At the Movies with Governor Tom: Appaloosa

Tonight I took a jaunt to the ArcLight Sherman Oaks to catch a sneak of Appaloosa, the new Western with Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, and Renee "She didn't even need to say hello to get me" Zellwegger. Ed also directed the film and co-wrote it with an actor pal of his named Robert Knott. Indeed, this is Robert's first writing credit, and it's the first time Ed Harris has directed since he gave Marcia Gay Harden's career a kick in the pantsuit with Pollock back in '01.

It was a real treat seeing Ed in person. What made it even better was that, because he's such a terrific interview, the Q&A following the film lasted a solid hour. As you can tell by looking at this blog, I've been to my fair share of Q&As. You're lucky if they go even a half-hour. The most recent one I attended before this, The Pineapple Express with director David Gordon Green, lasted barely twenty minutes.

What made it yet more awesome was that I can remember seeing Ed in stuff as far back as when I became a movie fan. In the early eighties I vaguely remember The Right Stuff, in which he played John Glenn. I was quite young then and didn't come within a light year of having the patience to sit through it. In fact, I didn't even watch it all the way through until I got it from Netflix a couple years ago. I think the first time I took real notice of Ed was in this flick in '89 called Jackknife, in which he co-starred with Robert De Niro and Kathy Baker. I was living with my mom at the time. She had Showtime, which showed this flick quite a lot. Ed and Robert play these two Vietnam vets who lost one of their buddies during the conflict. Ed's now living with his sister when De Niro comes back into his life, just to be pals 'n all, but then develops a crush on Ed's sister. Ed doesn't want him around mainly because De Niro's presence digs up all these God-awful memories. Anyway, potent stuff. Ed followed that up right away with The Abyss, which James Cameron directed just before T2. The Abyss also made a great impression on me, both in terms of Ed's performance as well as the whole world Mr. Cameron conjured.

Ever since then it's been impossible to go a year without seeing Ed in something or other. And he does it all: Comedies, dramas, action, you name it. I thought he was awesome, for instance, as the bad guy general in The Rock. He was one of those bad guys you could sort of sympathize with. He was also awesome in stuff like Apollo 13, Nixon, The Truman Show. And shit, talk about diverse: Right after wrapping Pollock, dude goes and plays a freakin' Nazi sniper in Enemy at the Gates.

Before I get to all the oodles of info from the Q&A, let me give you the gist of the story sans spoilers. It's New Mexico, 1882. Ed and Viggo have been working together for a "dozen years" now as basically lawmen for hire. They're sort of like mercenaries in that they need to earn a living with their gun skills, but they only hire themselves out to enforce the law. They're honorable freelancers as opposed to blood-thirsty money-hungry whack jobs. Which is convenient, since there's already a four-alarm whack job in the area. Chap's name is Bragg, Randall Bragg, played by the always wonderfully slimy Jeremy Irons. He's basically this super rich rancher who doesn't officially own the town of Appaloosa, but he may as well 'cause the town officials are too chicken shit to do much about him. When the movie starts, right? A few deputies show up at Bragg's ranch to tell him what's what. Bragg's got all these ruffians standing around, looking like tough mothers, but he doesn't need 'em for this occasion. He draws and blows away all the deputies before anyone has any idea what's going on.

In their desperation, the town leaders hire the help of these two wandering kats named Virgil Cole (our man Ed) and the laconic and loyal Everett Hitch (Viggo). By the way, let me take a sec to give a shout-out to the underrated Timothy Spall. A Londoner in real life, here he puts on a flawless Southwest American accent as Phil, one of the jittery town officials desperate for help. If you don't know who Tim is or what he's been in, I'm sure he'll look at least somewhat familiar. For one thing, he's a regular in the Harry Potter films as Peter Pettigrew (or Wormtail if you're a Death Eater). For another, he's practically a regular in those little English films by Mike Leigh that, at least sometimes, tend to make a splash in American art houses. Examples include All or Nothing, Topsy-Turvy, and Secrets and Lies. And ya know, he was also in stuff like Sweeney Todd, Enchanted, Lemony Snicket, you name it. In most of these he's a supporting character. He'll do a perfectly competent job that you may not remember when you leave the theater, but you'll recognize him, at least vaguely, the next time you see him. As you can tell from that sampling of his oeuvre, you'll probably see him again soon. The work horse never stops.

