After reviving the movie western with the Oscar-laden epic Dances With Wolves, actor/director Kevin Costner lost the plot (quite literally) with Waterworld and The Postman. Open Range marked a return to familiar ground - an "unoriginal but entertaining" story of grizzled cowpokes battling to preserve their way of life. Although not destined for the glory of Wolves, it was a modest hit with audiences, and helped restore Costner's credibility as a filmmaker.

Cheer Up, Kevin!

Bluegrass banjo music and black-and-white photo montages of stiff-necked frontiersmen are patched together to tell inspiring stories of courage and the pursuit of happiness in a mini-documentary about westward migration called America's Open Range. In voiceover, Costner celebrates the lofty ideals of "manifest destiny", but his tone soon becomes mournful as he talks about the advent of modern technology and the borders of barbed wire "strangling the open range". It's the equivalent of Costner wiping away a tear as a tattered Star-Spangled Banner ripples behind him in the wind...

If there's anything more depressing for Costner than the idea of cows bumping into wire spokes, it's the thought of having to cut a scene. "They haunt me," he says, in one of his brief but eloquent introductions to nine of the 12 deleted scenes. He explains thoroughly why he made particular cuts; here having to omit an expletive to pacify the censors; there a miscalculation of gunshots in one of the key showdowns. These intros give an endearing insight into the torment of moviemaking, and the scenes themselves offer new dimensions to the film's major characters. The best examples are two extended conversations between Costner and Duvall - one behind a wagon, the other around a campfire (natch).

A Man's Gotta Do...

All of Costner's misty-eyed romanticism and ballsy bluster spills over into his director's audio commentary. To sum up the film: "It's about integrity," he says. And on the matter of bowing to studio pressure, he bluntly asserts: "I don't settle." You'll understand, though, why the studio had cause for concern when Costner confesses that he didn't really know where the plot was headed until very late in the day. But just as your eyes begin to roll back in your head, he redeems himself by going into deep explanation about what motivates the character of Tig the dog, before segueing into childhood memories of his pet pooch. Ah, bless...

A journal by the storyboard artist is also included here, although it feels a little incongruous in what is essentially The Kevin Costner Show. Indeed, how you feel about KC will greatly determine what you feel about this DVD, but if you like a man who shoots straight from the hip, you'll enjoy this leisurely ride through the making of Open Range.