Appaloosa and Resolution

Recently I picked up a copy of Cowboys & Indians because it had this cover of Tom Selleck on it. I do not usually pickup Western magazines unless it had Selleck, Elliot, or Duvall on them. If you have not seen it then the article is worth the read. Some interesting stories about Tom Selleck and how he got into western movies.

But totally unrelated to Tom Selleck is another article about the novel Appaloosa by Robert Parker which is going to be released as a made for TV movie this fall. It will have Ed Harris and Vigo Mortenson(?) as the leads. While reading the article I discovered that Parker is a mystery writer who created the Spencer character in Spencer for Hire and the Stone character that is on TV played by Tom Selleck...ok so this is related to Tom in some nth degree of separation.

I found the fact Ed Harris and Vigo M were going to play in this western interesting so I checked out Appaloosa and the sequel Resolution out at the library.

Appaloosa is basically about two gunfighters who do their fighting as official lawmen. The main character is Virgil Cole who has been doing a gunfighter/lawman for hire for many years. His partner a West Point graduate ex-military Indian fighter named Everett Hitch. Cole is cool as a cucumber gunfighter and Hitch is a tough and almost as cool sidekick who uses a ten-gauge shotgun as his main weapon of choice. They are usually hired as lawmen to clean up a town under the town's laws which are usually written by Cole and signed by the town counsel.

As I read the book and saw the development of the characters I could see Ed Harris as Cole and Vigo as Hitch perfectly. If they can adapt the characters then the movie should be interesting. Parker develops two characters whose re pore is incredible. I found their dialogue to be cool and at times intelligent.

But as a western it is just fun. It is nothing like L'Amour and totally not like Kelton. The characters may be more like Grey. The books are a fun read.

I only have a few cautions, there is a lot is profane and nasty language and a lot of talk about sex and prostitution. Most of it unnecessary to make these novels work and believable to a point. There is also a lot of violence that is a bit more over the top than L'Amour or Grey. Honestly I was not sure I could finish off Appaloosa due to the language and some of the graphic nature...it just detracted from the story in my opinion. I do not recommend the books based on these cautions.

If the movie adaptation can remove most of the language, voilence, and sexual references then it should be a good movie. But after watching Costner's last movie with Duvall then I am not so sure Hollywood will remove these things. I look forward to seeing if Ed and Vigo can pull off these two characters.