19 Ultimate Final Shoot-Outs Of Cinema History
10. Open Range (2003)
Kevin Costner sure had a rollercoaster run-of-it in the 90s; he started the decade as a champion leading man as well as an Oscar-winning director. By the period's end though he was considered box-office poison and difficult to work with.
Throughout the noughts, he slowly rebuilt his reputation and attempted a directorial comeback with this fantastic Western with an incredible third reel showdown.
Costner and Robert Duvall are two cowboys that end up in a deadly war with cattle-baron Michael Gambon; after the villain takes out their friend they soon have a classic meet-up with their adversary and his gang of henchmen.
Certainly, it sounds pretty typical - all the set-up is missing is a tumbleweed or two - but what impresses is the prolonged layers the combat takes on. First as a fierce and swift exchange of gunplay, then turning into a tense game of cat-and-mouse throughout the town’s location. Then it all culminates in a third stage as Duvall takes Gambon head-on by himself.
Costner directed the entire enterprise with such skill and nuance that there is little doubt that he is one of the masters of the modern Western. It's a shame then that not enough people recognised it at time of release.