Yesterday, quite by accident, I finished reading Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker and I also watched Lonely are the Brave, a 1962 film starring Kirk Douglas. It struck me not too long thereafter that the two are somewhat of a piece with one another. Cowboys striving against the forces of modernity is a perennial theme in Westerns, but that’s okay because it nearly always works (see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Wild Bunch for further proof). This Grand Theme is certainly used to great effect in both Appaloosa and Lonely Are the Brave.

I can sum up Robert B. Parker’s Appaloosa for you quickly: If you liked the movie, you’ll like the book. It’s actually pretty remarkable the fidelity with which Ed Harris adapted the  novel for the screen. Apart from making a few necessary excisions for running time, Harris basically just shot the book. I would say his only mistake was in casting Renee Zellweger as “Allie”. Others have commented (and I agree) that Zellweger is, at the risk of sounding crude, not nearly attractive enough for the role. The character, as Parker has written her, is a smart woman with the feminine wiles to cloud men’s minds. Zellweger can certainly do the smart part, but as for the rest… I’ll leave that up to you. (And, to be fair, I will say that a lot of the blame lies with the costumers and the make-up people — Zellweger looks plainer in Appaloosa than I’ve ever seen her look before.) Happily, in reading the novel, I was free to “recast” the role of Allie in my head, and this I did. (I kept everyone else the same in my “mind movie”: Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen were perfect for their roles.) Of course the theme of marginalization I referred to above is just as present in the book as it is in the film. Two thirds of the way through the story, the forces of money and the modern world (in the form of the villain, Randall Bragg) move in and begin to force our two heroes out of their accustomed roles. The way this situation is ultimately resolved is better left for the reader to discover, but I was satisfied by that climax.

Bottom line: Appaloosa is a terrific book. It’s written in a clean, concise (almost Hemingway-esque) prose style and it goes down real easy. I’d be more than happy to read Parker again. In fact, part of the reason I read the  novel was that Parker has written two sequels featuring the same characters. I have every intention of “kindling” those as well.

Where Appaloosa takes place in the sunset years of the American West, Lonely Are the Brave takes place in the early 1960s, long after the true west had gone to its grave. The character played by Kirk Douglas is a sad anachronism, a man who doesn’t realize he’s about a century too late to the party. Our hero runs afoul of the local authorities in a New Mexico town and most of the movie is an extended chase with Douglas on one side and local sheriff Walter Matthau on the other. I’m hesitant to say too much more about the plot for fear of spoiling it; it’s just one of those things you have to see unspool from beginning to end to truly appreciate. That being said, here are some factoids to further entice you:

1. Lonely are the Brave was adapted for the screen by former blacklist-ee Dalton Trumbo — one helluva fine writer who also did the script for Kirk Douglas’ Spartacus.
2. Speaking of Douglas, this is one of his best performances. He’s utterly convincing in the role of Jack W. Burns, that sadly misbegotten cow-poke.
3. Lonely Are the Brave is one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite movies. In fact, it would seem that he’s largely responsible for this recent DVD reissue. He sings the movie’s praises in a retrospective documentary found on the disc.

Marginalization, anachronism, these are meaty themes, and maybe I relate to stories featuring those themes because I sometimes feel I was born too late myself. But that’s fodder for another post somewhere down the trail. ‘Til then, read Appaloosa and watch Lonely Are the Brave.