A recent “Retro hit” on streaming in Netflix is the 2014 court room drama “The Judge”, directed by David Dobkin and starring recent Academy Award Winner Robert Downey Jr. Although Downey is the protagonist of this film as a big city lawyer who returns to his hometown to represent his father (Duvall), a judge, suspected for commuting a murder, the heart of the story (since the title) is precisely Duvall, whose powerful gave him a well deserved Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor of 2014.
…quiet and masterful acting of Mr Duvall on scenes such as one when he tells his story to Annette’s character (the wife of the town’s doctor) and Charley (Costner), as he hasn’t at that point opened to his pal all those years they’ve been together, is worth a ride to the stream.
Now 93, and semi retired from acting, the streaming services are the best way to rescue some of the best work of actors such as Mr. Duvall who film lovers recognize from some of his best performances during the 20th century on Coppola’s classics such as “The Godfather” (1972) or “Apocalypse Now” (1979) or his Academy Award winning turn as a country singer in Bruce Beresford’s “Tender Mercies” (1983), among others, but also the window to look at some of his best underrated works as it happens at his best leading film of the 21st Century on a western starring and directed by another Academy Award Winner such as Kevin Costner in 2003; “Open Range”.
Open Range (2003) dir. