I saw it Sunday afternoon (is there any other way to see a Western besides a matinee?), and loved it. If this movie had a subtitle, it would be "Open Range: There Are No Innocent Bystanders."
Speaking as someone who has fired many weapons, I have to say that the sound effects in this movie are un-fucking-believable. There are no whiny pings, cracks, or endless rifle echoes in this Western. Every single trigger-pull sounds and FEELS like pulling a real trigger. You can feel each shot making a percussive bump in your heart and chest. Wow.
And after listening to the deafening concussions of those enormous Winchesters and Colts, you get a chance to truly admire it when Costner's character pulls off the famous "fanning the hammer" technique, and you get a real sense of how damned hard that really is.
This is a by-God Western. Don't expect anything else.
__________________
Living is easy with eyes closed.
|