The West gets just a little bit wilder when evil ranchers shoot dead Kevin Costner's pet dog Tig and plug one of his henchmen for good measure.
Costner is Charley Waite, a taciturn cowpoke drifter with a history of gunslinging after a broken childhood and a murderous spell in the army. Basically, he's got issues.
The only man who can understand him is his grizzled "free-grazing" partner of a decade Boss Spearman (Duvall), who fill's Charlie's silences with earthy humour.
Diamond rough and battle-weary they may be, but they still know how to treat a lady and brusquely deal with any muscle-bound bullies that cross their path.
They come across just such as pair in Harmonville, a frontier town so flimsy in looks like it might wash away¿and almost does (that's cowboy builders for you).
Devious rancher Denton Baxter (Gambon) controls the town through pliable corrupt Sheriff Poole (James Russo), whose boys make the mistake of roughing up one of Charlie's men.
Worse comes when the bad guys in the black stetsons return to finish off the injured man, shoot teenager Button (Diego Luna) and send Tig to the great lampost in the sky.
The whole narrative is geared up to the inevitable shoot-out between Gambon and Charlie, who, meanwhile, has fallen in love with doctor's sister Sue (Bening).
While obviously aspiring to the steely majesty of Unforgiven, this frequently lapses into the tear-duct flooding sentimentality of Little House on the Prairie.
However, Duvall and Costner display a winning chemistry, with the former revealing a nice comic touch and the latter doing his best Clint Eastwood impression.
The action is painfully authentic - when people get shot it looks like it hurts - while the playful dialogue ensures things never get too grim and gritty.
An old story, well told, this is not going to be another Dances With Wolves for Costner, but modest narrative rich in detail and characterisation is the ground he's firmest on.
Now Clint appears to have lost interest in the genre, it could be the right time to take a ride on the range.
Tim Evans
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