"My friend and me got a hankerin' for Switzerland chocolate and a good smoke." – Boss Spearman
While early Westerns were helmed by auteurs and iconoclastic directors, the decades that followed saw the genre sporadically kept alive by actors turned directors. Think Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven", Kurt Russell's "Tombstone" (though George P. Cosmatos receives on-screen credit, Russell ghost directed the film), Ed Harris' "Appaloosa" and Costner's "Open Range" and "Dances With Wolves". Then there are lesser westerns like "Far and Away", "The Virginian", "The Missing", "All the Pretty Horses" and "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", again all directed by actors.
But actors make good directors of Westerns. They understand the iconography of the body, how to work silence, chew scenery and talk with poses. In addition to this, the genre's stock characters are easy to work with, its moral landscape doesn't require much intellect, the uncluttered backdrop of the West makes issues of aesthetics and logistics comparatively easy to handle and the genre's grandstanding lends itself well to the actor's ego. It's probably no coincidence that the best westerns of the past 2 decades were helmed by actors.
"Open Range" stars Robert Duvall (essentially playing the same character here as he played in "Lonesome Dove") and Kevin Costner as a couple of free grazers at war with a local land baron. Costner's character is called Charley White and Duvall's is named Bluebonnet "Boss" Spearman, two wonderfully voluptuous names which hark back to those pulpy dime-store novels of yesteryear.
The film's plot has been done countless times before, and its characters are nothing but walking stereotypes (like Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven", Costner is a ex gunslinger consumed by guilt), but the film oozes atmosphere, director Kevin Costner treating us to one splendid shot after the next, brooding cowboys framed by expansive skies, rolling mountains, glorious sunsets and whispering fields of grass.
Stylistically the film is going for the wholesome vistas of John Ford's "The Searchers" and "Drums Along The Mohawk", but with its nods to "The Oxbow Incident", "Man of the West" and its frenetic gunfights, Costner's film is as much a love letter to William A. Wellman, Anthony Mann, Hawks and Peckinpah.
What's refreshing, though, is that there's no revisionism here. No attempts to skewer the film to modern trends. Instead, Costner goes for old fashioned melodrama, his antiquated values (Costner thinks he's a cowboy in real life) and notions as to what makes a good man, a good woman and a well lived life, lending themselves perfectly to the film's anachronistic mentality. In its wide-eyed earnestness and apple-pie sincerity, the film's very much suckling on the teat of John Ford.
Like his directorial debut ("Dances With Wolves"), Costner attempts to push his audience's buttons by having a cute dog killed and a likable fat man beaten up by pantomime villains. It's all so gloriously old fashioned that we can't help but smile. This isn't just the old west, it's the old west as told by an actor who was completely enamoured by this kind of uncomplicated storytelling as a kid, and gosh darn it, wants nothing more than to share his aww shucks storytelling with the world.
It's not just all sappy melodrama and actorly scenery chewing, though. All of Costner's films engage in some experimentation, from the Malick-lite visuals of "Dances With Wolves" to the logistical nightmares of "Waterworld", and this one is no different. The emotions of our cast are conveyed expressively by the skies and weather around them, the film sports a well modulated sense of dread, and the way the film's final gun fight rockets back and forth, you'd think Costner was a seasoned director.
8.5/10 – An excellent genre piece, elevated by some good dialogue and palatable ambiance. The film doesn't attempt much, is dishonest in assigning victory to our free-grazers (historically, the land barons won) and is a bit too in love with the hallmarks of its genre to say anything of its own, but what it does it does well. See Martin Ritt's "Hombre" and "Hud".
Worth two viewings.
While early Westerns were helmed by auteurs and iconoclastic directors, the decades that followed saw the genre sporadically kept alive by actors turned directors. Think Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven", Kurt Russell's "Tombstone" (though George P. Cosmatos receives on-screen credit, Russell ghost directed the film), Ed Harris' "Appaloosa" and Costner's "Open Range" and "Dances With Wolves". Then there are lesser westerns like "Far and Away", "The Virginian", "The Missing", "All the Pretty Horses" and "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", again all directed by actors.
But actors make good directors of Westerns. They understand the iconography of the body, how to work silence, chew scenery and talk with poses. In addition to this, the genre's stock characters are easy to work with, its moral landscape doesn't require much intellect, the uncluttered backdrop of the West makes issues of aesthetics and logistics comparatively easy to handle and the genre's grandstanding lends itself well to the actor's ego. It's probably no coincidence that the best westerns of the past 2 decades were helmed by actors.
"Open Range" stars Robert Duvall (essentially playing the same character here as he played in "Lonesome Dove") and Kevin Costner as a couple of free grazers at war with a local land baron. Costner's character is called Charley White and Duvall's is named Bluebonnet "Boss" Spearman, two wonderfully voluptuous names which hark back to those pulpy dime-store novels of yesteryear.
The film's plot has been done countless times before, and its characters are nothing but walking stereotypes (like Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven", Costner is a ex gunslinger consumed by guilt), but the film oozes atmosphere, director Kevin Costner treating us to one splendid shot after the next, brooding cowboys framed by expansive skies, rolling mountains, glorious sunsets and whispering fields of grass.
Stylistically the film is going for the wholesome vistas of John Ford's "The Searchers" and "Drums Along The Mohawk", but with its nods to "The Oxbow Incident", "Man of the West" and its frenetic gunfights, Costner's film is as much a love letter to William A. Wellman, Anthony Mann, Hawks and Peckinpah.
What's refreshing, though, is that there's no revisionism here. No attempts to skewer the film to modern trends. Instead, Costner goes for old fashioned melodrama, his antiquated values (Costner thinks he's a cowboy in real life) and notions as to what makes a good man, a good woman and a well lived life, lending themselves perfectly to the film's anachronistic mentality. In its wide-eyed earnestness and apple-pie sincerity, the film's very much suckling on the teat of John Ford.
Like his directorial debut ("Dances With Wolves"), Costner attempts to push his audience's buttons by having a cute dog killed and a likable fat man beaten up by pantomime villains. It's all so gloriously old fashioned that we can't help but smile. This isn't just the old west, it's the old west as told by an actor who was completely enamoured by this kind of uncomplicated storytelling as a kid, and gosh darn it, wants nothing more than to share his aww shucks storytelling with the world.
It's not just all sappy melodrama and actorly scenery chewing, though. All of Costner's films engage in some experimentation, from the Malick-lite visuals of "Dances With Wolves" to the logistical nightmares of "Waterworld", and this one is no different. The emotions of our cast are conveyed expressively by the skies and weather around them, the film sports a well modulated sense of dread, and the way the film's final gun fight rockets back and forth, you'd think Costner was a seasoned director.
8.5/10 – An excellent genre piece, elevated by some good dialogue and palatable ambiance. The film doesn't attempt much, is dishonest in assigning victory to our free-grazers (historically, the land barons won) and is a bit too in love with the hallmarks of its genre to say anything of its own, but what it does it does well. See Martin Ritt's "Hombre" and "Hud".
Worth two viewings.