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Open Range
(Reviewed August 4, 2003)
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As I was leaving a screening of a different movie, a fellow critic asked if I had seen "Open Range." When I groaned by way of reply, he asked, "You didn't like it?"
"God, no," I replied. "It was like `Unforgiven' lite." He looked befuddled, so I added, "You have seen `Unforgiven,' haven't you?"
Now, this next part may seem hard to believe--but then again, that's why I'm the only critic you should trust. This frightfully foolish fellow actually said to me, "Yeah, I've seen it. I thought it was pretentious.
`Open Range' was a lot better."
Now, granted, "Unforgiven" may not be the greatest western ever made (although some have given it that title). I always had trouble with the climax, frankly, where an alcohol-fueled Clint
Eastwood still is steady enough to outgun just about a whole damn town on his own. But anyone clueless enough to claim that Kevin Costner's shockingly lousy "Open Range" is a better movie than
"Unforgiven" better check in at a clinic, because somebody must have removed his frontal lobes while he wasn't paying attention.
"Open Range" has lots of pretty-as-a-postcard panoramas, but the story is strictly been-there, seen-that-done-better. Costner is a rough-edged cowpoke with a Secret Past, working for
grizzled-but-good-hearted father figure Robert Duvall. A cartoonishly evil landowner (Michael Gambon, playing the "anti-Dumbledore") with the local lawman in his pocket don't take kindly to cattle
drivers a-crossin' his land. When his rowdies kill one of Duvall and Costner's merry band, it's up to Duvall and Costner to ride in and face down more than three times their number, 'cause nobody in the
completely cowed cow-town is a-gonna stand up and help 'em get justice. Lord a-mighty, is this ever a corn fest!
There is exactly one good thing in the movie (and since it is shown in the TV ad, I don't feel like I'm giving anything away). When Costner and Duvall confront the Bad Bunch, Costner asks one
of them is he is the one who killed Costner's friend. When the guy smugly admits it, Costner blows him away without wasting any more conversation. Unfortunately, what follows is the usual silly
can't-hit-the-side-of-a-barn run-and-gun shootout you've seen a thousand times. Even worse, there are points where the fighting stops long enough for the two sides to stand in front of each other, and we
are supposed to believe nobody would use those occasions to simply pull a trigger. Dumb.
Plus there's the subplot in which Costner has the hots for the town doc's purty sister (Annette Bening), and the bit where he discovers that varmints has gone and shot his dog, and...ahhh, why
bother.
Back Row Grade: D-
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