Open Range is a 2003 Western movie based on the novel The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine. The film is directed and co-produced by Kevin Costner, who also stars along with Robert Duvall and Annette Bening.
Overview
The movie properly belongs to the epic Western genre and has the feel of Costner's earlier epic, Dances with Wolves (1990). The movie is set in Montana in 1882 (the year is seen on a new grave marker) though the movie was filmed entirely on location in Alberta, Canada.
The background of the movie concerns the "range wars" that occurred in the American West in the late 1800s. The "wars" pitted those that believed in the "Law of the Open Range" - free access to water and grass for everyone, against the "barbed wire" men – land barons, who used the new fencing to define their empire and block the free-range cattlemen from moving their herds.
Plot
"Boss" Spearman (Robert Duvall) is a free-range cattleman, who, with his hired hands Charley Waite (Kevin Costner), Mose (Abraham Benrubi), and Button (Diego Luna), and their dog Tig are driving a herd cross country. Charley is a former soldier who fought in the Civil War and feels guilt over his past as a killer.
Boss sends Mose to a nearby town for supplies. The town is controlled by the greedy and corrupt land baron, Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon), who hates free-rangers. Mose is badly beaten by Baxter's henchmen and then jailed by the town sheriff Poole (James Russo), whom Baxter "owns." Although he is greedy and corrupt, many townspeople look past Baxter's dealings, accepting the situation, while others secretly harbor animosity and anger towards him.
Boss and Charley become concerned when Mose doesn't return and set off to find him. They retrieve Mose from jail but not before getting a stern warning from Baxter about free-ranging on his land. Mose is so beat-up that Boss seeks medical attention for him. Mose is taken to Doc Barlow (Dean McDermott), where Charley meets Sue Barlow (Annette Bening), whom he mistakenly believes to be the doctor's wife; she is in fact the doctor's sister. Charley is attracted to her immediately.
It turns out that Baxter does not really want Boss to move on; he wants the herd. After seeing masked riders scouting the herd, Boss and Charley are able to best one of the groups of Baxter's henchmen, catching them unaware in the dark. After gaining information regarding Baxter, the henchmen are sent back to town on foot in their underwear. There is another group, however, that simultaneously kills Mose and Tig. Button is badly injured and left for dead.
Charley and Boss gather themselves, resolving to return to Baxter and his men what they visited upon Mose, Tig and Button. Charley then buries Mose and Tig beneath a tree on a hill, leaving behind a wooden headstone which simply states "Mose 1882". They leave Button at the doctor's house and enter town, where during a flash flood caused by severe rains, Charley saves a townsperson's dog. The townsman buys coffee for Boss and Charley, who learn more about the mixed feelings of the inhabitants of the town. Later, while sleeping in a chair at the Doctor's house, Charley has a nightmare that the masked gunmen are in the house. He awakens violently when Sue enters the room and accidentally breaks her porcelain tea set.
Knowing that the coming confrontation with Baxter is inevitable, Boss and Charley go to a drugstore to spend their money on cigars and chocolate, reasoning that they might be unable to spend it later. Charley leaves a note with Percy, the stable owner, that wills money made from the sale of his saddle and gear to buy Sue a new tea set if he is killed.
The emotions finally culminate in a lopsided gunfight, pitting Boss and Charley against Baxter and his henchmen. Aware of the looming shootout, most of the townspeople flee to the nearby hills. The shootout begins with Charley shooting the gunman who shot Button and killed Mose point blank in the face. Boss is wounded in the stomach during the fray. During the fight, some of Baxter's men flee. In the end, Baxter finds himself wounded and alone, trapped in the jail house with Boss, Charley, and some townspeople against him. Boss rushes Baxter, crashing through the jail house door and mortally wounding him. With the battle over, Charley (who it is discovered has been shot in the leg) witnesses the effects of the gunfight; dead men, wounded bystanders, destroyed property, and a general sense of despair.
With the battle over, Boss frees the doctor, who immediately begins assisting the townspeople. Sue and the Doctor begin to treat the wounded when the drugstore owner (who fought in the battle) tells Sue that Charlie wants to speak with her in the saloon. Charlie admits his feelings for Sue who reciprocates his love. Not long after, Charlie meets Sue in the garden and proposes to her, and she accepts. As Charlie and Boss leave the town, with Sue riding out with them, the doctor comes and tells Boss that the saloon will be ready for him when he returns. Boss invites Charlie to work with him, and he accepts. Charlie and Sue share a kiss before he and Boss ride off into the Open Range.
