Kevin Costner in a western. I guess you always go back to what works for you, and as Dances With Wolves showed, Costner does well with westerns as both director and actor (something about Oscars). And as his latest films show (Dragonfly and 3000 Miles to Graceland), he has not been doing to well this century. As to the movie, think Unforgiven, but not as good.

Basically you have a group of cowboys led by Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall, Gods and Generals) who are raising a herd of cattle in the foothills of the Rockies at a key moment of change in the West. That change is the fencing off of vast tracks of land and moving from a free open range to the series of ranches we have today. The large landowners of the nearby town of Harmonville do not want these free rangers in their neck of the woods, so they harass the group in an attempt to ride them off the land. These landowners use the power of the local sheriff (James Russo, The Ninth Gate) in this attempt that eventually kills the friendly Mose (Abraham Benrubi, ZigZag) and nearly kills Button (Diego Luna) but do leave him in a coma. So Boss Spearman and his loyal partner and former outlaw gunslinger Charley Waite (Costner) head for town to get medical help for Button, and get revenge on the big landowner Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon, Gosford Park). The two are able to get the medical help from Doc Barlow (Dean McDermott) and his sister Sue (Annette Bening, American Beauty), who they had met earlier when Mose was hurt during an earlier attack. Well most of the townspeople sympathize with Boss and Charley, because they too live in fear of Baxter, but they don’t want to risk their own necks to help strangers, except for the local livery guy Percy (Michael Jeter, Jurassic Park 3). So, Charley and Sue hit it off, while Boss worries about his injured man Button, who he sees more as the son he lost. Then it’s time for the big gunfight, where all hell breaks loose.

Craig Storper wrote the screenplay based on Lauran Paine’s novel The Open Range Men. Others in the movie are Cliff Saunders, Patricia Stutz, Peter MacNeill, Kim Coates, Julian Richings, Ian Tracey, and Rod Wilson.

As I said before, rather similar to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, but not as well done. Costner, Duvall, and Bening are good, but not really great. Also, the attachment to Button that Duvall’s character has, really could have been done better, and I’m not really sure what Bening’s character sees in Costner’s character. Still, a decent film that gets seven couches out of ten from About-Movies.com.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:46:26 AM

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