Okay back to the story. So Virgil and Hitch show up, take Phil's cash, and agree to restore some law and order in Appaloosa. Meantime, this widow named Allison shows up in town to start her new life. Immediately Hitch is smitten. But so is Virgil. Hitch's almost dog-like loyalty makes him suppress his own feelings for the sake of his boss's. Don't feel bad for Hitch, though. Luckily there's this other gal in town named Katie with whom he eventually strikes up a relationship. Virgil and Allison, meanwhile, progress so far so fast with their courtship that in no time they're building a new house for themselves just outside of town. If you think it's kind of weird that Allison might let herself get swept up so quickly, that's because it is. You'll see what her deal is in a sec.

It doesn't take long at all to get Bragg. It's not like no one knows where he lives. While they're escorting him back to town, though, he breaks loose, kidnaps Allison, and gets away. What makes it extra complicated is that Allison's feelings for Virgil were only those of an opportunist. Within about five seconds of becoming Bragg's prisoner, she becomes his lover. Now that he's running the show again, and he's the wealthiest dude around for miles, it's a no-brainer. If you think that disgusts Virgil, think again. That's one of several things that makes Appaloosa not your typical Western. It's kind of a touching subplot that in spite of Allison's blatant disregard for anyone else's feelings, Virgil is convinced that if he can get her to swing back to his side, then at some point in the future she'll actually develop feelings for him that are as true as his are for her.

Okay that's all I'll spill about the plot. To kick off the Q&A, Ed Harris explained that part of what made him want to direct again was how long it had been since he made Pollock. Apparently it took him eight long years to get Pollock to the screen. Once it was done, the next eight years went by in a flash. As for why he chose Appaloosa, part of it had to do with what I mentioned above about it being an atypical kind of Western. He read the novel when it came out in '05 during a family vacation. When he got back home, he gave it to his pal Robert Knott to see if he'd be interested in adapting it. Through his agent he found out that the movie rights were available and didn't waste a minute snapping them up.

The novel, by the way, was written by none other than Robert B. Parker. 'Member that TV show in the eighties called Spenser: For Hire with Robert Urich? That was inspired by a bunch of novels Parker wrote about this Boston PI named, simply, Spenser (to this day he's never given up what Spenser's first name is). Parker's in his seventies now and is still churning them out. This year alone he's got the thirty-sixth Spenser novel as well as the sequel to Appaloosa, called Resolution. He also has a couple other ongoing detective series. There's this one character called Jesse Stone. A few of those have been made into TV movies with Tom Selleck. Then he's got a female detective called Sunny Randall. Funny story there is, he created that series about ten years ago at the suggestion of Helen Hunt. This was when she'd just won her Oscar for As Good As It Gets and I suppose had enough clout for Parker to listen to her. So he wrote this novel in '99 called Family Honor with this new female sleuth called Sunny Randall. One of the movie studios snapped it up, Helen Hunt got all set to play her....and then nothing happened. Development hell lived up to its name yet again. Luckily, though, the novel did well enough that Parker's publisher told him to keep it up. He's churned out six Sunny novels so far, I believe. And apparently in 2009 he's going to write the third novel with Virgil and Hitch. The man's a machine! He also must be a dream for Hollywood to work with 'cause Ed said he got the rights to Appaloosa without paying a dime.

As for how they went about writing the screenplay, Ed first left it up to Robert Knott. That's when Robert explained to us that the first thing he did was a scene-for-scene adaptation. He actually wrote the screenplay with one hundred percent of the novel in it. Considering the fact that the vast majority of novels lose a good 80-90% of their content during the transition from page to screen, that's pretty freakin' amazing. Unfortunately, a good chunk of this novel would have to go too. The thing's over three hundred pages. You have to remember that with screenplays, one page is equal to a minute of movie time. So if Mr. Knott actually did a scene for scene adaptation, that sucker must've been huge. A three-hundred-page script would be a five-hour movie! As it was, Appaloosa clocked in at an hour and fifty minutes, which would be a hundred-ten-page script, give or take. It was after he finished that huge first draft that Ed came into the equation and they worked in the same room and decided which scenes were absolutely essential.

