GALISTEO, N.M. — AUTHENTIC westerns feature authentic dirt -- muddy chaps, weather-beaten storefronts and hair that's far from blow-dry clean. But the dust storms that occasionally raged during the making of “Appaloosa” took actor-director Ed Harris’ old-fashioned gunslinger story from the realm of the genuine into the domain of the wind tunnel.
On a cool afternoon last October, Harris' filmmaking team was battling the dermabrasion elements as the director raced a quickly setting sun. Electricians hid behind goggles. Carpenters covered their mouths with surgical masks. A handful of the crew donned welders' visors. And pretty much everyone would spend a long time in the shower that night, trying to wash the fine grit out.
In addition to directing and co-writing the movie, Harris was playing Virgil Cole, who with partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) has taken charge of the frontier town of Appaloosa in an unspecified Southwestern state to defend it from the ruthless rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) and his malevolent gang. Toward the film's end, the habitually law-abiding Hitch decides he must use some extrajudicial tactics to square up accounts and prepares for a gunfight in front of the town's hotel.
As the scene unfolded, Mortensen stood rock solid, waiting to draw his Colt .45. And then his hat went flying away, a Frisbee on steroids. Harris reset the scene, and then cinematographer Dean Semler ("Dances With Wolves") ran out of film. "That's why I like to shoot digitally," he muttered to Harris.
As the light was rapidly failing, Mortensen walked into the frame again, and once more his hat sailed off. Mortensen cursed under his breath, and Harris said, "Screw it, let's do it again."
With the hat at last refusing to take wing and Hitch's victim dispatched, Mortensen (despite lots of equine work from "The Lord of the Rings" and "Hidalgo") in consecutive takes struggled to reload his gun, untie his horse and climb into his saddle.
"It's OK, take your time," Harris told Mortensen, although he knew the clock was ticking, as the sun hurried toward the horizon. "OK, we've got 30 seconds to get this right," Harris said coolly.
And as he spoke, the wind suddenly died down, Mortensen's hat, bullets and stirrups finally cooperated, and Hitch rode off into the sun-dappled distance. "Wow, that was nice," said Renée Zellweger, who plays Cole's love interest, Allison French. "Look at that man ride!"
