"I thought of this piece as entertainment that I would like to see," explains Kevin Costner, Oscar-winning director, producer and co-star of Open Range.  "When I talked about this movie with people, it reminded them of movies they wanted to see.  So it all lined up for me, the fact that I could create and move this landscape.  It's been a privilege and a thrill."


Set in the vast, epic landscape of the prairies, Open Range has all the elements of a classic Western.  It reveals a unique slice of American history--the end of an era when land was not owned.  A culture of cowboys known as "freegrazers" emerged, who roamed the countryside with their cattle and lived off the land.  In Open Range, the four men must team up to fight this injustice.

But here, the romantic image of the strong, silent cowboy with nothing but the shirt on his back and the shoes on his horse is given more depth with the help of Costner's camera. 

"In all Westerns you have enigmatic characters; you don't know how they arrived or how they got to where they are.  The only possessions they have are on their horse," says Costner.  "It's a terribly romantic image, but if you think a bit longer, you wonder, what do they do when it rains?  When they run out of food?  They've got to go forage for themselves.  They had to be very resourceful.  We have this romantic view of the West when, in fact, it was terribly difficult." 

Writer/executive producer Craig Storper, who calls the Western one of America's indigenous art forms, points out that Open Range adheres to the genre's classic issues of freedom, justice, honour, love and friendship.  But both director and writer wanted to go further than most Westerns usually allow and create authentic voices from the past.  To do so meant infusing the story with an emotional depth and creating characters who rise above the clichés and wooden stereotypes often associated with the genre.

Storper comes to filmmaking via the fine arts, having earned a degree in Painting & Sculpture from UCLA.   He wrote the screenplay for the HBO drama The Truth About Alex, winner of the CableACE and other awards, and worked in a variety of production capacities on motion pictures, television movies, and commercials.  Open Range marks his feature film debut both as a producer and a screenwriter.


"The emotional lives of the characters, the lives they resist sharing with each other, are unexpectedly complex once you get past the walls they've each erected for self-protection," says Storper.  "It's only the bad circumstances in which they find themselves that push them to reveal things that might've stayed buried, but ultimately lead them to be transformed." 

Kevin Costner emphasises the use of language in the film to convey the complexity of the relationships between the men: "We really rely on the language that we created that shows how men deal with each other, and how they deal with their problems," he explains.  "And it deals with women--how we talk to them, how we treat them, and how we're confused by them."

Agrees Annette Bening: "When I read the script, I liked it because there was a classic feel to it, and yet a different sensibility.  There's a more sensitive sensibility about the way the men relate to each other.  There's an intimacy between the men that is beautifully written, and it's very touching how their vulnerabilities are dramatised."

Storper had written Open Range on spec four and a half years ago after optioning the book 'The Open Range Men' from writer Lauran Paine. Storper never told the author about his efforts to get the project made because of the mercurial nature of Hollywood, opting instead to wait until production was a firm reality. 

"Lauran was in his 80s and it just didn't seem right to get his hopes up every time there was a hint of interest," explains Storper. 

Then, in December 2001, Storper received a note from Paine's wife that the author had died.  When making the film finally became concrete, Storper called her with the news.  "The moment I was able to tell her that Kevin was going to star in the movie she was just completely overwhelmed," recalls Storper.  "She broke down crying on the phone, and it turned out that I had called her on her birthday.  So being able to tell somebody whose husband had died and had always wanted to have a film made of his work, that Robert Duvall was going to star, that Kevin Costner was going to star, that Annette Bening was going to star--it was wonderful to be able to do that for her."

It was a leap of faith to option the material considering modern Hollywood's resistance to the genre.  "The last really successful Western was Unforgiven," says Storper, "and that was ten or twelve years ago.  So trying to make a movie like this is like pushing a stone uphill in Hollywood, and you need some very strong muscle to push that stone.  Still, as a storyteller, you have to believe that a good story will find its way to being told."

