Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: an old-school western with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
In 2005, while spending a family vacation devoted to horseback riding, Ed Harris took the novel with him Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker, just published. His reading ends with a real crush on the relationship that unites the two main characters.
After a first experience as a director, which dates back to 2000 with the confidential Pollock, a biopic devoted to the eponymous painter, the actor decides to renew the experience to bring their story to the screen.
In 1882 New Mexico, Marshal Virgil Cole and his deputy Everett Hitch, longtime friends renowned for bringing peace and justice to lawless towns, are called to the small mining town of Appaloosa.
There, their duo will be put to the test by an adversary from another dimension, in the person of the almighty Randall Bragg, but also by an attractive widow…
If Ed Harris approaches the western without intending to revolutionize the genre, he fights to obtain a budget at the height of his mythology. With 20 million dollars in their pocket, the teams thus allow themselves to shoot in the natural settings of Santa Fe and its surroundings (including the multicolored cliffs of Abiquiu), as well as in Austin, Texas.
Above all, Ed Harris perfectly transcribes the hymn to friendship that touched him so much in the original book by giving the reply to Viggo Mortensen – their incredible alchemy having already sparked in A History of Violence.
Appaloosa by Ed Harris with Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger…
Tonight on C8 at 9:20 p.m.