40 Fun Facts About Open Range

Which actor, soon to be Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, plays cattle baron Denton Baxter in Open Range?

Michael Gambon took over as Hogwarts' headmaster in 2004, the year after his turn as the villain of Open Range. He inherited the wizard's robes after Richard Harris died in 2002.

Kevin Costner hand-picked the cinematographer of Open Range for his camera work on which Oscar-winning Western?

Dances with Wolves had J. Michael Muro as its Steadicam operator, and Costner promoted him to director of photography for Open Range.

Before Open Range, Robert Duvall played retired Texas Ranger Gus McCrae on a cattle drive in which 1989 miniseries?

Lonesome Dove won Duvall a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination, and he trained with a Texas marksman to handle Gus's Walker revolvers.

Robert Duvall suffered which injury when a horse bucked him off as he practiced riding for Open Range?

Broken ribs, six of them, were the price of Duvall's preparation to play Boss Spearman. He was 71 when the Western was filmed.

Although Open Range is set in the American West, Kevin Costner filmed the Western in which Canadian province?

Alberta's ranch country near Calgary stood in for the American frontier, and the town was built on Stoney Nakoda First Nation land.

Which American Beauty star plays Sue Barlow, the woman who falls for Charley Waite in Open Range?

Annette Bening followed Open Range with Being Julia, the 2004 comedy-drama that won her a first Golden Globe.

Years after Open Range, Kevin Costner played ranch patriarch John Dutton in which hit television drama?

Yellowstone made its debut in 2018 with Costner as John Dutton, and the role brought him a Golden Globe in 2023.

The open cattle country that gives Open Range its title faded after which 1870s invention spread across the West?

Barbed wire made fencing huge expanses cheaper than hiring cowboys to handle cattle, and by the 1890s it was standard on the northern plains.

Which real frontier lawman did Kevin Costner play in a 1994 Western, nine years before he directed Open Range?

Wyatt Earp was a Lawrence Kasdan biopic that Costner also produced, taking the title role himself.

Kevin Costner disliked every existing Western set for Open Range, so the production spent over $1 million on what?

Building a new town was Costner's answer, and the site was so remote that a $40,000 road had to be laid just to reach it.

Charley Waite assumes Sue Barlow is married to the town doctor in Open Range; what is she to him really?

His sister is the truth Charley learns only later, which frees him to declare his feelings for Sue before the gunfight.

Which burly member of Boss Spearman's crew is beaten and jailed after being sent into town for supplies in Open Range?

Mose is locked up by the corrupt marshal after defending himself in a fight with Baxter's men, the beating that sets the range war in motion.

Boss Spearman blasts the hinges off the jailhouse door with which weapon to reach the wounded Baxter in Open Range?

A shotgun gets Boss inside for a close-quarters gunfight that leaves Baxter dying, and Boss declines to finish him off.

Charley Waite is haunted in Open Range by the killings he carried out as a soldier in which conflict?

The Civil War left Charley, a former soldier, with guilt over killing civilians as well as enemy troops, and that past drives the story.

At the end of Open Range, Boss Spearman decides to quit the cattle trade and take over which town business?

The saloon had belonged to Baxter himself, and Boss asks Charley to come in with him as a partner.

Which keepsake does Sue Barlow give Charley Waite for luck before the final gunfight in Open Range?

A locket is Sue's reply when Charley finally declares his feelings for her, just before he faces Baxter and his men.

In Open Range, Charley Waite's farewell note asks that his saddle be sold to buy Sue Barlow which gift?

A tea set was owed to Sue because Charley had smashed hers during a flashback to his soldiering days.

Boss and Charley knock out the town's corrupt lawmen in Open Range using which drug taken from the doctor's house?

Chloroform lets them subdue the marshal and his deputies without a shot, then lock the lot of them in their own jail.

In Open Range, what is the name of Charley Waite's dog, shot dead when night riders raid the cattlemen's camp?

Tig shares his name with Tig Productions, the company Kevin Costner set up with producer Jim Wilson.

Which Mexican actor, later rebel spy Cassian Andor in Star Wars, plays the young cowhand Button in Open Range?

Diego Luna came to the Western fresh from his breakthrough in Y tu mamá también, the 2001 road movie that made him an international star.

