Movie: Open Range. Possibly best western ever.

Remove all ads!

It hasn't recieved much publicity but I found it to be a very good 'wild west' movie and possibly the best I have ever seen. The character interaction is very different from what we would normally expect (two men who have worked together as freegrazers for years but don't even know each others real names).

The gunfights are brilliant, not some of those 'hero always hits, bad guy always misses' types either. Main actors are Kevin Costner playing a hired gunhand to protect 'Boss's' (Robert Duvall) cattle. Annette Benning plays the sister of a doctor the heros need to see after one of their buddies is beat up and another is shot up by a greedy rancher and his hired goons.

I can't do credit to the movie but I can assure you that it is different and the character interaction and relationships will leave you with a 'feel good' feeling and the gunfight will have you rewinding to watch it again... and again.

Should be at your local video store, I suggest you grab it.

 

I can't agree with you there, Abomination. Kevin Costner' s and Robert Duvall's attempt at western slang drove me nuts. The dialogue was just so cheesy and lame. It had potential but I just couldn't get past those accents.

See Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. Here he pulls off one of the best westerns ever. Also see him in Silverado, another underrated western.

As regards to the best western ever it would have to be (for me) Clint in Pale Rider or the Unforgiven. And I loved the old "Wild Bunch" with Jack Palance. And Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in Tombstone.

 

Agreed. Tombstone is the best western i've seen. The scene at the end with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer has me in tears every time

 

The best westerns ever are:

- "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (Sergio Leone),
- "Once Upon A Time In the West" (Sergio Leone.
Actually, I prefer the Italian title since it catches the essence of the film better: "C'era una volta il West" which translates "Once Upon A Time There Was the West") and
- "Unforgiven" (Clint Eastwood).
Because it redefines the genre and because it's Clint's attempt to kill - or at least differentiate - his own myth.

I would like to be able to mention (or consider) some of the classical westerns before Leone: John Ford and so on, but sadly I haven't seen any of them.

EDIT: And I don't understand why people still talk about "Dances With Wolves"? Maybe it had the potential to become a great western but it drowned in political correctness. And it didn't really 'modernize' the genre. The way I see it, Kevin Costner should send the Oscar he got for "Dances..." to Marty Scorsese who had "Goodfellas" in the run that year.

 

I left out Young Guns 2

also, Colin Farrel's stint as Jesse James was awesome, but I forget the title right now :/

 

Dances with Wolves was a great, entertaining movie; that's why people still talk about it. Kevin Costner shone in this movie as he tried with eagerness to communicate with his Indian neighbours. That was a fine display of acting. And it didn't drown in political correctness; if anything it downplayed the encroachment of the white man on Indian soil. They didn't have a big display of Hollywood crap of cowboys versus Indians but the Indian relocating to avoid the white men if anything. Very subtle. It turned the Indians into people with respect. No other western had done that. The scene with the buffalo hunt was one of the most exhilarating scenes in movie history. One of the finest displays of Indian culture on film in Hollywood.

I agree with Goodfellas though. That was an amazing movie and one of my favs of all time. It didn't win an Oscar because of it's vivid, violent scenes as opposed to Costner's exploration of another culture. Two different movies, but still two greats.

[ March 21, 2005, 22:02: Message edited by: Newfie ]

 

I agree with Newfie - Silverado is a GREAT flick!!!! Everyone is in it!!

 

Silverado? sounds a little before my time

I liked the Quick and the Dead too

and I think that Colin Farrel as Jesse James was called "Young Americans" or "Wild Americans" not too sure though. Was an awesome movie though.

 

Enagonios, here's some classic westerns you should watch if you enjoy the genre. All yours seem to be pretty recent and just don't have the feel of the older ones, although Leo Dicaprio was great in the QATD. Do you recognize the priest? That's Russell Crowe before he hit it big.

I'm not much of a fan of any of Clint's "Spaghetti Westerns", they are just too comic book. His later ones were better like High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Joe Kidd, Pale Rider and Unforgiven.

Check out the Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch, Silverado, Rio Bravo, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, The Man who shot Liberty Valance, El Dorado, Jeremiah Johnson and the Professionals.

 

Most of the westerns posted here are the best, but something has to be resolved - who is the ultimate western hero?

Let's face it - it's a choice between Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. Clint gets my vote for those countless number of films he played the nameless man (The Outlaw Josey Wales counts as one of those nameless men, even if he has a name. )

 

Ultimate western hero: Clint Eastwood for his roles in Leone's No Name Trilogy and, of course, Unforgiven.

Westerns like Pale Rider and High Planes Drifter are all right but they pale in comparison with the masterpieces mentioned above.

 

It's a matter of preference I suppose. People should see Clint in his entirity to appreciate what he has does for filmmaking. I am sure a young guy like Enagonios will not appreciate the Italian western, especially the dubbing, cheesy dialogue and comic book scenes. How about that scene when him and Van Cleef start shooting the apples out of the trees? LOL.

I vote for Clint as western hero. He pretty well paved the way for guys like Arnold, Stallone and Willis for badass, tough guy hero. The Duke was great and an icon, but he pretty well got labeled in the role as cowboy. Just look what Clint has accomplished since his cowboy days. His sneer, swagger and get in my way, I'll run you over attitude made him a macho hero for decades.

 

I must admit, I saw the title of this topic and said to myself..."huh?" Sort of like when I saw a magazine cover last year that said "The White Stripes: Best Rock Band in the World!"

And then I proceeded to soil my draws from the shock.

IMO (of course), open range with merely okay as westerns go. It's very tough to make a good western these days, but if I were to list my top 5 westerns made in the last 20 years or so, Open Range wouldn't be on it. They would be:

1. The Jack Bull (starring John Cusack)
2. The Missing (Tommy Lee Jones and Kate Blanchett)
3. Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner)
4. Tombstone (Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer)
5. Unforgiven (Gene Hackman and Clint Eastwood)

Of course, if we're talking best western EVER, it's a tie between The Outlaw Josie Wales and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Open Range, or anything made in the last 20 years, can't touch those two.

I will say one thing about Open Range though...the scene where Kevin Costner walks up the gunfighter and says "You killed my friend?" the guy says, smirking, "I sure did." And then Costner whips out a gun and shoots him in the face.

Priceless.

Ida know - am I just missing something fanstastic about that you guys are getting? I suppose I could be convinced of it's quality - it's happened before.

[ March 22, 2005, 21:24: Message edited by: Death Rabbit ]

 

Can't believe nobody has mentioned "Blazing Saddles" yet.

 

I'll second Jeremiah Johnson and the Outlaw Josey Wales.

And, it isn't a movie, but Deadwood is great.

 

blazing saddles... we might as well put in the cherokee kid too then

Yeah, I actually did see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Man who shot liberty valance, but don't really remember them that much now.

 

Silverado and Pale Rider brought the western back on the big screen as a money maker. Silverado was great.

My favorite westerns:

High Noon (B&W version -- color takes away from the movie)
Silverado
Unforgiven
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (one of the few movies where John Wayne dies)
Rustler's Rhapsody -- I know it's not very good but I just laugh my ass off every time I see it.
Quigley Down Under -- more than just a great title

 

After reading this post, I rented "Open Range." I thought it was a pretty good movie! It's definitely in my top ten westerns of all time - it might even squeek into the top five! Definitely worth seeing at any rate.

 

I found Boss blasting the gunhand with the shotgun through a wall to be quite entertaining.