It's 1882 and Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall), a wise old cowboy, and his team are leading their herd of free-grazing cattle across Montana when they run afoul of local cattle baron Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon).
Spearman's three-man crew consists of taciturn Charley Waite (Kevin Costner), the gentle giant Mose (Abraham Benrubi), and young Button (an early performance from Diego Luna, the future Cassian Andor).
Baxter wants the free-grazers gone from his territory around the town of Harmonville (so he can steal their cattle) and sets his own men on sorting out "the problem".
Mose is murdered and Button severely injured - but the worst injustice is the shooting of Waite's old dog, Tig.
This is the classic John Wick inciting incident 11 years before John Wick entered our lives.
Dogs play a pivotal role in this tale as, later on, Charley saving a puppy from drowning helps persuade the town's inhabitants that maybe he and Spearman aren't the "big bads" that Baxter seeks to portray them as.
Needing medical aid for the wounded Button, Charley and Spearman meet Doc Barlow (Dean McDermott) and his beautiful sister, Sue (Annette Bening), who they mistake for his wife for the longest time.
Once this mistake is corrected it opens the door for a sweet, low-key romance to blossom between Charley and Sue, against the backdrop of the increasing tension - and inevitable showdown - between the free-herders and the cattle baron.
Everything comes to a head in a gorgeously choreographed gun battle in the streets of Harmonville, that sees - as it goes on - more and more of the town's residents taking the side of Charley and Spearman against their oppressive, vicious "overlord".
Dogs play a pivotal role in this tale as, later on, Charley saving a puppy from drowning helps persuade the town's inhabitants that maybe he and Spearman aren't the "big bads" that Baxter seeks to portray them as.
Needing medical aid for the wounded Button, Charley and Spearman meet Doc Barlow (Dean McDermott) and his beautiful sister, Sue (Annette Bening), who they mistake for his wife for the longest time.
Once this mistake is corrected it opens the door for a sweet, low-key romance to blossom between Charley and Sue, against the backdrop of the increasing tension - and inevitable showdown - between the free-herders and the cattle baron.
Everything comes to a head in a gorgeously choreographed gun battle in the streets of Harmonville, that sees - as it goes on - more and more of the town's residents taking the side of Charley and Spearman against their oppressive, vicious "overlord".
I like a lot of Westerns, of all stripes, but I have to admit that Open Range is up there among my favourites.
Beautifully directed by Costner himself, from a smart and engaging script by Craig Storper (based upon The Open Range Men by by Lauran Paine), this is one of those near-perfect Westerns that has it all.
Costner and Duvall are phenomenal as the pair of aging cattlemen, bickering like an old married couple, and still finding out about each other's backstories a decade into their friendship.
The realisation, with this viewing, of who was playing Button certainly added a unique spin on the movie (when I last saw it Andor and Rogue One weren't even part of the Star Wars Universe), but the thing that had stuck with me all these years was the incredibly sound effects, particularly during the final gunfight.
I've always had a bit of thing about high-quality movie sound effects (I've long been a bit of a Ben Burtt stan - again with the Star Wars reference - and I like to think in a different life I'd have been a Foley artist) and the first time I heard the gun shots in that extended, final sequence I was gobsmacked by the vividness of the sound.
Watching the movie this week, I was again struck by the work of Open Range's sound team, but also the realisation that there is so much more to the movie than just the epic conclusion.
The former gunslinger who has turned his back on his old ways but is forced to confront those urges by circumstances beyond his control sounds like a Western cliché, but Storper's script does a grand job - thanks to top-quality directing and impeccable performances - of diving deep into the character's psyche and justifying their actions.
Beautifully directed by Costner himself, from a smart and engaging script by Craig Storper (based upon The Open Range Men by by Lauran Paine), this is one of those near-perfect Westerns that has it all.
Costner and Duvall are phenomenal as the pair of aging cattlemen, bickering like an old married couple, and still finding out about each other's backstories a decade into their friendship.
The realisation, with this viewing, of who was playing Button certainly added a unique spin on the movie (when I last saw it Andor and Rogue One weren't even part of the Star Wars Universe), but the thing that had stuck with me all these years was the incredibly sound effects, particularly during the final gunfight.
I've always had a bit of thing about high-quality movie sound effects (I've long been a bit of a Ben Burtt stan - again with the Star Wars reference - and I like to think in a different life I'd have been a Foley artist) and the first time I heard the gun shots in that extended, final sequence I was gobsmacked by the vividness of the sound.
Watching the movie this week, I was again struck by the work of Open Range's sound team, but also the realisation that there is so much more to the movie than just the epic conclusion.
The former gunslinger who has turned his back on his old ways but is forced to confront those urges by circumstances beyond his control sounds like a Western cliché, but Storper's script does a grand job - thanks to top-quality directing and impeccable performances - of diving deep into the character's psyche and justifying their actions.
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