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Friday, December 7, 2007

 

MR: Open Range

Open Range starring Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner, is about two free grazers, Boss (Duvall) and Charlie (Costner). It begins with Boss and Charlie moving a herd along with their hired hands, Button and Moses. They take their cattle, and graze them on the open prairie, and then once a place is grazed off, move on to another place, and eventually sell the fat cows. Moses is sent into town, and runs into trouble with the local cattle baron, who loathes free grazers. Boss and Charlie go and rescue him, but then the cattle baron (Baxter) sends men out to kill them and scatter the herd. Moses is killed, and Button is severely wounded. Boss and Charlie take Button to the town doctor, and then they settle down to take justice into their own hands on Baxter and his men, who are going to come after them for defying Baxter. Boss and Charlie settle in for a gunfight, and Charlie happens to fall for the doctor's sister. The next day the gunfight shapes up, and Boss and Charlie clean house with Baxter and his men. The movie ends with Charlie proposing to the doctor's sister, and she accept. Then Boss, Charlie, and the recovered Button set out to sell their cattle and return to the town to settle down.

This movie shows a lot of good scenes of the country, and the town seems to be pretty authentic to a plains town. One of the best thing it tells about the plains is that the men who live there must be willing to defend themselves and their property against bullies like Baxter, or they will lose everything.

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