The western is one of the few authentic American film genres. Like gangster films, westerns have tapped into the essential psyche of the American experience for the better part of the 20th century.In “The Psychological Appeal of the Hollywood Western,” Frederick Elkin notes the genre deals with the development of the American West in the 19th century.According to Elkin, “The action takes place in a small western town in which law and order have never been firmly established. It is a town with one central street, a hitching post, a combination sheriff’s office and jail, a saloon and perhaps a barber shop, livery stable and stagecoach office.”The characters are mostly ranchers, miners or submissive townsfolk, with few, if any, women or children visible.Westerns put a pristine face on what is the rugged visage of manifest destiny — the unrestrained expansion into the West which deprived the indigenous tribes of their land.In “The ‘Adult Western’ as an American Art Form,” Martha Nussbaum said, “To the average city dweller, confined to a neighborhood of row houses, a stretch of prairie or mountain range extending as far as the eye can see offers a transcending exhilaration.”Unfortunately, with the        release of director Ed Harris’s second feature, “Appaloosa,” one has a pang of regret that not much was done to enhance the genre’s gene pool. Despite this, much can be admired in its faithfulness to the western tradition and its realistic depiction of male friendship. To examine its weaknesses, it will be necessary to compare “Appaloosa” with more modern westerns — those that have transfused the genre with much-needed new blood.”Appaloosa” begins with the murder of a small town sheriff and his deputies by a rancher and his gang. The townspeople, terrorized and afraid, hope to find some respite when they hire two no-nonsense, shoot-first-ask-questions-later peacemakers.The hired hands soon become sheriffs and instill a little sense of peace in the town. This comes at a heavy price for everyone: the gunslingers, the gang and the town.”Appaloosa” hews closely to the original western themes of black-white morality, rugged landscapes and death-defying heroes.The genre has always had the morals of a Christian society, one in which man can only be good or evil — where good is always right and so naturally is an ideal worthy of being defended, even to death.In “Appaloosa,” the good guys, Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) and Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) confront the bad guys led by Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), while the people of the town reside in the background, neither arbiters nor participants in the war.There is no shade of grey in the film. The issue isn’t if Bragg will be brought to justice by Hitch and Cole, it is rather when and how it will be done. This seems mildly anachronistic in our contemporary society that tends to psychoanalyze criminals to get at the root cause of their crimes. By contrast, director Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” portrayed complex characters questioning past actions. Instead of a clear dichotomy between good and evil, there is only a spectrum between the two. Prior acts which might have been applauded as upholding justice, were on further comprehension, now tinged with regret.But besides its fidelity to morality, the film also stays true to the traditional interpretation of the cinematographic landscape. Film critic Edward Buscombe, writing in an essay, explained “the conquest of terrain is emblematic of the achievement of the individual in overcoming personal trials.”For westerns, the panoramic mountains, mesas and buttes exist not as specific geographical sites, but as metaphors showing nature’s immensity when compared to man’s insignificance. In order to survive, man has to surmount the enormousness of his environment and by intelligence transmute a desert into a land flowing with milk and honey.Yet while “Appaloosa” has several fantastic extreme long shots of terrain teeming with emptiness, the treatment of the land seems perfunctory.An opposing example would be “No Country for Old Men,” a modern-day version of the genre where the frontier has been conquered and has unleashed in its wake a deluge of unadulterated violence. The world created by Cormac McCarthy and visualized by the Coen brothers is set in the present, but the terrain showcases a world where good has vanished and evil is omnipresent and infinite. Even in its treatment of its heroes, “Appaloosa” follows the standard line.In describing the western hero, Nussbaum describes him as a person who “upholds the principles of law and order.””He sets out on knight-like adventures; he is able to cope with all emergencies; in the midst of trouble he remains relaxed, and finally he is always expecting the worst,” Nussbaum says.Hitch and Cole are no different from that definition. They aren’t scared to laugh in the face of danger, they remain unperturbed by the knowledge their lives depend on how fast they are on the draw. In this regard, they resemble Marshall Will Kane in “High Noon” and “Shane” — epitomes of the western hero. In conclusion, a more enlightening aspect of “Appaloosa” is, for want of a better term, its homoeroticism. The film portrays both men as intimate, without overt consummation through sex. Hitch is respectful and subservient to Cole, at times even helping out when Cole trips on a difficult word. Audiences have been content to glide over the erotic dimensions of buddy relationships in films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” but “Appaloosa” manages to keep it as a pleasant, undiverting undercurrent.If Harris planned to make a replica of the typical western, then he has surely succeeded; “Appaloosa” is an interesting, entertaining film. But, with the potential that lies for updating the genre, one can be forgiven for expecting much more.—-Contact Freke Ette at [email protected]