Open Range Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)August 15th, 2003
OPEN RANGE (2003) 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, Michael Jeter, Diego Luna, James Russo, Abraham Benrubi and Dean McDermott. Music by Michael Kamen. Screenplay by Craig Storper. Directed by Kevin Costner. Rated R. Running time: 138 mins.
Please, somebody, given Kevin Costner lessons in editing and assure him that it's not against the law to release a movie that runs less than two hours.
His latest, Open Range, returns Costner to the saddle in a bloated Western that could have told its story in half the time.
Using a well-worn plot that has served every cowboy from Tom Mix to Clint Eastwood, Costner plays Charley Waite, who along with Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall), "Button" (Diego Luna) and Mose Harrison (Abraham Benrubi) drive cattle on the open range.
But a powerful rancher opposes free grazers and sets out to wreck the foursome and drive off their herd. This nasty land baron, Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon), also owns most of the local town and holds its residents in a grip of fear.
A simple Western tale that John Ford could have told economically in 90 minutes or less, but Costner, who also serves as director, drags it out to just under 140 minutes, striving to create an epic — a "Dances With Steers."
He only succeeds in allowing his audience to stray like an abandoned herd as Open Range rambles on with too much talk and too little action.
Open Range is at its best whenever the camera focuses on Duvall. He covers familiar terrain, portraying a rugged, honorable, sensible man similar to his characterization in Lonesome Dove. His Spearman lives by a vanishing code that he continues to hold sacred.
Duvall smells of authenticity. He easily exudes a quiet dignity and authority.
Roles for women in Westerns generally lack depth, but Annette Bening's Sue Barlow, a middle-aged spinster who shares a mutual attack's with Costner's Charley, brings a worn beauty to her character. She is, as Charley describes her, "a handsome woman" who knows her own mind and is as capable at patching up a wounded man as she is in facing down an armed petty despot.
Costner holds his own with his co-stars, giving most of the scenes to either Duvall or Bening.
As a director, Costner knows how to film landscapes. Open Range is a beautiful movie when on the prairie, but brown and muddy when the scene shifts to the town. He also does not shy away from violence. His gunbattles are brutal and savage.
Costner, however, likes to let his camera linger. Many scenes run on too long after a point is made or the plot advanced. He needs to learn to be more judicious and brutal in the editing room.
The final reel's shoot-out is wonderfully staged, and is Costner's best staged sequence since the buffalo hunt in Dances With Wolves.
However, he follows that up with a clunky anti-climatic finale that runs far too long.
Open Range does not reach the heights of such classic Westerns as Red River or Unforgiven. It strives to be classy, which is one of its faults. It could have been a bit grittier and dirtier as well as a lot shorter.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on movies.
Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com and at the Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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