Barnes & Noble

Westerns have always been good luck for Kevin Costner. His showy supporting role in 1985's Silverado marked him as an up-and-coming talent, and his 1990 directorial debut, Dances with Wolves, got that year's Academy Award for Best Picture and earned him an Oscar for Best Director. Open Range is a more traditional, straightforward genre film, but it's every bit as effective in its clean, unpretentious storytelling and deceptively simple portrayal of archetypal protagonists. In addition to wielding the megaphone, Costner plays a former gunman and mercenary who has long abandoned his killing ways to ride herd with free-grazing cowman Robert Duvall, an old-school cowboy who abides by a strict code of honor. When one of their fellow drovers (Abraham Benrubi) is savagely beaten and later killed by henchmen of ruthless cattle baron Michael Gambon, Costner and Duvall reluctantly buckle up their gun belts and seek the justice denied them by crooked sheriff James Russo. Annette Bening, as a frontier doctor's sister smitten with the enigmatic Costner, is frankly superfluous to the story but delivers a fine performance. The star exercises unusual restraint in his portrayal of the taciturn, haunted gunslinger, and he cedes center stage to Duvall's crusty, moralistic range rider. The characters played by Gambon and Russo are two-dimensional, but they are sufficiently well drawn as to be believable in this old-fashioned morality tale. Open Range has a refreshing but unobtrusive self-awareness about its unabashed deployment of clichés; in some movies that would be a fatal flaw, but in a suspenseful shoot-'em-up like this one, that's not only acceptable but preferable. After a string of clinkers, Costner finally strikes pay dirt again with this rousing horse opera, reminding us once again of his formidable talent both behind and in front of the camera. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Kevin Costner stars in and directs the Western Open Range. Robert Duvall stars as Boss Spearman, a rugged old-timer who free-grazes cattle. He and Charley Waite (Costner) have been partners for ten years. As the film opens in the 1880s, the pair and their employees -- the beefy, rugged, likable Mose (Abraham Benrubi) and the impetuous Mexican teenager Buttons (Diego Luna) -- are driving cattle across the West. Mose is attacked and thrown in jail during a visit to a town. The local cattle rancher Baxter (Michael Gambon) wants the free grazers off his land and warns Charley and Boss when they retrieve Mose that they have until the next day to be out of the area. Boss decides to fight back, especially after Baxter's men do harm to the foursome. Charley confesses his past as a killer during the Civil War and strikes up a tentative romance with Sue Barlow -- the sister of the town doctor. The film's centerpiece is an extended gunfight between the duo (with some assistance from sympathetic townsfolk) and Baxter's hired gunmen. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Product Details

• UPC: 786936226379
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: Français, English
• Subtitles: Español
• Time: 2:19:00
• Sales Rank: 7,293

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