appaloosa posters

Thanks to the ever-entertaining Row Three, I bring you four character posters for the new Ed Harris helmed Appaloosa. I don't know why, but I'm getting really excited about this movie... not in a high-expectation kind of way, but in a "now for something completely different" kind of way, like in the way that History of Violence surprised a lot of us. The sepia tones of the posters are beautiful and appropriate, but this coloration does extend beyond a generic Western motif. These images play off of dualities; the chiaroscuro around the profiles of the four main characters showcase both the soft tenderness and the dirty grittiness of the themes of the movie. We know it's about two loner cowboy types (presumably with trust issues) who fall in love with a woman in the West. At first, these posters seem to reduce the characters to these themes, but then you look closer and you notice the wrinkle lines of Ed Harris's mouth and eyes or the stitching in Zellwegger's dress, and this closer examination provokes questions about these characters as individuals beyond Western archetypes.

I think I'm excited about this movie because the trailer -- and the subsequent advertisements -- don't give a thing away. My curiosity drives me... drives me right to the theater.