One of Marlon’s more ignored films, The Appaloosa (1966) is my kind of western. About an hour into it my dad walked in the room and took a seat.
“What’s this one about?” he asked.
“This guy stole Marlon’s horse, so now Marlon’s gonna kill him, steal his woman, and take back his horse.”
And that was it. The entire plot in a sentence, albeit a bit of a run-on. The second half of the film continued on true to form, and a enjoyable time was had by all.
Brando is magnificent in an old west setting. "One Eyed Jacks" is an all-time classic, and Kazan’s "Viva Zapata!," while more of an historical epic, still has plenty of horseback riding and Gringo chasing and cigar smoking. The Appaloosa cannot match either of those pictures either for content or execution, but it remains an engrossing film.
Brando has the unique ability to utter simple, meaningless lines in such a manner to make us believe that his character has thought very carefully before speaking—even if it just a gruff hello, or thank you. Westerns are perfect for a man notorious for not remembering his lines, and Brando seems completely content and free to perform with trademark expertise.
John Saxon offers Brando a memorable foil as Chuy, a genuine Gringo-hater and all-around mean guy. Chuy is a creative man, and seems to prefer torture over killing. He ropes Brando around the chest and drags him through a river behind his horse. He challenges Brando to an arm-wrestling (!) bout, in which the loser is guaranteed death by virtue of a scorpion sitting on the table where each competitors hand would come to rest upon defeat. Chuy wins, but Brando manages to survive. We’re never given an explanation, but who cares—you have to try really, really hard to kill an angry Marlon Brando (just ask Francis Ford Coppola).
The supporting cast is rather unremarkable. The female interest, played by the beautiful Anjanette Comer, was ripe for the picking, but Comer does not deliver the goods.
Canadian director Furie, perhaps best known for "The Ipcress File," displays an aggressive camera, sliding through shadows into light, relying heavily on close-ups. The cinematography is impressive, contrasting nicely between the bright, open skies and dark, sinister lines on Chuy’s pistolleros’ faces.
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