The muscle turned out to be Costner.  Costner met Storper through their agents, and the two immediately bonded through their common love for all things Western--a love, Costner argues, that most Americans share even though Hollywood has often been a somewhat disappointing voice for this integral part of American history. 

"I think most people know that I have an affinity for the West," says Costner, who, in addition to Dances With Wolves, starred in the Westerns Silverado and Wyatt Earp, "but it's often surprising to me when people say, 'I love Westerns' because the number of Westerns you can name as great movies is not very extensive.  They're 'black hat vs. white hat' and not terribly appealing.  But they are a part of our heritage.  People have an enduring love of them."

Costner approached Unforgiven's producer, David Valdes, in January 2002 and, after serious discussions, the decision was made to go the independent route.  London-based Cobalt Media Group came on board as the film's foreign sales agent, and The Walt Disney Company acquired North American distribution rights. 

casting open range
Securing the legendary Duvall was vital to the making of the film, according to Craig Storper.  "When I read the book and when I wrote the script," he says, "I had Robert Duvall in mind.  When Kevin and I first met, one of the very first things he said was, 'You know, I could see Robert Duvall doing this movie.'  If Duvall had said no, I don't know what would have happened, because we didn't think of anyone else for the role."

"The part was tailored for Bob," adds Costner.  "Craig wrote it, and I began to move it around without having ever called Bob.  I shifted a lot of lines in his direction, and it was the right thing to do and the smart thing to do for the film."

Indeed, the film's most important relationship is between Charley and the elder Boss.  Described by Craig Storper as "a man who has some pain from his past, but who is basically a decent, hard-working, straight-shooter who lets you know right where you stand with him," Boss is friend, mentor, father figure, and employer to Charley.  The many dimensions of their relationship make it stronger and yet, at the same time, more complicated.  "The plot provides the landscapes, history, and action we expect from Westerns, but it's these two characters and their relationship that ultimately gives the film its meaning and its heart."

Years of fighting the elements and stress from the constant threat of attack have taken their toll, yet Charley and Boss have managed to find a level of comfort with each other that keeps them together against all odds.  Boss even jokes to Sue that he and Charley have no need for a wife or home since they're already "just like an old married couple."  But all teasing aside, the way each constantly challenges the other's actions and opinions, always with respect, is the hallmark of their complicated connection. 

Luckily for the filmmakers, Duvall made the choice to get on board within 24 hours of reading the script.  "I just knew I wanted to be in it," declares Duvall.  "It's a real classic Western, and they offered me a wonderful part."  But Duvall almost didn't make it to the set.  In April 2002, while preparing for the film in Virginia, Duvall was bucked off a horse and broke six ribs.  Had it happened closer to the film, he would not have healed soon enough.  Even after his bones were mended, it was a psychological challenge to get back up in the saddle. 

"I was a little hesitant to get back on a horse," admits Duvall, "but the wranglers, the Bews brothers, were very helpful, and after a while I got in the groove of it and it was fine.  It was tough, but I knew I wanted to do the film, so I knew I had to recuperate."

Perhaps no one was more thankful for Duvall's strength than his director.  "The language fit his rhythms," says an admiring Costner.  "The situations, as I knew them to be, I knew he could control magnificently.  All that really came to bear.  I think this could be a pinnacle moment in his career, this role and how's he played it."

Costner had already agreed to play the enigmatic Charley Waite.  "What you see in Charley is a classic character.  You almost don't know about him, and then suddenly he begins to reveal himself and a violent past," says Costner.  "He's a good man who thinks he's bad."

Costner's character was a decade younger in the original book and given very little background.  Rewriting the part wasn't merely to accommodate the director, says Storper, but "to incorporate a deeper, richer, more experiential subtext for the character.  If you made it to forty in 1882 while living out of saddlebags, you had a lot of life experience.  And life teaches you things, good and bad, so the man you are at forty is very different than the man you are at thirty.  Out of discussions with Kevin came a whole history for that character that is only vaguely touched upon in the book." 

The audience is thus invited to share in Charley's journey as "he struggles to move forward in his life from a place that he was in to a place that he can be in the future," says Storper.  "He lets go of what he was, and struggles to remake himself."

