I'm gonna rattle a few cages; but, screw it... I'm going to make the argument that Open Range is a better movie than Tombstone.
I regard Val Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday as one of the greatest ever. Kurt Russell was stellar. Micheal Biehn was brilliant. I can't talk the cast up enough.
That said, Open Range had a moral core which Tombstone lacks.
Tombstone's protagonists decided to illegalize guns for the whole town. It was a law badly written and randomly enforced. One can make an argument that it was pragmatic and necessary; but, Doc Holliday wasn't ever deputized and was still allowed to carry a gun side by side with law enforcement because...well...he was friends with law enforcement.
The protagonists in Open Range were the antithesis of tyrants. Boss gave a compendious speech about not letting lawmen dictate where a man can go and that a man has a right to defend his life and property. Boss and Charlie only used their guns to that effect -- to protect their lives, the lives of their friends, and their way of life from a corrupt government.
I strain to think of a better Western than Open Range that was made in the last twenty-two years. It's actually hard for me to think of a better Western in the last thirty to forty years. Unforgiven is definitely up there; but, Open Range separated itself to me by it's clear and unwaivering moral stance.
