Rating: 
Summary: Great western.....not so great love story
Review: This film has some very good elements for fans of the western. The scenery and cinematography are beautiful. The performance of Robert Duvall as Boss Spearman is very reminiscent of Gus McCray in Lonessome Dove. Duvall plays acrusty old cowboy in much the same way that he portrayed a crusty old Texas Ranger. He is perfectly cast. Costner is very good as well as a cowboy trying to escape from his violent past. The real surprise is a wonderful performance from Annette Benning as a woman who is the sister and assistant to a small town doctor.The gunfight scenes are suspenseful and suitably realistic and violent. The bad guys are unmistakably evil so there is no confusion as to who we should be rooting for. The not so good elements of this movie include a script that sometimes falls a bit short. If you recall the stinging exchanges between Duval and Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove you will find the attempt to recreate that with Duval and Costner just doesn't measure up. In addition toward the end there is a subplot involving a romance between Costner's character and Benning's which drags on for several scenes and comes off as contrived and stiff. This part of the movie didn't do much for me. Overall it is a worthwhile movie for Western fans but you might want to rent it before deciding to purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie...lousy documentary
Review: I saw this recently and thought it was a realistic, great Western movie. It had great character development, realism, storytelling. Everything was fine until I got to the second DVD with its mini documentary about the West (second menu item down), narrated by Kevin Costner. It contains an error of such stupidity, that I am surprised neither the well paid writers or Costner caught it. Telling an interesting story about Old West settlers and adventurers, Costner included Teddy Roosevelt's days in the West. But when Costner summed up what happened to the prospectors, lady photographer, Teddy Roosevelt, he said Teddy got "elected President in 1902." You know we have US elections every 4 years. There was one in 1900 and 1904. Plus, Vice President Teddy Roosevelt became President in Sept. 1901 on the same day President McKinley was assassinated. This error was almost as stupid as...making Waterworld. No, it was worse, because it attempts to be a history lesson for young and old alike.
Rating: 
Summary: Kinda boring.
Review: I really wanted to live this movie, but I could not. There is a phooney love story and a gun fight that looks like it belongs on MTV.Another boring Costner film.
Rating:
Summary: The kind of movie almost nobody makes anymore!
Review: At last, the final damage inflicted upon the western by the revisionist filmmakers of the late sixties and early seventies has been cast aside, and we have a return to the classic westerns of old, adapted to modern tastes. That alone makes this movie nothing less than a public service! A ++++ There's a lot of Shane in this movie, and I consider that a plus. After all, this is something of a re-introduction of the genre to the public, and when you make introductions, it's good to put your best face forward. And Shane would be one of maybe five westerns with a legitimate claim to "best ever". Will this movie ever be considered in the same class as Shane? Probably not, simply because it is derivative. But, nonetheless, it's still nearly as well done.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best modern westerns
Review: Robert Duvall is the star here. Kevin Costner plays Kevin Costner. If you like Keven Costner playing himself, you'll think this is fine. But even if you're not a big Costner fan, the movie overcomes his lack of acting abilities quickly. The pacing is great except for a middle part at the doctor's house that drags somewhat. The fight and shooting scenes are believable and one wants to think the Old West was a lot like this movie's portrayal. Very fine movie.
Rating:
Summary: Too Long
Review: Costner does better with westerns than most but he takes himself way too seriously. He goes on and on and on... The first hour is a good set up for the next hour and a half or so... Duvall is great, almost as if he wrote his own dialogue. It is not that "Open Range" is not a good movie. It is just not that good. The pace is slow, which i think is deliberate to set the tone and it works, again for about the first hour. But even when the story gets going, it does not have enough power. The violence is subdued, as is all of the acting, almost as if Costner the director did not want Costner the actor to look too enthuiastic. Because all of the actors do not seem to be as interested as they want the viewer to be involved with their lives. There are moments that are endearing, but not nearly enough to make you want to sit through the length of the movie. With a rewrite of a few scenes and a deletion of a scene or two and the movie would have been as good as any directed by and starring K C.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Western I've Ever Seen
Review: Now I usually enjoy western films, but not this much. This is just a really, really great movie. It's mixed just right so you like the characters and laugh, yet also feel for what they're going through and realize that the pioneer days were very hard and brutal times. Also, the end gunfight sequence is by far the best I've ever seen period. The realism and intensity of it are not to be matched. Incredible movie.
Rating: 
Summary: A new western classic with the best script and acting ever!
Review: Not to be long winded, this movie brings back the simplicity and purity missing in so many movies today. Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner and Annette Benning were perfect. Don't miss this great, gritty & well acted movie!!!
