places it in line with the audience scores. These figures point to a modestly received Western whose standing with viewers and critics is broadly similar.
What's left behind the scenes
- Guns of the required caliber and year of manufacture, preserved from those years, are too expensive, so three 'replicas' were purchased for use in the film, and their appearance was artificially aged.
- Initially, it was planned that this would be the first film in a franchise about Hitch and Cole.
- Initially, Ed Harris intended for his character to have hair. He even picked out a wig, but then decided that Cole would look better bald.
- Viggo Mortensen agreed to star in the film, but when filming delays began, he tried to leave the project and even asked director and screenwriter Ed Harris to find another actor. Harris spoke with 20 actors in total, but they all either refused for one reason or another or were unsuitable for the role, so the part remained with Mortensen.
- When the lead actors, Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris, were shown with uncovered heads (without hats), they were given a very realistic tan—with a clearly visible line between the part of the face usually covered by the brim of a hat and the part exposed to the sun.
- Much of the characters' wardrobe, including the bowler hats, was authentic to the very beginning of the 19th century.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
