Lux55 Excellent story, cast, acting and direction. The viewer is drawn into the dilemma of "town bullies" versus unwanted "real" cowboys driving a herd, who must stay over because of their situation.

daktari666 Open Range is the type of Western I can again and again. I already have watched it several times.

ianlouisiana From an elegiac beginning ,"Open Range" gradually builds up to a what is literally a gun battle rather than a gunfight then ,adrenalin spent, it relaxes in an almost post - coital manner to it's former pace and a classic ending for a "Western" picture. Following in the tradition of Ford and Hawks,two alpha males set out for revenge after an evil rancher and a corrupt lawman in concert who rule a town by terror kill one colleague and leave another for dead. Mr Costner makes wonderful use of the familiar frontier town location,bars that are merely drinking dens rather than glitter palaces with waistcoated piano players and girls with fancy garters,dirty muddy streets without drainage that flood after a storm leaving people unable to cross the street,livery stables that look as if they actually hold horses but - above all - a population of people anxious to put roots down and "civilise" the west but are in the thrall of 1880's "Big Business" in the form of the powerful rancher Mr M.Gambon,all hissing and threats with a good Amerirish accent. The plot is familiar enough,but,as they say,there is many a good tune played on an old fiddle. The battle itself is superbly choreographed(and I use the word advisedly ). It is bloody,brutal,noisy and indiscriminate,much,I imagine,like the real thing would have been. Eventually the townspeople turn on their oppressors and wholesale slaughter follows.They gleefully pursue one unarmed and fleeing gunman and shoot him down like a dog long after the main action is finished. An interesting subtext on the subject of "the first kill is the hardest". Mr Duval,Mr Costner and Miss Benning are exemplary,the cast as a whole has no weaknesses,the psycho killers look like psycho killers as they tend to do. I am grateful to Mr Costner for continuing in the Grand Tradition. The West of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry that so engaged my imagination as a boy may be long dead and heroes may have got a lot more tarnished,but the spirit lives on.

Richie-67-485852 Now this is a western as it should be and was. I remember seeing this on the big screen when it first came out. The draw? Costner & Duval doing a Western. What's not to like? Well I was right. Very enjoyable even flowing and unfolding story line that pleases and teases while exposing us to beautiful scenes and vistas. It has all the Western ingredients like shoot-em ups, cattle, horses, "open range", saloon and good versus evil just to name some. It also adds one of my favorites which is filming in the rain and storm (real or not) as it just lends credibility and atmosphere not to mention real life as it was in the rough wild West. Plenty a guns a blazing keep us on the edge with plenty of bad guys to catch bullets and comeuppance. Good movie to eat dinner while watching. Highly recommend a snack and tasty drink. Popcorn, sunflower seeds is very compatible and of course some good beef jerky if you really want to go the distance. This movie adds up to a worthy ten. Mount up and lets ride....