Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
On Quartile, Open Range scores 7.5/10 across five categories — strongest on Acting (Well Above Average), weakest on Novelty (Below Average).
Ranked among Quartile’s Top Acting.
A former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman.
Open Range is a handsomely mounted late Western with Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall delivering genuinely exceptional performances — Duvall in particular is magnetic throughout. The Montana landscapes are photographed with real sweep and grandeur, and the climactic shootout is one of the most viscerally staged gun battles in modern Westerns, earning the cinematography a strong mark. However, the plot follows a well-worn template (corrupt lawman, free-grazing cattlemen, reluctant gunfighter) without meaningfully subverting or deepening it, keeping Novelty squarely below average. The ending is satisfying but conventional — the romance subplot with Annette Bening resolves a bit too neatly against the brutal action preceding it.