Open Range
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| Open Range | |
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| Directed by | Kevin Costner |
| Produced by | Kevin Costner Jake Eberts David Valdes |
| Written by | Craig Storper Lauran Paine |
| Starring | Robert Duvall Kevin Costner Annette Bening |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures Beacon Communications |
| Release date(s) | August 15, 2003 |
| Running time | 139 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $22,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Open Range is a 2003 Western movie based on the novel The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine. The film is directed and co-produced by Kevin Costner, who also stars along with Robert Duvall and Annette Bening.
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[edit] Overview
The movie properly belongs to the epic Western genre and has the feel of Costner's earlier epic, Dances with Wolves (1990). The movie is set in Montana in 1882 (the year is seen on a new grave marker) though the movie was filmed entirely on location in Alberta, Canada.
The background of the movie concerns the "range wars" that occurred in the American West in the late 1800s. The "wars" pitted those that believed in the "Law of the Open Range" - free access to water and grass for everyone, against the "barbed wire" men – land barons, who used the new fencing to define their empire and block the free-range cattlemen from moving their herds.
[edit] Plot
"Boss" Spearman is a free-range cattleman, who, with his partner Charley Waite and hired hands Mose and Button, and their dog Tig are driving a herd cross country. Charley is a former soldier who fought in the Civil War and feels guilt over his past as a killer.
Short on supplies, Boss sends Mose back to a town they passed. The town is controlled by the greedy and corrupt land baron, Denton Baxter, who hates free-rangers. Mose is badly beaten by Baxter's henchmen and then jailed by the town sheriff, whom Baxter "owns." Although he is greedy and corrupt, many townspeople look past Baxter's dealings, accepting the situation, while others secretly harbor animosity and anger towards him.
Worried about Mose, Boss and Charley set off to find him. They retrieve Mose from jail but not before getting a stern warning from Baxter about free-ranging on his land. Mose is so beat-up that Boss seeks medical attention for him. Mose is taken to Doc Barlow, where Charley meets Sue Barlow (Bening), whom he mistakingly believes to be the doctor's "wife"; she is in fact the doctor's sister. Charley is attracted to her immediately.
It turns out that Baxter does not really want Boss to move on; he wants the herd. After seeing masked riders scouting the herd, Boss and Charley are able to best one of the groups of Baxter's henchmen, catching them unawares in the dark. After gaining information regarding Baxter, the henchmen are sent back to town on foot in their underwear. There is another group, however, that simultaneously kills Mose and Tig. Button is badly injured and left for dead.
Charley and Boss gather themselves, resolving to return to Baxter and his men what they visited upon Mose, Tig and Button. Charley then buries Mose and Tig beneath a tree on a hill, leaving behind a wooden headstone which simply states "Mose 1882". They leave Button at the doctor's house and enter town, where during a flash flood caused by severe rains, Charley saves a townsperson's dog. The townsman buys coffee for Boss and Charley, who learn more about the mixed feelings of the inhabitants of the town. Later, while sleeping in a chair at the Doctor's house, Charley has a nightmare that the masked gunmen are in the house. He awakens violently when Sue enters the room and accidentally breaks her porcelain tea set.
Knowing that the coming confrontation with Baxter is inevitable, Boss and Charley go to a drugstore to spend their money on cigars and chocolate, reasoning that they might be unable to spend it later. Charley leaves a note with Percy, the stable owner, that wills money made from the sale of his saddle and gear to buy Sue a new tea set if he is killed.
The emotions finally culminate in a lopsided gunfight, pitting Boss and Charley against Baxter and his henchmen. Aware of the looming shootout, most of the townspeople flee to the nearby hills. The shootout begins with Charley shooting the gunman who shot Button and killed Mose point blank in the face. Boss is wounded in the stomach during the fray. During the fight, some of Baxter's men flee. In the end, Baxter finds himself wounded and alone, trapped in the jail house with Boss, Charley, and some townspeople against him. Boss rushes Baxter, crashing through the jail house door and mortally wounding him. With the battle over, Charley (who it is discovered has been shot in the leg) witnesses the effects of the gunfight; dead men, wounded bystanders, destroyed property, and a general sense of despair.
With the battle over, Boss frees the Doctor, who immediately begins assisting the townspeople. Sue and the Doctor begin to treat the wounded when the drugstore owner (who fought in the battle) tells Sue that Charlie wants to speak with her in the saloon. Charlie admits his feelings for Sue who reciprocates his love. Not long after, Charlie meets Sue in the garden and proposes to her, and she accepts. As Charlie and Boss leave the town, with Sue riding out with them, the Doctor comes and tells Boss that the saloon will be ready for him when he returns. Boss invites Charlie to work with him, and he accepts. Charlie and Sue share a kiss before he and Boss ride off into the open range.
[edit] Main Characters
Bluebonnet "Boss" Spearman (played by Robert Duvall) is an aging cowboy and the leader of the free-rangers. He is an experienced horse-rider and cattleman, who appears hard and a staunch traditionalist on the outside, but is in fact a very caring man. He once had a wife and a child, but they both got sick and died, causing him to abandon his old life. At the start of the movie, he is beginning to realize that the age of free grazing – and thus his way of life – is coming to an end.
Charles Travis Postlewaite (played by Kevin Costner) was a soldier during the Civil War and later a gunslinger. Having killed a man who tried to rape his mother when he was still very young, he soon became accustomed to killing people – and quite good at it. He eventually became a free-ranger, working for Boss Spearman under the name Charley Waite for more than ten years. The terrible things he and others did during the war continue to haunt him in his dreams, making him sometimes dangerous for those around him. When he arrives in Harmonville, his past catches up with him, but he also finds a chance for love and a future.
Sue Barlow (played by Annette Bening) is the sister and assistant of Harmonville's physician, Doc Barlow, and lives with him in a house just outside the town. She falls in love with Charley Waite when the free-rangers arrive with a badly hurt Mose and, although finding him a complicated man with a difficult past, convinces Charley that they could have a happy future together. She is strong and righteous woman, daring to speak up against the tyrant Baxter and putting herself in danger to protect her patients on more than one occasion.
Denton Baxter (played by Michael Gambon) is a Irish-born land baron who considers Harmonville "his" town. He is arrogant and greedy, using his band of henchman as well as the corrupt Marshall Poole to rule the town and keep off freegrazers. When he orders his men to ambush Boss Spearman's men and Mose is killed, a brutal conflict begins, in which Baxter shows that he does not have a problem with putting women and children in the line of fire, finally turning most of Harmonville against him. He has one estranged daughter.
Button (played by Diego Luna) is Spearman's Mexican-born youngest hand and also kind of a foster child to the other free-rangers who found him living on the streets years before. He is badly hurt by Baxter's men, but recovers and plays an important role in the final gun-fight.
Mose Harris (played by Abraham Benrubi) is another of Boss Spearman's hands, a large and peaceful man. He gets into a bar fight in Harmonville and is later killed by Baxter's henchman Butler.
Percy (played by Michael Jeter in his last on-screen role) is a Harmonville townsman who warns Boss and Charley about Baxter's men and is the only one who stands with the free-rangers right from the beginning.
[edit] Reception and box office
Reviews were largely positive and Open Range was a modest success at the box office, making about $58 million in the U.S. alone. The film won the 2004 Western Heritage Award and has a "Fresh" 78% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb. It was also nominated for a Golden Satellite Award, an MTV Movie Award (Diego Luna), a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award as well as a Taurus Award for stunt artist Chad Camilleri.
