Open Range

Open Range (2003)

Director: Kevin Costner

Cast: Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, Michael Jeter, Diego Luna, James Russo, Abraham Benrubi

Writers: Lauran Paine (Novel), Craig Storper (Screenplay)

Synopsis:

Boss Spearman (Duvall), along with his crew Charley Waite (Costner), Mose Harrison (Benrubi) and Button (Luna) free graze their cattle across the prairies of the West. When they are forced to wait out some bad weather they come into contact with the town of Harmonville, which is run by the cattleman Denton Baxter (Gambon) and his corrupt sheriff Marshall Poole (Russo). Baxter isn't fond of the idea of free grazers and tries to scatter or steal Spearman's herd, which leads to members of Spearman's crew getting injured and killed. As a result, Spearman and Charley, who only wanted to be left in peace, are drawn into an eventual showdown with Baxter and his men. 

First Impressions:

I saw this movie when it was released in the summer of 2003. I was quite excited for it because I am a big fan of Westerns, particularly modern Westerns. The movie was released at a time when the Western genre was slowly fading away. Sure, the genre was bolstered a bit a decade earlier with the success of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven but by this time, there were fewer and fewer Westerns being made and those that were tended to be more like action movies than Westerns. This movie, thankfully, avoided that comparison (which I'll cover further down) and it holds quite true to the traditional style of the Westerns from decades earlier. Overall at the time, I viewed as one of my favorite entries in the genre and I've watched it many more times since then.

Story:

"Men are gonna get killed here today, Sue, and I'm gonna kill 'em"

Like all good Westerns, Open Range is a morality play but like Eastwood's magnum opus 10 years earlier, it plays with the conventions normally associated with the genre. In this case, the story explores how far an individual is willing to go to secure their freedom. There are a lot of similarities between this film and Unforgiven, such as its attempts to show that violence, regardless of how necessary it may be, doesn't happen in a vacuum and has real consequences. The film also shines a light on the emotional impact experienced by the purveyors of that violence. This theme is evidenced in Charley's journey, who struggles with old memories of his previous life as a gun-hand.

At this point, I should comment of the job Costner did in the director's chair. I know he tends to get a lot of flack about some of his previous movies (Waterworld, The Postman) but if there's two type of movies he excels at, it's sports movies and Westerns. In Open Range, he keeps the story moving along well and keeps the exposition to minimum, which helps with the pacing. I quite like how the movie starts off slowly by showing the more mundane aspects of a cowboy's life (tending the heard, setting up camp, etc.), which gives us time to get to know the characters before the manure hits the fan.

One other thing I'd like to touch on here is the (grumble, grumble) romantic subplot. Now, I generally dislike these because they usually feel jammed in and are too often rushed. In this movie there is a romantic subplot between Charley and the town doctor's sister Sue Barlow (Bening). While it does feel a bit rushed, there's something to it that seems genuine. It's basically two people who have seen better days bonding over the fact that they're both what society back then would consider "damaged" goods, with Charley being a former killer and Sue being older than acceptable marrying age at the time. Anyway, despite it being rushed, I think it kind of works here.

Acting:

This is the point where I get to talk about how awesome Robert Duvall is. He really is one of the best actors of his generation and often has to take a backseat to guys like Pachino, Walken and De Niro but I think he easily sits alongside those greats. Duvall plays Spearman like a crotchety old grump that doesn't really seem to like anybody but as the story progresses, you see a man of intense conviction who first and foremost wants to right by those in his charge.

Another highlight in this movie is the great Michael Jeter who plays Percy, the owner of Harmonville's livery. I believe Open Range was his last on-screen appearance, with the movie being released several months after his untimely death in 2003. Jeter was one of those "Hey it's that guy!" character actors that just seemed to inhabit whatever role they're playing. In this film, Jeter handles a lot of the movie's levity as the affable but somewhat absent-minded stable owner.

The rest of the cast do their jobs well. Costner's turn as Charley is understated and he leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to Duvall, which is never a bad idea. Bening and Gambon are also good in their roles, as were Benrubi and Luna. Kim Coates even makes a brief appearance as Butler, the slimy gunfighter in Baxter's employ, who meets a somewhat shocking end. 

Visual/Special Effects:

There aren't a ton of special effects in this movie, so there's not a lot to talk about here. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't say a few words about the scenery in this film. One of the things I love about Westerns is the West itself and a good Western will often turn the landscape into a character. Open Range is one of those movies. Costner makes good use of wide establishing shots of the plains and the mountains in the background. The scenery is spectacular and, as a side note, the movie was shot in Alberta not far from where I grew up, so that's also pretty cool.

Score/Music:

Michael Kamen wrote the score for the movie and I think he did a pretty good job. It's often very quiet and lives in the background through most of the film, only swelling up at the dramatically appropriate moment. In fact, I wasn't even aware of it until those swelling moments. While the score was certainly fitting of the movie and didn't distract from it, it also wasn't terribly memorable. To me, the mark of a truly good musical score is if you find yourself absently humming afterward but this just wasn't that type of score.

Action:

The action in this movie is done very well, although there's very few scenes with any amount of sustained action, with the exception of the final showdown. In fact, the whole movie is like the build up to that fight, something that is paralleled by the torrential rain storm that hits during the film. The showdown itself is done beautifully, despite a few inconsistencies with the amount of bullets held by a standard 19th century revolver. The climax ebbs and flows nicely, with bursts of action interrupted by a few quiet moments as well. The sound design in that showdown is also done particularly well, with the gunshots sounding clear and load, very similar to the final shootout in Heat. 

Final Verdict:

I still love this movie, perhaps more so than I did when I first saw it. To me, it remains as one of the last true Westerns produced by Hollywood and it is definitely a solid, if underrated addition to any collection.