Boring would be a good word to describe it.
More like it has the confidence to take its time and flesh out the believable characters.
The villains are laughable. The main bad guy was a cheap knock off version of Palance from Young Guns.
How was Baxter laughable? He was an Irish land baron who built his ranch empire from nothing and is now drunk on power decades later. He owns the sheriff and think he owns the town (and
does to a point). The previous free rangers who traveled through the region a few years earlier he had murdered and easily got away with it. He pompously thought he'd get away with it this time too, but was wrong. He was also wrong about the citizens of Hammondville; he thought he had them all under his thumb; obviously not.
It is true, however, that this kind of villain is an old standby in Westerns; look no further than "Shane" where the character is less one-dimensional.
"Young Guns" is a very good retelling of the Billy the Kid saga, but "Open Range" is just as good or better in its own way. They're too different to really compare.
They make Butler seem like a bad-ass, then Costner just walks up to him and shoots him in the head and Butler just stands there like a dumbass.
The smirking Butler was over-confident. He didn't realize that Charlie was an expert killer and fast with the draw. It didn't help that Butler's right arm was broken.
But you missed the amusing irony: The movie builds up the bad-axx character of Butler and the viewer
knows he's going to play a big role in the last act; then the movie pulls the rug out from under you. The bigger and badder they are, the harder (and quicker) they fall.
The mexican kid just stumbles into town for no reason
I think he was French, not Mexican. And he stumbles into town recovering from serious wounds
because his comrades were making a last stand and he naturally wanted to assist them.
and the oppressed town folk revolt against main bad guy
Exactly. They finally had enough of Baxter's pompous tyranny and Boss & Charlie were the ones who gave them the spark to stand up and fight, come what may.
needed better editing
Some of the editing is peculiar, which may strike some viewers in a negative way, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. I think it was artistic and had zero problem following the story. In any case, it's still a great modern Western.
reply
share