While part of the film was shot in Texas, they actually did get to shoot a bunch of it in New Mexico. It was on this humongous ranch that was, like, five thousand acres or something. They built the town of Appaloosa on this ranch, 'bout forty-five minutes or so outside Santa Fe. I thought the scenery was gorgeous. I have no clue which scenes were Texan and which were New Mexican. It all looked postcard perfect to me. Ed, however, had his gripes. Because he was in front of the camera so much, he didn't get a chance to see how a lot of the shots turned out until after principal photography was over. He wasn't specific, but he said often he'd see these shots and be like, "That's not how I wanted it done at all!" I dunno. He's a perfectionist, and that's fine. I just don't think he should beat himself up about it. I think you'll agree if you see this. And besides, he was able to get one of the best cinematographers working today, this Australian guy named Dean Semler. Dean scored an Oscar about twenty years ago for photographing Dances with Wolves. Talk about awesome, he got his start Down Under doing stuff like the Mad Max flicks. He did the second and third ones specifically. More recently he worked with Mad Mel on Apocalypto. So ya know, dude's been around.

Ed also talked about some of the actors he got to work with. He couldn't say enough about Viggo. Apparently they struck up quite the friendship while playing enemies in A History of Violence a few years ago. In fact, when they all went to Toronto to promote A History of Violence in September of '05, Ed brought a copy of Appaloosa for Viggo to read and asked Viggo then and there if he'd play Hitch. Viggo agreed, but he'd already committed himself to a bunch of other stuff, which is the main reason why it took three years to get this thing done. One of Viggo's commitments, by the way, was David Cronenberg's follow-up to A History, Eastern Promises. It was also thanks to Viggo that Ed found the actress who plays Hitch's love interest, Katie. She's this gal from Barcelona named Ariadna Gil. Just before Eastern Promises, Viggo made this Spanish movie with her called Alatriste. It's about this real-life historical figure from 1600s Spain named Captain Diego Alatriste, who went from soldier to mercenary during Spain's Imperial Wars. The film was adapted from a bunch of historical novels written by this guy called Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Ariadna Gil played his love interest in that as well. Ed actually auditioned a ton of actresses in New York before he came across this gal. She sent him a videotaped audition from Barcelona. Included with the package were some production stills from Alatriste that showed her and Viggo hanging out on the set. Looking at those photos, Ed could see how much chemistry the two had. More than the taped audition, those photos convinced him he'd found his Katie.

As for Timothy Spall, he and Ed worked together on this one flick about twenty years ago called To Kill a Priest. It didn't get much play at the time. Ed said he thinks it was shown in this one theater in Chicago. It hasn't even been given the DVD treatment, so it must've really bombed. It's basically about a priest in Poland who speaks up against the Communist regime and then is, ya know, killed. Anyway, Ed had fond memories of working with Tim and has been sort of following his career since then. Like me, Ed thinks Tim's one of those underappreciated actors who consistently turns in an above-par performance. He was especially blown away by The Last Hangman, this flick Tim did a few years ago where he plays Albert Pierrepoint. Albert was this guy in Britain who worked as a grocery clerk but also worked as a hangman. The movie covers his life from the early thirties to the fifties. It's a real tour de force for Tim. Yes, it is on DVD, and yes, you should throw it on your queue post haste.

He also talked about how cool it was to work with Lance Henriksen again. I myself hadn't seen Lance in years. I think the last time was about eight years or so ago when he did that Chris Carter show Millennium. Since then he's been doing a lot of schlock, including a sequel to Pumpkinhead of all freakin' things. As with Tim, Ed hadn't worked with Lance since the eighties. In this case, we're talking The Right Stuff in '83. They've run into each other now and then. Before Appaloosa, he hadn't seen Lance in a good ten years or so. Ed cast him without even meeting him. He didn't see him until the shooting actually started. Ed was floored at how "different" Lance looked compared with ten years earlier. He sort of danced around what he meant by different, but I think he meant older. Lance is pushing seventy after all.