Open Range is dedicated to which Emmy-winning actor, who played Percy and died before the Western reached cinemas?

Michael Jeter won his Emmy for the sitcom Evening Shade and played Mister Noodle on Sesame Street. Open Range was his final on-screen role.

In Open Range, rancher Denton Baxter hates roaming cattlemen like Boss Spearman, who are known by which name?

Free grazers fed their herds on whatever grass lay along the trail, and Baxter hates them for using land he calls his own.

Denton Baxter, the ruthless rancher who controls the town in Open Range, is an immigrant from which country?

Ireland is Baxter's homeland, and the actor who plays him was himself born in Dublin.

Percy is the one townsman who openly defies Denton Baxter in Open Range; which business does he run?

A livery stable is Percy's trade, and he ends up fighting beside Boss and Charley when Baxter's men ride in.

Before the showdown in Open Range, Boss Spearman treats himself and Charley Waite to cigars and which luxury sweet?

Chocolate and cigars are Boss's last indulgence before the gunfight, bought on the reasoning that the two men may not get another chance.

As the gunfight nears in Open Range, the frightened townspeople climb a hill to shelter in which building?

The church empties again once the shooting stops, when the townspeople come down to deal with the dead, a detail Kevin Costner took from old photographs.

What is the name of the frontier town in Open Range that Denton Baxter rules through a corrupt marshal?

Harmonville's marshal answers to Baxter, so the cattlemen get no protection from the law when his riders attack their camp.

Although Kevin Costner directed and co-starred in Open Range, which honor did he give to Robert Duvall instead?

Top billing went to Duvall, the only actor Costner had in mind for Boss Spearman. Costner said he might not have made the film without him.

Open Range is adapted from a 1990 novel by which astonishingly prolific writer of Westerns, a former rodeo cowboy?

Lauran Paine wrote more than 900 books under dozens of pen names, yet The Open Range Men was only the second to reach the screen.

Kevin Costner cast which ER actor in Open Range partly as an apology for cutting him from The Postman?

Abraham Benrubi, ER's Jerry Markovic, got a far bigger part this time as one of Boss Spearman's hired hands.

Which composer of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves scored Open Range and died only months after the Western's release?

Michael Kamen was a late replacement after Kevin Costner rejected the first score, and he died of a heart attack that November, aged 55.

Alongside a late cast member, Open Range carries a dedication to which relatives of director Kevin Costner?

His parents, Bill and Sharon Costner, are named in the film's dedication beside the actor who died before the Western's release.

Boss is only a nickname for Robert Duvall's trail boss in Open Range; which wildflower is his real first name?

Bluebonnet Spearman is the cattleman's full name, borrowed from the flower Texas chose as its official state flower in 1901.

Which future Sons of Anarchy star plays Butler, the hired gunman Charley Waite shoots first in Open Range?

Kim Coates plays the gunman as a braggart, and Butler's boast about the killing at the cattlemen's camp is what gets him shot.

Open Range opened third at the US box office behind the action film S.W.A.T. and which horror movie?

Freddy vs. Jason and S.W.A.T. outdrew it, but Open Range still took $14 million that weekend and finished with $68.3 million worldwide on a $22 million budget.

After Open Range, Kevin Costner waited two decades before directing again with which multi-part Western epic?

Horizon: An American Saga arrived in June 2024, with Costner again directing himself and reuniting with his Open Range cinematographer.

Open Range won a 2004 Western Heritage Award, a sculpture of a mounted cowboy known by which nickname?

The Bronze Wrangler has been handed out since 1961 by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum for films, music, television and books about the West.

The intense gunfight scenes in Open Range earned Kevin Costner's Western which American film rating?

Rated R was the price of the shootouts, which Kevin Costner deliberately filmed in giant wide shots.

Robert Duvall, Boss Spearman in Open Range, won his Best Actor Oscar as a faded country singer in which drama?

Tender Mercies had Duvall do his own singing as Mac Sledge, a condition he insisted on writing into his contract.

Long before Open Range, Robert Duvall faced John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn as outlaw Ned Pepper in which 1969 Western?

True Grit builds to Duvall's outlaw meeting Rooster Cogburn in a climactic shootout on horseback.