Three of my favorite actors (Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner and Annette Benning) collaborated to make this movie ... and I just watched in on TV last weekend for the first time. So I thought that I'd jot a few thoughts down on it while i still had a few thoughts to think. Open Range is a story about the post Civil War conflicts of free-range cattle breeding. It is a kind of Bonanza meets 'Gunfight at the OK Corral' with Duvall and Costner playing the good guy free rangers, Benning playing a wild west town nurse and other unknown (at least by me) actors playing the townies and badguys. I thought the scenery was beautiful (I watched it in HD), the plot a bit too lengthy (needed about 15 mnutes hacked off) and the acting pretty rote. It was highly recommended to me so maybe my expectations were too high.
On a scale of 10 I give this movie ★★★★★
Ah, too bad. I was probably one of the high recommenders. :-(
ReplyDeleteI loved the movie because Duvall's character was a real cowboy. My dad was a man like that. He always did what he thought was right, and only got unpleasant when someone else tried to tell him he was wrong.
I also loved the tedious pace of the gunfight.
The chat behind the wagon while eating chocolate was fun to me. I love watching them finally make cowboy movies in which the men are truly afraid to die. That's why the pace of the gunfight was so perfect. These were not men who wanted to kill, so much as men who had to kill, but wanted to live. As such, they were real slow to stick their necks out, and really quick to miss, even at point-blank range. Very true to life.
All together, though, I can see your points.
I bow to Codepoke's excellent points and up my rating to 6 (of 10) KB stars.
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