Rating:
Summary: Costner's best since Dances
Review: I am not a Kevin Costner fan by any means, but his good movies are really good. He gets it right when he gets out of the way of the characters and doesn't try to show us how wonderful he is. Dances With Wolves was great, Bull Durham was outstanding, Field of Dreams was near perfect, and I even loved American Flyers, about him as a bicycle racer. His bad movies stink to high heaven--Waterworld, Wyatt Earp, The Postman, For Love of the Game, because they are all about him, not the story or the characters. Now we have Open Range, a great story about a group of "Free grazers", men who live off the land with their cattle, but don't pay for any of it, they have no ties to a town. It is the time when the big ranchers are taking over, and free grazing is looked down upon harshly, even though it is technically still legal behavior. While grazing in a particular area, they realize they are missing some supplies, and they send one man back to the town. When he doesn't return, the two main men in the group, Boss (Robert Duvall) and Charly (Costner) go to the town to see what happened. Their friend was provoked into a fight, defended himself, and was now in jail. The problem? The sherriff and a rancher hate him for being a free grazer and set him up. This sets up the story, where the men stay in the area to fight the sherriff and the rancher and stand up for their rights. There is even time for Charly to fall in love with the doctor's sister (Annette Bening) before the final showdown. The final gunfight is really good, mainly because it is so realistic. This is how you would imagine a gunfight taking place. Nothing glamorous, just reality. This movie succeeds because the story is a good one, and the characters are people we care about. Boss and Charly are good men, simple, but they play by the rules and they expect others to do the same. They are loyal to each other, even though they have not had the time to learn much basic information about each other, like what Boss's first name is. (wait until you hear what it is). This is a slow paced, enjoyable western, not action packed, but interesting and something new, which is not something you can say about many movies coming out these days.
Rating:
Summary: Tribute in the Saddle
Review: A great western gallops in rarely. This is a great one. More than an homage to the classic western films of John Ford and Howard Hawks, this film is a paean, a joyous praise, a stirring tribute. Kevin Costner as Dir/Prod/Star has firmly taken the helm, and steered the audience to a place in the past that is both familiar and surreal. When we actually study the pioneer West, we unearth sturdy men and women who toiled, reproduced, and died in pounds of alkaline dust and caked-on mud. Gae Buckley, the production designer, created a western town called Harmonville, and we are allowed the visceral and olfactory sensations of a frontier world; the fresh-cut wood, the oil and packing grease around the goods in the store, the stench of spilled spirits, the starch in gingham dresses, the refuse and waste left by livestock, and leather gunbelts, chaps, tack, harness, and vests. The musical score was done by the veteran Michael Kamen, and it seems to twang, throb, and soar in perfect harmony with Rocky Mountain backdrop majesty, and the bone-splintering action. The cinematography was handled by James Muro, and it is graphic and beautiful; flowing effortlessly from close-up to vista, capturing the texture of the town and the Alberta, Canada locations (substituting for Montana). The script by Craig Storper, based on the novel by Lauren Paine, captures the language, cadence, and crackle of the West in the 1880's. Kevin Costner is a risk taker, and he is a master of casting. He is very generous with his actors, and they have plenty of time to develop their characters. His character, Charley Waite, was a Civil War sniper, a killer of men; who has fallen in with an older cattleman ( Robert Duvall as Boss Spearman ), and the two hellraisers rein each other in. The scenes with the cattle give us a taste of the freedom and hardships associated with free-grazing. Their two hired hands, the young Diego Luna (as Button), and the hulking Abraham Benrubi (as Mose), strike all the right chords. One can empathize with Boss, who gets irritated with their playfulness, horseplay, and comic conflicts. The scenes out on the mesas, on the prairie, are idyllic, yet mundane and fatiguing. Cowboying can wear a man out. Mose is sent off to town to pick up some provisions, and when he does not return, the dread begins to mount. Michael Gambon, as Denton Baxter, was the one-eyed jack in Harmonville; the cattle baron who had a crooked sheriff (James Russo as Poole), and a gang of killer thugs to enforce his will. The hired constabulary beat up Mose, and throw him in jail. Enter Costner and Duvall, fists clenched, blood in their eye, toting shotguns, and not willing to genuflect. This is a classic conflict that Costner takes time to set up. We get to know these men, and we begin to care about them. Some comic relief is set up by Michael Jeter (his final role), as Percy, the stable hand. Added to the mix, we discover Annette Bening as Sue Barlow, the spinster sister of the local town doctor. He lines are few, and her screen time is limited. The part easily could have been forgetable if it had been played by a vacuous pretty face. But Bening beams with a windborne mature beauty, and a razor sharp intellect. She is wonderful in the part, delivering a fully-fleshed unforgetable performance that lingers in the mind long after the film is over. Robert Duvall is the beating heart of the movie; his Boss Spearman is carefully etched and finely drawn. He is an old maverick, a cattleman who cherishes the freedom of the open range, and who will fight for that priviledge. He firmly believes in a vanishing code; like an old samurai. But his terrible tenacity is tempered with gentleness, dignity, and wisdom. If he is challenged, he simply will not back down. This role brings to mind the best of his work in LONESOME DOVE, and GERONIMO. His character is as authentic as a battered hat. Costner has demonstrated his propensity for violence in other films, but none has ever been as convincing as his Charley Waite. Taciturn, quiet, even shy, this man is still capable when provoked to explode like a whirling dervish; leveling everything in sight. But this man is never out of control. He is cool and calculating in battle; like an athlete in a big game. And for me the love story somehow worked. Ms. Barlow needed a prairie prince to pluck her out of the nest and love her passionately. Costner fit the bill; rough-hewn and violent, yet still bashful and tender. The gunfight climax is stark, stunning, and spectacular. The sound of the gun shots are heightened, and there is a sense of a battle in real time. One does not know if the protaginists can survive. You just have to hold your breath, and duck for cover. This film creates a validity for the genre, and it succeeds on every level.
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