With such a strong man in the part of Boss, finding an equally strong nemesis for him was daunting.  The perfect foil for Boss came in the form of Sir Michael Gambon, an Englishman probably best known to North Americans for his role as Thomas Sandefur in The Insider, and more recently for his role as William McCordle in the critically acclaimed Gosford Park.  Says Craig Storper of their casting choice, "We were lucky to find an actor who could stand up to the Duvall character.  If you have an antagonist who's weak, and a protagonist who's strong, you have nothing.  Robert Duvall is a powerful presence and an iconic figure, so casting Michael Gambon, who can hold his own and create a strong impression in limited screen time, was absolutely essential."

Gambon's character, Baxter, and his thugs have a grip on Harmonville.  Many in the town secretly resent the ruthless Baxter, and not just because he runs the town like his personal fiefdom.  Baxter's the kind of person who sends six of his thugs to beat up one man; he likes the odds in his favor and the people living in fear. 

Gambon created a history for Baxter that doesn't appear in the script in order to provide context for his character.  Gambon decided Baxter was an Irishman who "has come over to America and done very well.  He's bought a plot of land, he runs his cattle, he builds these towns, he's paid for all the buildings, and he thinks he has everything, but he doesn't."

For his part, Gambon was thrilled with the chance to act in a genre never offered to him in England.  "I just wanted to be in a Western," laughs Gambon.  "For an Englishman to be in a Western is like a dream.  And when you're playing the bad man, that's the best part."  And then there was the opportunity to work with the larger-than-life Kevin Costner.  "I was used to seeing him on the big screen in London," says Gambon.  "So when he was standing next to me wearing a cowboy hat and a gun and directing the movie, it was surreal.  It was extraordinary."

It was also extraordinary when Annette Bening accepted the producers' invitation to play the only female lead in Open Range.  "Sue is a woman of steady pragmatism," explains Bening.  "She's a woman who's not terribly complicated; someone who is at peace.  When the cowboys come to her house, she's a civilising influence."

Although Sue is on the wrong side of thirty at a time when such women were to be pitied or scorned, and painfully aware that time is killing her hopes of love and children, she still has too much self-respect to settle.  "She's a very strong, stable woman," asserts Bening.  "She's been through a lot in her life and had to deal with enough disappointment that if she didn't get married, and just lived life with her brother and took care of the house, she would somehow plow through it."

Diego Luna, recently of Y Tu Mama Tambien, came on board as Button.  The part was originally written for a fifteen-year-old American boy, but it was changed to a Mexican after Luna accepted Costner's offer to cast him in the part. "He's so young and fresh, and we saw ourselves in Diego, in his sense of wonder and excitement."

Young Luna points out that the portrayal of these cowboys as complex creatures is what makes Open Range that much more appealing both as a Western and simply as a good story. 

"In the old Westerns, cowboys were really quiet people," says Luna.  "The difference in this movie is that you hear them talking, you see what's inside their hearts and minds.  And it's always a combination, always a balance between the bad and good in you.  I think this is a movie where the characters are real, where you can relate to them because they're human, even though this happens in 1882.  I think the problem Charley has is a problem we all have.  We have all done terrible things, and it's tough to forget and it's tough to keep on going, to change."

So while Open Range may be a classically structured Western, says Luna, it's also "a movie about hope and love.  It has every element.  It has good actors; it has a very good script.   I think everyone can expect a good movie and something really special."

Button, as the baby of the team, is at that awkward age of trying to be a man while still harbouring the heart of a child.  He's the kind of boy who cheats at cards, not because he can't be trusted but because he so desperately needs to prove to his elders that he's as capable as any of them. 

"He's trying to be a man before his time," says Luna.  "He's living this very adult life on the range, but he's also a kid who needs to be loved, who needs to play.  In the end he just wants to make Boss a proud guy.  So he's always jumping between a kid and an adult."

Finding and Creating the 'Open Range'
Shooting Open Range