Open Range (2003)

Longtime partners Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) and Charlie Waite (Kevin Costner) are driving their small cattle herd through open range with the help of two younger men — Mose and Button — when a severe storm forces them to halt near Harmonville. Mose heads to town for supplies. And doesn’t return.

Spearman and Waite head to town to find out what happened and discover their friend in jail, badly beaten. They also have their first encounter with Sheriff Poole (James Russo) and with Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon), cattle king in these here parts, the man who runs Harmonville, a man who hates free-grazers.

It’s pretty clear he intends to make an example of Boss Spearman’s small outfit. That’s clearer when mysterious riders show up on the horizon, surveying the small herd.

And when Spearman and Waite ride off to break up that party, they return to camp to find Mose dead and Button severely wounded.

Spearman’s always been a man who’s tried to sidestep trouble. That’s one reason Waite, a gunman with a reputation he’s not proud up, has stuck by his side for 10 years.

But Spearman isn’t about to step aside this time. There’s a death to avenge and a principle to defend.

Review:

Well-done Western, particularly when the focus is on the relationship between Spearman and Waite. Both still have been working side by side for a decade, but still have their secrets. And Waite’s past is about to come in very handy during the showdown with Baxter and his band of henchmen.

Speaking of that showdown, it’s one of the best you’ll find in a Western. Townsfolk flee to the hills to get out of range of what’s about to happen. And if it starts off as two sides facing off in the middle of the street, the gunfight quickly turns into a chaotic game of cat and mouse among the buildings and alleys around town.

If the film has a downfall, it’s the budding romance between Waite and Sue Barlow, the doctor’s sister. A few awkward glances, and they’re smitten with one another. The whole thing seems forced, especially from the viewpoint of Annette Bening’s character.

Exactly what attracts her to this man who keeps showing up with badly beaten comrades, who seems tongue-tied around her, who seems haunted by his past and who is about to go into a gunfight he’s unlikely to survive?

That said, one of the film’s best line comes when Sue Barlow is slow to follow Charlie Waite’s order to get back to town. “How’s this going to work,” he asks of their relationship, “if you don’t do what I say?” She just smiles.

Directed by:
Kevin Costner

Cast:
Robert Duvall … Boss Spearman
Kevin Costner … Charlie Waite
Annette Bening … Sue Barlow
Michael Gambon … Denton Baxter
Michael Jeter … Percy
Diego Luna … Button
James Russo … Sheriff Poole
Abraham Benrubi … Mose Harrison
Dean McDermott … Doc Barlow
Kim Coates … Butler

Score: Michael Kamen

Runtime: 139 min.

Memorable lines:

Charlie Waite: “You just gonna sit out here waitin’ with them cows?”
Boss Spearman: “That’s right. And I’m gonna kill every son of a bitch that comes to take ’em.”
Charlie: “For one man in open ground, you sure got a lot of killin’ in mind.”

Charlie Wait: “Every once in a while, I almost get through a day without thinking about who I am and what I done.”

Sue Barlow: “Are you his father?”
Boss Spearman: “No, his name is Button and he works for me.”
Sue: “It appears that’s not very healthy.”

Charlie: “You may not know this, but there are things that gnaw on a man worse than dying.”

Charlie: “I’m trying to put some hard things behind me, but they don’t always stay put.”

Boss Spearman: “It’s a pretty day for settin’ things right.”

Boss Spearman, before the gunfight: “Sounds like you got it all worked out.”
Charlie: “Yeh, cept the part where we don’t get killed.”

Boss Spearman: “I ain’t wasting a good bullet to ease your pain, you son of a bitch.”