OPEN RANGE

TWO STARS – ENTERTAINING

Kevin Costner’s film “Open Range” gives a romantic if not a realistic view of life in the Old West when “cowboying” was a verb and Robert Duvall’s character Boss was “so good at it, he broke the mold.” The scenery is sweeping, the pace is slow as though from another era and the life portrayed is harsh.

In 1882 when the West was shifting from open range grazing to fenced ranches, the tension between these two ways of life created a new prejudice. Supported by this prejudice, violence toward the increasing minority of open range cowboys became increasingly common. In Costner’s depiction, “Open Range” erupts into murderous rage.

Still legal in the late 1800s to graze the open lands that were not yet private property, Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) has assembled a rag-tag assortment of cowboys to watch over his herd.

The lead rider is a troubled “special forces” soldier fleeing from his past in the Civil War named Charley Waite (Kevin Costner). The cook is a large man whose playful spirit conceals an ability to fight with three men and hold his own. The youngest is an adopted orphan whose sixteen-years of life has known abandonment and poverty, named Button (Diego Luna).

A dysfunctional family of cowboys, their small herd is scattered and their supplies run low when a mountain storm pummels them with lightning and rain. Deciding to return to a town a short distance back, it is there that the battle begins.

The moral themes of the film are several but only explored in a limited manner. The obvious use of prejudice against the “open rangers” is the foundation. But on this prejudice feeds the violent greed of an Irish rancher named Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon). Amassing the largest spread around the valley in which this town sits, Baxter has hired gunmen to murder the open range cowboys that come through the area and steal their cattle. To do this with immunity, he has bought off the local Marshall and intimidated the townspeople.

Predictable and graphically violent, Charley and Boss are compelled to kill many people, and as their bloodlust both overcomes them and spreads to the townspeople, they are told they “did a good thing here today.”

In part, it is true that if good people do nothing evil flourishes. But in a similar way, for a film to suggest that resorting to murderous vengeance is a good thing opens our souls to a dangerous self-justification that undermines both social and spiritual life.

The redemptive presence in the film is in the person of Sue Barlow (Annette Bening), who is the beautiful sister of the town physician. Sue and Charley are taken with one another at first sight. As Charley struggles with his aptitude to kill and therefore feels unworthy to pursue Sue, she convinces him that he is a “good person.” How she knows that seems to be by intuition and not by any real evidence, except for his care of Button. But the grace she offers to Charley gives him a chance to begin again. It is grace we all have need to overcome the scars of the past in both our spiritual lives and our social relationships.

DISCUSSION:

When the “open range” cowboy life was changing, those who had lived that way were caught in social changes and increasing prejudice. What similar social changes are occurring today and how is prejudice supporting violence now?
When Charlie and Boss decide to take vengeance on the evil Baxter Ranch cowboys, where do you believe their souls were? What does it mean that Boss is “angry with the S.O.B. upstairs?” Does he express belief or disbelief in God?
In the relationship of Charlie and Sue, there is little to support her proclamation that he is a “good man.” Do you believe she is in love with the actual man or projecting on him the man she wants him to be?
What happened to the townspeople as shown by the scene where they chased one of the Baxter cowboys and shot him as he ran away and fell to the ground?

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Cinema In Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary. Hal Conklin is former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of the Free Methodist Church. To contact: http://www.cinemainfocus.com.