Main Characters
Bluebonnet "Boss" Spearman (played by Robert Duvall) is an aging cowboy and the leader of the free-rangers. He is an experienced horse-rider and cattleman, who appears hard and a staunch traditionalist on the outside, but is in fact a very caring man. He once had a wife and a child, but they contracted typhoid and died, causing him to abandon his old life. At the start of the movie, he is beginning to realize that the age of free grazing – and thus his way of life – is coming to an end.
Charles Travis Postlewaite (played by Kevin Costner) was a soldier during the Civil War and later a gunslinger. Having killed a man who tried to rape his mother when he was still very young, he soon became accustomed to killing people – and quite good at it. He eventually became a free-ranger, working for Boss Spearman under the name Charley Waite for more than ten years. The terrible things he and others did during the war continue to haunt him in his dreams, making him sometimes dangerous for those around him. When he arrives in Harmonville, his past catches up with him, but he also finds a chance for love and a future.
Sue Barlow (played by Annette Bening) is the sister and assistant of Harmonville's physician, Doc Barlow, and lives with him in a house just outside the town. She falls in love with Charley Waite when the free-rangers arrive with a badly hurt Button and, although finding him a complicated man with a difficult past, convinces Charley that they could have a happy future together. She is a strong and righteous woman, daring to speak up against the tyrant Baxter and putting herself in danger to protect her patients on more than one occasion.
Denton Baxter (played by Michael Gambon) is an Irish-born land baron who considers Harmonville "his" town. He is arrogant and greedy, using his band of henchman as well as the corrupt Marshall Poole to rule the town and keep off freegrazers. When he orders his men to ambush Boss Spearman's men and Mose is killed, a brutal conflict begins, in which Baxter shows that he does not have a problem with putting women and children in the line of fire, finally turning most of Harmonville against him. He has one estranged daughter.
Button (played by Diego Luna) is Spearman's Mexican-born youngest hand and also kind of a foster child to the other free-rangers who found him living on the streets years before. He is badly hurt by Baxter's men, but recovers and plays an important role in the final gun-fight.
Mose Harris (played by Abraham Benrubi) is another of Boss Spearman's hands, a large and peaceful man. He gets into a bar fight in Harmonville and is later killed by Baxter's henchman Butler.
Percy (played by Michael Jeter in his last on-screen role) is a Harmonville townsman who warns Boss and Charley about Baxter's men and is the only one who stands with the free-rangers right from the beginning.
Reception and box office
Reviews were largely positive and Open Range was a modest success at the box office, making about $58 million in the U.S. alone. The film won the 2004 Western Heritage Award and has a "Fresh" 78% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb. It was also nominated for a Golden Satellite Award, an MTV Movie Award (Diego Luna), a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award as well as a Taurus Award for stunt artist Chad Camilleri.
Notes
- Herbert Kohler, Jr. played an extra in the final fire fight in the town. He told the filmmakers he would do it if they let him "ride a horse, or shoot a gun". He was too heavy to get on a horse, so they let him shoot a shotgun.
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Mostly great but almost painfully earnest in parts
I'd heard great things about this film and for the most part I wasn't
rumbleinthejungle from New Zealand - 20 June 2009let down when I finally got around to seeing it. I think that Costner
is capable of great things and, although I've not seen the reputedly
awful The Postman, I'm one of the few people I know who rates
Waterworld as being a decent flick. The film works because of the great
scenes between Duvall and Costner's characters - some of the dialogue
is really quite poetic and very well written. The corrupt rancher,
played by Michael Gambon, as well as his right-hand man possibly aren't
as menacing as other western baddies that I could think of. This is
mostly due to the fact that they hardly feature in the film as opposed
to poor acting on their part; they don't get enough screen time to
establish much of a presence at all. Annette Benning is the other major
character and she's really good. The love story between her and Costner
plays out in a very quiet and dignified way. Benning is really
gorgeous, too! There's a tone of almost painful sincerity and
earnestness that underpins certain scenes and I put this down to
Costner wanting the film to have the old school western feel. The
relatively long build-up to the final showdown is also very much in
keeping with the traditional western film format. So, much better than
the 'Assassination of Jesse James' but maybe not quite as enjoyable as
'3:10 to Yuma'.
