Appaloosa

Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow. 1882, New Mexico Territory. Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are itinerant lawmen, hired by desperate towns as Marshal and Deputy, respectively. The city fathers of Appaloosa hire them after Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), a newly-arrived rancher with money and a gang of thugs, disrupts commerce and kills three local lawmen. Cole and Hitch contrive to arrest Bragg and bring him to trial, but hanging him proves to be difficult. Meanwhile, a widow has arrived in town, Allison French (Renée Zellweger), pretty, refined, and good-natured. Virgil falls hard, and it seems mutual, but there may be more to Allison than meets the eye. Can friendship and skill with a gun overcome a pernicious villain and green-eyed jealousy? —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Tough friends and partners Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) arrive in the town of Appaloosa and they are hired as Marshal and Deputy, respectively, by the local politicians with absolute power to rule the city. In their first assignment, they face the gang of the powerful rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), who had killed Marshal Jack Bell (Robert Jauregui) and his two Deputies, and they killed three gunmen. When refined piano player Allison French (Renée Zellweger) arrives in Appaloosa, she stays close to the needy Virgil and they decide to live together. Meanwhile, one employee of Bragg offers to testify against his boss, and Virgil and Everett bring him to court, where he is sentenced to death by hanging. While transporting Bragg in the train to be executed, two gunmen abduct Allison to force Virgil to release Bragg. Bragg escapes with his men and Allison through the desert, with Virgil and Everett on their tails. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil