Open Range

Open Range is without doubt one of the best family movies I have seen for a long time. Although not quite as good as "Dances With Wolves" Open Range, funnily enough, not only stars Kevin Costner but is along the same theme in as much as it tells a story about the early American way of life. This time about the "Free Range" cattlemen and the different hardships they had to cope with. And for once my family could sit down and watch a movie without all the smut, swearing and extreme violence that unfortunately, all movie makers of late, seem to think is necessary to sell them. The storyline was simple and easy to follow at the same time as it retold a fine piece of early American history.

Although the actors had a simple storyline to work with, I felt their performances made the movie all the more realistic. Kevin Costner in my opinion is a fine actor, but put him in with an under-rated master such as Robert Duvall, and you can't go wrong. Their easy going,straight from the hip portrayal of the main characters was one of the reasons that as soon as I had finished watching the video I rewound it and the whole family watched it again.

Costner admitted early in his career he was not an "artist", but rather a commodity, or star. I don't disagree. He was a handsome face but he always had an authenticity in his performances too. Very natural on camera. In Open Range, he's at his best. He's the type of guy who is just comfortable in front of the camera and you look at him and feel he's being honest. An honest performance that makes you feel he's not acting in any way. He reminds me of Gary Cooper in that way. A guy who isn't bullsh**ting and you believe every word he says. I love him in this movie. I love the way he speaks to the woman he can't express his love to. I love her in this too.

Personally, I didn't find it long. I've seen many great Westerns--such films as "Will Penny," "Shane," "The Unforgiven," and several other Eastwood movies spring to mind--and this was right up there with them. My thanks to Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall (of course), and Annette Bening for giving me a wonderful experience at the movies. It doesn't happen all that often anymore. To those who say, "They don't make 'em like they used to," my response is "This one's better."

Once again, Robert Duval deserves Oscar consideration for this one. The dialogue was crisp so kudos to the writing team. The attention to detail must also be applauded. During the first walk through of the town, the realism was mind blowing. The detail of the main characters trying to cross the street as the water rushed by was incredible well done. Who couldn't relate to that?

This one is a must see. A true period film

Boss, Charley, Mose and Button are free rangers crossing America with their herd. When Mose gets beaten up and imprisoned by a Marshall in the employee of cruel rancher Baxter, Boss and Charley ride into town and help him back to the camp. However Baxter sends him men to scatter their herd - during which they kill Mose. With Button seriously injured, Boss and Charley ride into town to get justice.

It is perhaps a good thing that the unjustified criticism and media-driven-hatred of Kevin Costner is starting to subside, but we must be careful not to be too forgiving of him and too quick to heap praise on him. Open Range was greeted with rave reviews and hyped claims that it doesn't totally live up to - but it still manages to be an enjoyable and well made film. The film opens very weakly with an overly-wholesome feel and `aw-shucks' dialogue that continues for the first ten minutes. However after this the film gets better and settles down into more of an acceptable tone. The film is never really very dark, but it has a nice tension to it that runs even when the film is amusing.

If it has one major flaw it is that it is too slow to really be enjoyed by all. Even as someone used to the slow pace of many westerns, I found this to really try my patience at times. It is not so much the pace of the film as the feeling of it dragging. The actual pace works quite well for this film but it should have been edited a bit tighter to offset the drag - there are plenty of moments where it could have been trimmed to it's benefit, and the film could easily have lost 15 minutes. The slow pace helps in one regard - the final gunfight. When the standoff finally comes it is violent, long and very impacting. Some reviewers have complained about the lack of realism in the fight, but I actually think that the misses (although excessive) are more believable than scores of direct hits. The gunfight is all the more surprising for Charley's sudden return to character. His dark past is hinted at, but when it comes it comes with a thunder - the sound effects are tremendous, the first shot made me jump and the rest were just as loud.

Some issues are smudged: it is too hard to believe that Sue would be unmarried, Charley's descent is not that well done and both Mose and Buttons are poor characters - but it is easy to ignore these. The characters are not great but they are good enough for this. Duvall is the best thing in the film, his easy charm compliments the slow pace and he makes for nice slow-poke humour. Costner is as good, he is unassuming - not a great character but good enough for a western. Bening is good despite being given the romantic subplot to handle. Support is good from Gambon, the late Jeter and others in solid, if stereotypical roles. On a personal note it was good to see Kim Coates in a big screen movie.

Overall, this got big praise, but it will likely not covert anyone to be a western fan. As a genre film it is very enjoyable but it is hard to ignore the clichéd slow-motion, the overly slow pace and the indiscipline of the editing. However the film is enjoyable, funny, patient and, when it comes, brutally impacting.