Open Range (2003)

Excellent story, cast, acting and direction. The viewer is drawn into the dilemma of "town bullies" versus unwanted "real" cowboys driving a herd, who must stay over because of their situation.

From an elegiac beginning ,"Open Range" gradually builds up to a what is literally a gun battle rather than a gunfight then ,adrenalin spent, it relaxes in an almost post - coital manner to it's former pace and a classic ending for a "Western" picture. Following in the tradition of Ford and Hawks,two alpha males set out for revenge after an evil rancher and a corrupt lawman in concert who rule a town by terror kill one colleague and leave another for dead. Mr Costner makes wonderful use of the familiar frontier town location,bars that are merely drinking dens rather than glitter palaces with waistcoated piano players and girls with fancy garters,dirty muddy streets without drainage that flood after a storm leaving people unable to cross the street,livery stables that look as if they actually hold horses but - above all - a population of people anxious to put roots down and "civilise" the west but are in the thrall of 1880's "Big Business" in the form of the powerful rancher Mr M.Gambon,all hissing and threats with a good Amerirish accent. The plot is familiar enough,but,as they say,there is many a good tune played on an old fiddle. The battle itself is superbly choreographed(and I use the word advisedly ). It is bloody,brutal,noisy and indiscriminate,much,I imagine,like the real thing would have been. Eventually the townspeople turn on their oppressors and wholesale slaughter follows.They gleefully pursue one unarmed and fleeing gunman and shoot him down like a dog long after the main action is finished. An interesting subtext on the subject of "the first kill is the hardest". Mr Duval,Mr Costner and Miss Benning are exemplary,the cast as a whole has no weaknesses,the psycho killers look like psycho killers as they tend to do. I am grateful to Mr Costner for continuing in the Grand Tradition. The West of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry that so engaged my imagination as a boy may be long dead and heroes may have got a lot more tarnished,but the spirit lives on.

If only Robert Duvall's character had died from his gut shot wound then I would have been inclined to give this movie a 10. Big fan of Duvall and a huge fan of Kevin Costner, particularly when Kevin is in this kind of role in which he plays a deadly workmanlike gunman as well as a very convincing cowboy, at least as convincing as I can imagine. The chemistry between the trail boss (Duvall), his segundo (foreman or second, Costner) and the drovers (Benrubi who doubled as cook and Luna) was perfect and the interplay was spot on! Kevin you did a great job as director but how could a gut shot man ride away shortly after the shoot out with no apparent disability? This unreality almost ruined the film for me and I'm glad it was at the end cause had it been in the beginning I probably wouldn't have watched any further. By the way I was pleased your character didn't settle down as it would have been completely out of character for the character! All in all a very good film and well worth 140 minutes of my life!

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to his third directorial effort 2003's Open Range.Plot In A Paragraph: A former gunslinger (KC) is forced to take up arms again when he and his friends are threatened by a corrupt lawman.After his worst movie since the early 80's, KC responded with his best movie in 10 years. KC turned down the role of Bill in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 to do this movie, and I for one am glad he did. I'm also glad Robert Duvall took the role (within 24 hours of reading the script) as he was the only actor that Kevin Costner wanted for the role of Boss Spearman. He said if Duvall had turned down the part, he might not have made the movie at all. And that would have been a travesty. I can't praise the cast highly enough especially the two leads. Robert Duvall is perfect and KC fits this movie like a glove. It's beautifully shot and has a great score too. I'm not sure how many here will have seen it, but I love it!! At a little over two hours, this is the shortest of any movie KC has directed. I remember it took forever to come to the UK, about 6 months after its release in America, and I was disappointed (like with Thirteen Days) to find my screening less than half full, despite great reviews.