Excellent character-driven film
Just about the time I thought that Hollywood had run out of original
mcw2112 from Alaska, United States - 30 March 2009ideas, Kevin Costner wheeled this puppy out and proved me wrong. This
film is way above average in many departments including the direction
by Costner. The actors all turn in wonderful performances, even the
ones with bit parts. The true joy of this film, however, is the
writing. It is a very tight script that avoids so many common
pitfalls.; the dialogue is believable, there are no b.s. subplots and
the flow of the storytelling is right on. The audience gets to know the
characters through the story itself without it beating us over the
heads with cliché'-ridden monologues. I put this film in the same ranking as "Pale Rider", "The Outlaw Josey
Wales" and "Unforgiven", three of the best westerns ever made. The
characters stayed 'in character', their motivations were believable and
their actions all made sense. It takes a real pro to make an
entertaining film with virtually no special effects, no car chases and
no gratuitous sex. I wish that more film makers would focus on good
storytelling and only use CGI to further the story instead of relying
on it to 'wow' the audience whilst letting the plot a a back seat.
Kudos to Costner and company for an instant classic!!
A great example what is western supposed to be
In my life, I watched many westerns, especially the old ones from 60's
Tomici from Croatia - 11 February 2009and 70's. Those westerns were (and always will be) way better than the
most of the modern ones. Westerns made in the last, let's say 20 years,
very often give big advantage to the style over substance. And
unfortunately, there isn't too many of them made these days because
everybody are looking for some big budget action spectacles. And if
there still weren't movies like Open Range, Jack Bull, 3:10 to Yuma, or
that great show Deadwood, I guess we could really say that western is
dead.After mediocre Postman, in this movie Costner showed us that he can
still direct and act in a movie as good as his previous Dance with the
Wolves. This western has everything needful to make an Oscar worth
film. Everything is great, especially the last gunfight. I can tell
that this is, without a doubt, one of the best shootouts I've seen in
my whole life. It looks really realistic and without exaggerations that
are synonym for todays movies. I couldn't find any objection to the
movie and I really doubt I ever will (more or less because I watched
this movie 2 or 3 times already :). It's a beautiful dedication to the
old westerns and all I can say is : Thank you for that, K. Costner.
Reproduction Western
OPEN RANGE is like a piece of good reproduction furniture– you've seen
n_r_koch from Washington DC - 20 December 2008it before, but the vintage one fell apart when you sat on it. This time
the photography and editing and sound and so on are so good that you
can ignore the old-school dialogue and still follow the satisfyingly
conventional story without any trouble. And it's fun to see an
old-school Western (though they all do this now) with proper period
costumes, hair, furniture, lamps, vehicles, typefaces, muddy streets,
misfiring weapons, etc., and also with women who don't wear eye liner
and shadow. Like all of Costner's films, it's unexciting. There's
nothing really mean-spirited in it, which also means there's also
nothing really funny in it. But it's politically neutral, in the style
of most of the big Westerns made since the '80s, being neither mythic
nor agitated. Rather like Bill Clinton, it wants to do good yet sell
tickets; the impulses cancel one another out, leaving only a highly
entertaining show behind. Amen. And Costner had the sense this time
around to stay out of the way and let Duvall do a lot of the work. It's
as if he's finally accepted that he's never going to be Richard
Widmark, let alone John Wayne. The man can't carry a movie in the big
traditional way (ROBIN HOOD). He's good only when he's the man things
just happen to.
Anent "classics" and the obverse . . .
As someone who regards "Lonesome Dove" as THE template for the film
skyhouse5 from United States - 29 November 2008genre known as "the western," and who, similarly, believes that "Broken
Trail" was/is an exemplary coda to same, I find it, after belatedly
watching "Open Range," absolutely astonishing, incredible?, that BOTH
Robert Duvall AND Kevin Costner consider this sad effusion of cinematic
cliché and stereotype worthy of their efforts, much less their
effusions. Any honest "oater" that opens with baldfaced homilies to the
likes of "Mose" and "Buttons," never mind the four-legged Tig, and then
proceeds to exploit the superficialities of both Spearman and the
born-again gunslinger hero should be ashamed to do ought but collect
the dollars at the box office. And that excruciatingly overlong and
totally ersatz climactic "shootout" between the "good" guys and the
varmints is just one more example of the bang-bang-you're-dead esthetic
the prepubertal find orgasmic. Everyone's entitled to opinions and
mistakes, but, in this case, this mistaken fan finds this pea-shooter
out of range of consideration as plausible entertainment. "Classic"?
You gotta be kidding.
Pages: [90] 89 88 87 86 85 84 83 82 81 80 … 1 » Show All
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