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Open Range (2003)
Director: Kevin Costner
Writers: Lauran Paine (novel), Craig Storper (screenplay)
Cast: Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Diego Luna
Genre: western
I liked Open Range, with some reservations. I have reservations about most movies I watch. By that I mean: smaller things that I didn't care for or would have done differently if I was in the director's seat. If I'm really into a movie then those reservations are forgotten. But with Open Range I'm on the fence, a barbed wire fence, ha, I did enjoy the film, but like a lot of Kevin Costner's films it felt long to me. The only movie of his that didn't feel long was Dances With Wolves, which was fairly long, go figure.
The opening scene out on the range, could have been trimmed by 10 minutes as it took 24 minutes before the crisis began and I was losing interest during that first establishing scene. But once the big guy goes missing and the boys go looking for him, the film caught my attention.
I'm sure some will say Open Range is sentimentalism. Well I like sentimentalism myself, though a couple of times director Costner dipped into that well too deeply, especially the scenes with the dog which had me in the mindset of Hallmark. But mostly it had a nice touch to it.
Each film takes it's own tone and Open Range takes it's tone from Kevin Costner and despite his character's shady past we see he's a decent guy who's thoughtful and considerate...kind of like me!
Well Costner's character did remind me of myself, except for the gun slinging stuff of course, but rest assured if I got mud all over a pretty woman's floor I'd be picking the mud clods up too! Loved that scene BTW. Also the scene in the general store where he's looking at a mail order catalog to replace a china set, just in case he doesn't survive the gunfight...that was a nice touch to the movie. And that's what works for me in this film is Kevin Costner, he's easy to relate to.
Open Range (2003)
Writers: Lauran Paine (novel), Craig Storper (screenplay)
Cast: Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Diego Luna
Genre: western
I liked Open Range, with some reservations. I have reservations about most movies I watch. By that I mean: smaller things that I didn't care for or would have done differently if I was in the director's seat. If I'm really into a movie then those reservations are forgotten. But with Open Range I'm on the fence, a barbed wire fence, ha, I did enjoy the film, but like a lot of Kevin Costner's films it felt long to me. The only movie of his that didn't feel long was Dances With Wolves, which was fairly long, go figure.
The opening scene out on the range, could have been trimmed by 10 minutes as it took 24 minutes before the crisis began and I was losing interest during that first establishing scene. But once the big guy goes missing and the boys go looking for him, the film caught my attention.
I'm sure some will say Open Range is sentimentalism. Well I like sentimentalism myself, though a couple of times director Costner dipped into that well too deeply, especially the scenes with the dog which had me in the mindset of Hallmark. But mostly it had a nice touch to it.
Each film takes it's own tone and Open Range takes it's tone from Kevin Costner and despite his character's shady past we see he's a decent guy who's thoughtful and considerate...kind of like me!
Well Costner's character did remind me of myself, except for the gun slinging stuff of course, but rest assured if I got mud all over a pretty woman's floor I'd be picking the mud clods up too! Loved that scene BTW. Also the scene in the general store where he's looking at a mail order catalog to replace a china set, just in case he doesn't survive the gunfight...that was a nice touch to the movie. And that's what works for me in this film is Kevin Costner, he's easy to relate to.