Import Week 2025, Day 5: Costner's Home On the Open Range

2003's Open Range (a movie I mistakenly refer to as "Open Season" with embarrassing frequency) is the film that really taught me to appreciate Costner as a filmmaker and not just a Hollywood star.  Dances With Wolves was his break-out, but then you usually think of his goofy sci-fi disasters, Waterworld and The Postman, which everybody's right about.  But this proves he really has the touch for a classic, modern western that isn't as showy as Wolves, but thanks to the source material (The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine) is even more elegant.  It's the reason I'm really pulling for him to complete his Horizon saga (which I'm waiting to binge, fingers crossed, some day).  Unfortunately, it doesn't help that it's left to languish as a DVD-only title here in the states.  It'd be great if a US boutique could release it to help bolster his profile and reputation, but at least we Open Range fans already int he know can import.

So of course Costner doesn't just write/ produce and direct this; he takes the lead role for himself.  But he's up to the task, though it's Robert Duvall who really walks away with this picture.  Michael Gambon (The Singing Detective, Wives & Daughters) and Annette Benning are reliable as ever, and Kim Coates drops by to play another nasty villain, but you get the feeling these guys are kind of breezing through on autopilot, where Costner and Duvall are really giving their all to a labor of love.  Westerns are Costner's proficiency, and this man's absolutely here to give the genre's fans looking for scenic vistas, horses, an authentic western town and perfect costumes absolutely everything they want.  But there's also a rich, textured story at the heart of this that rises above the Western formula, even when they're taking it to a perfect 100%. 

Touchstone released a nice 2-disc anamorphic widescreen special edition DVD of Open Range as a new release in 2004.  At the time, you couldn't have really asked for more.  But in this day and age, 1080p HD is the bare minimum for home video.  And while they never released a blu-ray in the US, there are a number of import options.  My first instinct would be to pick up the relatively recent (2021) blu-ray from 101 Films in the UK, but it's completely barebones!  They drop the wealth of extras from the DVD set (more on that below).  But poking around, I found the German blu from Universum Film  is fully English-friendly and does have all the extras, plus a little bit more.

2004 US Touchstone DVD top; 2010 DE Universum BD bottom.

The DVD presents the film at 2.37:1, which the BD adjusts ever so slightly to 2.35:1.  Otherwise, this is another case of the same old master being used on both discs again.  There's no unfortunate noise reduction, interlacing or anything like that, but as old as this scan is, there's no sign of film grain or anything like that, either.  The boost in clarity is obvious, don't get me wrong.  It's a proper boost from SD to HD, but that's all it is.  It's a fine BD, but a disappointment when you think about what a modern, 4k scan could look like.  And actually, looking super close, maybe their is a subtle touch of edge enhancement in the master that made it to both discs.

The DVD gave us a (fairly arbitrary) choice between 5.1 Dolby Digital and 5.1 DTS audio, plus a 5.1 French dub and optional English and Spanish subtitles.  The BD bumps that up to lossless DTS-HD 6.1, swaps the French dub for a German one (also in 6.1 DTS-HD) and happily has both optional German and English subtitles.  You usually don't see English subs on their non-boutique imports, so that's a nice touch.

Like I said, Touchstone came up with a nicely packed special edition set here.  First of all, there's an audio commentary by Costner, who speaks a bit languidly, but is very thoughtful and open about every aspect of the film, from the book to post production.  Then there's an excellent, behind-the-scenes documentary, which is over an hour long and has full access, not just on location, but in Costner's home, etc.  Then there's an interesting historical featurette, narrated by Costner, using vintage photographs and letters to explore the reality of the period the film's set in.  There's also a collection of twelve deleted scenes, each with a video introduction by Costner, a featurette on the storyboards, with Costner and his artist, and a music video for the main theme song.  Finally, there's a bunch of bonus trailers, but not the actual trailer for Open Range itself.

The German disc has all of that, with optional/ removable German subs.  But they default to on, so I'd turn 'em off for the documentary, but when it came to short stuff like every individual deleted scene, I started to get tired of constantly going back to the subtitle menu to shut them off.  If your remote has a dedicated subtitle button (like my old player did, RIP) it would be less annoying.  Anyway, that's a minor annoyance, but it's counter-balanced by a minor benefit: Universum has come up with their own, original extra no other release has: a ten minute featurette on the film's German premiere.  So it's not exactly the most desirable piece, but it does include Costner's speech to the audience before the screening, so it's not entirely uninteresting.  It's nice to get a little something more while we're double-dipping at least.  Oh, and this time they also have the Open Range trailer.  In fact, they have the original theatrical trailer, two German trailers & eight TV spots, a photo gallery, plus their own collection of bonus trailers.  Also their release comes in reversible artwork, so you can hide their giant green ratings logo.

So it's not a super impressive disc, but it's an easy recommendation for an underrated film that's at least some degree of an upgrade in every department: picture quality, audio and special features.  Universum's the one to get.  And that's almost it for Import Week 2025, but not quite.  I've got one more for ya, a Dutch blu of an even more under-appreciated film by an important British filmmaker.  See you then!