Appaloosa, like many Old West towns, is as light on law and order as it is on population. This makes it ripe for abuse by rich, powerful outlaw Randall Bragg (Irons), whose boys are allowed to drink the whiskey, use the whores and take the livestock. Eventually, the town leaders become so fed-up with Bragg they call in renowned gunman Virgil Cole (Harris) and his offsider Everett Hitch (Mortensen). So begins a cat-and-mouse game between the lawmen and the gangster.

Westerns have lost a lot of their popularity in the last 20 years, but those that do make it to the screen usually have a lot of passion behind them. In this case the passion is Harris, who writes and directs along with his leading role. It's clear he's put a lot of effort and a lot of himself into this production. While there isn't a lot that's new in the film, it earns high marks everywhere else - the lead performances, direction and production values in particular.

While Appaloosa won't go down in history alongside Harris's excellent directorial debut Pollock, it is an enjoyable couple of hours of gunslinging Wild West hardarses.