Open Range

This tale of the Old West works on many fronts. It blends the expected violence with pathos, romance, and even comedy. This movie opens with four cow hands (Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall), Charley Waite (Kevin Costner), Mose Harrison (Abraham Benrubi), the gentle, boy-like cook; and Button (Diego Luna), a sixteen-year-old Mexican kid that has been taken in by the older cowboys) pushing a cattle herd. After a hard rain, Boss determines that Mose needs to go back to a town they passed and get extra supplies. When he fails to return, the two older men go after him. They find he has been beaten by a local rancher's men and then arrested for starting the fight. Going to the jail, they confront the corrupt Sheriff Poole (James Russo) and rancher Denton Baxter (Sir Michael Gambon), who has a stranglehold on the town and a dislike for open range cattlemen. Mose is released and taken to Doc Barlow (Dean McDermott), where the men also meet the doc's sister Sue (Annette Bening), who they initially mistake for his wife. Romance blooms. The men head back to the range, but are confronted by hooded riders and disaster that sends them on a path of revenge. Charley's history as a former gunfighter slowly resurfaces as he plans out the impending shoot-out.