Check Out the Trailer

When Kevin Costner is good (i.e. DANCES WITH WOLVES, FIELD OF DREAMS) he can be great. But when he’s bad (i.e. THE POSTMAN), he’s awful. Costner proves himself with his film, making a solid Western in the classic sense. The film has something to say about the effects of violence, especially war, on a man’s psyche.

Costner plays Charley Waite, a quiet cowboy, who has been working for Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall, THE APOSTLE) for more than a decade. Boss Spearman is kind and wise, but he’s cautious about strangers. Working with them is the childlike big man Mose (Abraham Benrubi, TV’s ER) and the young Hispanic rookie Button (Diego Luna, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN). When Mose goes to town for supplies and is jumped by locals, Boss and Charley want to make their presence known to the men that threaten them, which include crocked Irish landowner Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon, GOSFORD PARK) and corrupt sheriff Poole (James Russo, THE NINTH GATE). In the meantime, they get Doc (Dean McDermott, A COOL, DRY PLACE) and Sue Barlow (Annette Bening, AMERICAN BEAUTY) to fix up Mose. Charley has an instant attraction to Sue. When tragedy strikes, Boss and Charley ride into town for their revenge.

Waiting for a thunderstorm to subside, we learn a lot about Boss and Charley’s characters and why living in the open range is so important to them. Costner’s understated performance is solid and Duvall delivers another standout in a career full of them. Also interesting is what the end says about people putting up with the oppression of the wealthy. A lot of reviews have disregarded the love story between Charley and Sue, but I think it was an unusually sweet romance that helped Charley heal old wounds.

Director Costner uses beautiful cinematography, provided by J. Michael Muro, to evoke the open epic scale that was typical in Westerns. It seems that he is trying to borrow pieces from the full history of the genre from the epic scope of the classic Western to the more honest depiction of violence that was signature to Westerns of the 1970s. Mose’s attack motivating the men to action reminded me of THE WILD BUNCH. And like the THE WILD BUNCH, violence plays a key role in this Western. There are some men who seem itching for violence, but never have experienced it; and then there are those who have experienced it. And experience goes a long way. This isn’t as good as DANCES WITH WOLVES, but Costner does return to the Wild West and delivers a winner.