As for Jeremy Irons, Ed said he was pretty cool to work with. For the most part. Sometimes, though, Jeremy would go up to Ed between takes and complain that he felt like Ed was staying in character when directing. 'Other words, Ed was still being Virgil Cole even when he was giving orders to the actors and so on. Ed was baffled by that. He still has no idea what Jeremy was talking about. It could be because the way you see Ed Harris on the screen, the way he talks and all that, is pretty much how he is in person. I mean yeah, he's playing a character, but he's still Ed Harris. Maybe Jeremy was just overthinking things. And besides, I think being directed by Virgil Cole sounds kinda cool.

Someone in the audience asked him why he didn't cast his wife, actress Amy Madigan, as Allison. Ed sort of gave a padded answer to the effect of Amy being a bit too old. I know that sounds harsh, but Hollywood tends to be harsh to actresses as they age. Amy's a terrific actress if you've never seen her. I still remember her as Kevin Costner's wife in Field of Dreams, even though I haven't seen that flick in years. She'd also be more believable than Renee as a widow. I understand Hollywood's a business, though, and Renee Zellwegger does come with a built-in audience. Because of that, though, it's kind of ironic that the movie's glaring weakness is Renee as Allison. Yeah, I know she can act, but this just wasn't the right part for her at all. It seemed obvious to me, but I wonder if Ed was sort of arm-twisted by the studio as part of the deal for this getting distribution. Or not. Maybe Ed really couldn't see how obviously wrong Renee was for the part. I mean shit, now that I think about it, Amy Madigan would've been terrific as the widow.

This led to someone else asking Ed about his penchant for directing women in meaty roles. Recall that Pollock did wonders for Marcia Gay Harden. And here you had Renee Zellwegger in a decent role that would've been so much better if he'd cast someone more appropriate for it. For his part, Ed says he loves directing women. It's just easier for him. Ideally he'd like to direct a movie with an all-female cast. 'Only problem is, he hasn't a clue what the story would be.

The last member of the cast he talked about was the most personal to Ed: His dad! Bob Harris, in all his octogenarian glory, appears as a judge in one scene. He had a small role in Pollock too. Ed's kinda jealous of Dad 'cause he's got a full head o' hair. Anyway, he had nothing but nice things to say about him, of course. Dude's pretty sprightly for being in his eighties, I have to say. And he's pretty easy to direct because he typically gets his lines right the first time around.

Making an in-person appearance was Rex Linn, who plays the sheriff. I don't watch CSI: Miami, but apparently he's a regular on that. He was sitting in the same row as me the whole time and could've been anyone. He was there with friends or whoever, dressed casually in a T-shirt and shorts. At one point Ed was like, "Where's Rex?" And then Rex got up and walked up front and talked for a couple minutes. He didn't say much besides pointing out that Appaloosa's one of the best Westerns ever made and he had a great time making it and boy, what a great director Ed was. And he should know, at least about Westerns. The man's done a ton of them over the past twenty years.

Before calling it a night, Ed implored us all to vote NO on Proposition 4. If you don't live in California, you won't know what that means. The gist of Prop 4 is that it would force teenage girls to get permission from their parents to get an abortion. So even if young Julie's dad's a real prick and beats the shit out of her, she'd have to get his permission to get an abortion. It's been voted down three times before and is coming up for a vote this November. Ed and especially his wife Amy are very outspoken against it. Amy wasn't there tonight, but apparently she told him to pass along the suggestion that we all vote NO on 4. Fine with me.

I've been following Ed's career for about twenty years and never knew until tonight that he was from Jersey, which is where I grew up. It makes perfect sense, though. He just has that Jersey attitude of no bullshit, no pretense, being salt of the earth, and just rolling with the punches. The moderator told him that the New York Times, which just published their review of Appaloosa today, called it a sex comedy. At first Ed was kind of floored by this and said that this is exactly why he never ever reads reviews. But then after the moderator expanded on that, Ed finally was like, and this isn't a direct quote, "Well fuck it. If they want to call it a sex comedy, then it can be a sex comedy."