I probably wasn’t in the right mood for “Appaloosa” but Wayne said that it wasn’t just a Western, but a recently made, good Western. “Like 3:10 to Yuma,” he said. What I remember most about “3:10 to Yuma” is being really, really disturbed by it.
“Appaloosa” opened with dust flying: dusty cowboys approaching a dusty ranch on horseback, gunfire, and the three men, falling dead off their horses, onto the dusty ground. I pondered the genre of Western movies. People rarely make them anymore, but some people must still watch them. There’s something about men with guns making their own rules that appeals to audiences. I tried to imagine it was just “The Transporter” in period costume.
Wayne shut off the movie so we could clean up from dinner and I realized that while I was watching, inside me had grown an unusual urge to do something productive. Usually, unless a movie or tv show is so disturbing I have to run out of the room covering my eyes and plugging my ears (difficult to do while running), I watch whatever. Then I watch the special features just so I don’t have to get off the couch. This time, however, I was able to get up and leave just because I felt like it. I didn’t even have to find out how it ended.
This might be progress. Or, maybe I just really don’t like Westerns.
You wrote: “I didn’t even have to find out how it ended.”
Well… if you recall, you did ask me what happened after you stopped watching 🙂