Review: Open Range (2003)

Review: Open Range (2003) by Kevin Spacey.

++CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS++

Home on the range, where the deer, the antelope and (for the majority of his recent career) Kevin Costner play. Yes folks, it's time to slip in to those thar britches, strap on your boots and nestle on your stetson. For the first time in well, a good while anyway, Hollywood dishes out you, hungry Joe moviegoer with a Western. And what a Western it is! Settle down by the campfire kids, and let me tell you a story called "Open Range. Why It's So Good". Ready? Then i'll begin...

Open Range follows a collective of 'freegrazers' back in the old west. Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) and Charley Waite (Kevin Costner) are partners together as cattle hearders. In tow they have long-serving employee 'Mose' (Abraham Benrubi) and 'Button', a young Mexican boy who Boss and Waite picked up in a small town in Texas. When Boss sends Mose off to the nearest town to buy supplies, the crew become concerned when 2 days pass and Mose has still not returned. Boss and Waite decide to leave Button at camp and head off to town to search for Mose. On arrival they discover Mose is in jail for supposedly starting a fight at the local grocery store and so head over to the Marshall's office to get their friend back. Mose returns to camp, but the Marshall isn't happy and sends out his men to take care of Waite and Boss...

Open Range is a movie that takes some time to get going. It is very slow yet very precise in it's manners and where it wishes to lead the viewer next. Kudos to Costner on some expert direction for this picture as it is beautifully shot and at the same time, very well paced with lots of new additions and features to keep you going. The love interest in the movie i found was a little on the twee side, and although fairly predictable, i found the rest of the movie seperate to this and not so predictable. In particular the end shootout was handled expertly as i wasn't sure of who was going to die and who would live. Something i've always been able to suss out, but not so much in this movie. Again, kudos to Costner on superb handling of this aspect of the movie.

The photography was beautiful. Lushous, green, mountainous backdrops couple up with dark, rain-lashed nights in the old west, sleeping under the stars simply took my breath away. At some points i just sighed and wished i was there. This is totally immersive cinema and i loved it. Meanwhile the score, by one Michael Kamen (of Band Of Brothers fame) is deep, rich and like the Werthers, uncommonly good. I'll be getting the OST of this for sure. Even better, and for more bonus points, i LOVED the fact that to enhance the brutality of the final shootout, there was NO score whatsoever. Just the sound of gunfire and human agony and death. This greatly enhanced the impact and vision of the shootout and i can only heap praise and credit precisely where it's due.

Overall, and to keep this review short and stop me waffling on about how much i loved this movie, i'll put it to you like this. Even if you don't like Western's that much (and trust me, i don't). Give this movie a go. If only for that final shootout, you would be doing yourself a serious cinema dishonour if you missed out on this little beaut.

I know exactly who i'll be 'gunning' for at next years Oscars.

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10

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I agree totally. The plot is pretty routine for a western, but Costner somehow made it fresh, and him and Duvall do an amazing acting job.

8.5/10

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Great review m$, you hit right on about the beauty of having the final scene without the score and also about the beauty of the movie's cinematography itself. Definitely one of the better movies of 2003.

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wicked review. this movie is still sitting on my computer, ill have to watch it one day.

finally something different for a change, should be good and one of the better movies of '03.

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