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Movie: Open Range
Starring Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Benning
Directed by Kevin Costner; Written by Craig Storper (BuenaVista)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Open Range is beautifully shot on location in Alberta, Canada and it's played so cowboy-idyllic it's almost painful. It's a very good, perhaps great film, but in spite of the hype, it's not going to win an Oscar.
Kevin Costner does his usual double duty as director and star, this time playing Charlie Wait, a Civil War veteran who has made a career out of driving cattle with his friend Boss Spearman. Robert Duvall plays Spearman, settling easily into the same leathery character he perfected in Lonesome Dove and giving Open Range much of its larger-than-life feel. Mainly the film focuses on the interaction between these two. Their dialogue is played out slowly, usually on horseback, and you hardly ever get more than five words in a sentence from them:
Boss: "That storm gonna hit us?"
Charlie (pauses, surveying the clouds): "Might."
Boss: "Best bed 'em down."Their dialogue actually plays very well and becomes a source of inadvertent comedy as Charlie eventually attempts a nigh-monosyllabic wooing of Sue Barton, played with frontier grace by Annette Benning.
Basically this is a cattle-war story and I expected more shoot-em-up action, but to his credit in this post-911 vengeance-is-mine era Costner doesn't wallow in violence; mostly he keeps everyone in suspense until the final gunfight. That scene has many of the film's finest moments, but ironically it's also where I spotted the most continuity errors. A major character appears to get shot in the opening volley, yet later it appears there is no harm to him. Later the bad guy (Michael Gambon) empties a revolver at him at close range. VERY close range, like two feet! Minor details like that are bothersome when Costner is clearly trying for a very realistic depiction of an 1880's gunfight. At least there is no endless supply of bullets. Everyone, including the good guys, miss a lot, and no one falls dead at the first shot. (Well, except for that one guy who took it in the head).
This film could easily have been saddled with a heavy load of tired old cattle-punching cliches, but by successfully reigning in his indulgences, Open Range is easily Costner's best since Dances With Wolves. Unfortunately that isn't saying much; the bad aftertaste of his two turkeys, Waterworld and The Postman, still lingers. Still, Open Range is a damn good cowboy film.
The Skinny:
Did I enjoy the film? Yes'm.
Would I go to see it again? Might.
© 2003 - Rusty Pipes