But the townspeople behave differently than they do in many Westerns, where gunfights are treated as a spectator sport. The romance, sweet and well-acted as it is, seems imposed on the essential story. Only a few days are involved, violence and illness overshadow everything, and it's clear that this visit will end in a gunfight. I can see what Costner is getting at here, and I admire his reticence, his unwillingness to push the romance beyond where it wants to go, and yet somehow the romance itself seems like an awkward fit in this story.
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The movie wisely doesn't push them into a quick kiss, but underlines their awareness and reinforces it with some quiet conversations, shy and painfully sincere on Charley's part. She sees that he is a good man despite his rough ways and cowboy grunge.įor him, this is perhaps the first good woman he has known.
Sue's and Charley's eyes meet, setting up a strong attraction that continues through the movie. The subtext of the movie is that while Boss' way is best, when actual evil is encountered, Charley's way is required.Īt the doctor's house, the men meet not only the doc but a woman named Sue ( Annette Bening), who they first take for his wife and later discover is his sister. "I got no problem with that," says Charley. That means returning to the town, and they all know that to return to Baxter's domain is to risk death.
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When the two men free Mose and return to camp, they find the kid in bad shape. The town is run by a rancher named Baxter ( Michael Gambon), whose dislike of free grazers is violent, and whose payroll includes a gang of hired thugs. They halt outside a town, Mose is sent in on an errand, and when he doesn't return the two men ride in after him and find him in jail. His group includes Charley, the younger man Mose ( Abraham Benrubi), big and bearded, and the kid Button ( Diego Luna), who would sometimes rather play with the dog than do his work. Charley doesn't merely work with him, but follows him as a sort of disciple.īoss grazes his cattle on the open range. Boss is not only his friend but his mentor and, in a sense, his spiritual leader. Charley was an expert killer during the Civil War, and has spent 10 years under Boss trying to tame that side of his character. Boss does not believe in unnecessary violence, and is willing to put his own life to risk rather than kill someone just to be on the safe side. The underlying text of most classic Westerns is from the Bible: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?" The underlying text of most modern action movies is from Vince Lombardi: "Winning isn't everything it's the only thing." Kevin Costner's "Open Range," an imperfect but deeply involving and beautifully made Western, works primarily because it expresses the personal values of a cowboy named Boss ( Robert Duvall) and his employee of 10 years, Charley (Costner).
Modern action movies have replaced values with team loyalty the characters do what they do because they want to win and they want the other side to lose.
One of the many ways in which the Western has become old-fashioned is that the characters have values, and act on them.
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