Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2003

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Westerns aren't really my bag. I can count the number of westerns I like on one hand (literally: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Magnificent Seven, Silverado, and Unforgiven). One of those one-hand westerns, Silverado, starred a young, exuberant Kevin Costner, and his infectious grin. In the unlikely event that I ever get to interview Costner about his movie roles, I know what my first question will be: "why don't you smile anymore?" THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**) Charley Waite (Kevin Costner), Mose Harrison (Abraham Benrubi), Button (Diego Luna), and their "boss", Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) are Free Grazers: cattle herders who roam the open ranges of the not-so-wild West - much to the displeasure of ranchers who want the land for their own herds. Charley and Boss just want to escape their past and live as free men, not harming anyone else; but as often happens, bad men bring harm to their crew, in the body of Marshall Poole (James Russo) and his puppetmaster, rich rancher Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon). Though Baxter has intimidated most of the townsfolk, Charley and Boss find allies in Percy (Michael Jeter), who runs the local stable, and Dr. Barlow (Dean McDermott), who tends to one of the hurt men. What Charley least expected to find, though, was Sue (Annette Bening), the nurse who tends to his hurt soul. THE UPSHOT I have to add another counting hand - because Open Range has joined my list of favorite westerns. Kevin Costner gets a lot of flack for being a hack actor (deservedly so, lately); but there are few modern-day filmmakers who have such a loving eye for the Old West as he. Costner has a way of making the West become almost a supporting character in itself. In his role as director, Costner rightly builds the story of Open Range slowly, in the fashion of the much slower days when the range of the western United States was as vast and open as the destruction of the Native American way of life made possible. You see this not only in the gorgeous background shots of the expansive land, but also in the untidy way the town looks. In Costner's West, small details such as a mud street flooding due to a lack of a modern sewer system, adds a sense of realism not often seen in movies within this genre. Touches like this give Open Range a feeling of being genuine, but it builds on this with honest characters. True enough, the opening scenes made me wonder if this would be one big Marlboro Man commercial, but that feeling passed, in no small part due to the presence of Robert Duvall. Costner wisely let Duvall's character, the more talkative Boss Spearman, take center stage - and Duvall ran with it. It never felt like Duvall purposefully overpowered Costner and the rest of the cast; it was more that Duvall has such a powerful presence, that the camera naturally gravitated toward him. It's almost unfair that there should be so much talent inside one person. Costner-as-actor, on the other hand, seemed to learn from his less realistic turn in Dances With Wolves, this time letting long silences do the talking for him. His Charlie is a study in contrasts; the loner in him wants to be left alone to live life quietly, but his friendship with Boss makes this nearly impossible. Likewise, Annette Bening was a wise choice for the supporting role as Sue; it's clear from the first time they meet, where that relationship is going, but Bening makes you interested in going along for the ride with them. As strong as this threesome was, the weakness of Open Range comes in the single-mindedness of the villains. Far too often in movies like this, The Bad Guy is drawn as one-dimensional, even when the good guys are given flaws to overcome. That there are two such Bad Guy characters, only serves to emphasize this shortcoming all the more. It makes the inevitable Big Showdown a lot less interesting; but aside from this misstep, Open Range will be a welcome addition to the small Westerns section of my DVD case. BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE I still wish Kevin Costner would smile once in awhile; but as long as he keeps surrounding himself with class acts like Robert Duvall and Annette Bening, it's all good. OPEN RANGE:   back to top And that's the way I see it. Rose "Bams" Cooper 3BlackChicks Review™ Copyright Rose Cooper, 2003 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com    ICQ: 7760005 http://www.3blackchicks.com/