Open Range Broken Trail

I've been watching a number of movies lately. I am a fan of westerns, especially Jimmy Stewart westerns from the 1950s. Recently I watched two westerns I really liked. After watching a number of chick-flick films recently it was nice to watch something about men, how they relate to one another, and loyalty, honor and friendship.

The first movie I watched was "Open Range".

Now the movie poster is a nice piece of art, but I am not sure it captures the movie as the movie is more than a showdown. The "No place to run. No reason to hide." tag line isn't right for the movie.

This is an old fashioned western with heart where a former gunslinger (Kevin Costner) is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman working for a rancher and whom governs the territory through fear, tyranny and violence. Amidst the turmoil, life suddenly takes an unexpected turn for the loner Costner when he meets a beautiful and warm spirited woman who embraces both his heart and his soul.

This is a very good movie. The movie runs about 2 hours 20 minutes but doesn't seem long. Kevin Costner stars and directs and he takes his time to allow you the viewer to soak up the atmosphere and to get to know the characters. This movie may be too slow for the MTV generation. Robert Duvall co-stars and naturally is superb in his role.

I fell in love with Annette Bening's character, a frontier woman who has had disappointments and hard times, but is not harsh or bitter, and is strong without being a stereotypically "strong woman" as is so often portrayed in today's movies. Bening perfectly plays this difficult balancing act.

Some quotes:

[Charley has explained his strategy for the upcoming fight]
Boss Spearman: Sounds like you got it all worked out.
Charley Waite: Yeah, except the part where we don't get killed.

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Boss Spearman: It's a pretty day for making things right.
Charley Waite: Well, enjoy it, 'cause once it starts, it's gonna be messy like nothing you ever seen.

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Boss Spearman: We come for justice, not vengeance. Now them is two different things.
Charley Waite: Not today they ain't.

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Sue Barlow: You're a disgrace, Marshal Poole. You always have been.
Sheriff Poole: I know it. That's just the way it is.

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Boss Spearman: It ain't right to walk away without a word.
Charley Waite: Well what do you want me to tell her, Boss? We probably ain't gonna make it? Be a big fat comfort.

I highly recommend "Open Range" for fans of well made westerns.

A few more photos from the film to show the movie is not all gunfights.



The second film I watched is the AMC cable channel made western, "Broken Trail".

Robert Duvall also stars in this four hour mini-series. Again he does a superb job. Thomas Haden Church co-stars and is quite good.

Set in 1897, Robert Duvall and his estranged nephew Thomas Haden Church become the reluctant guardians of five abused and abandoned Chinese girls. Their attempts to care for the girls are complicated by their responsibility to deliver a herd of horses to Wyoming while avoiding a group intent on kidnapping the girls to work in a brothel.

This is another film that takes its time to tell the story and allows one to soak up the western atmosphere and characters. Again, not for the MTV generation as they most likely will find it slow.

While this movie has the feel of an old time western with themes of honor, doing the right thing, and righting wrongs, the stories on moving a herd of horses, Chinese immigrants, smallpox's effects on the Indians, mining camps and brothels are ones that weren't covered in old westerns. Fortunately these stories do not have a feel of being a "politically correct" education lesson, and are interesting.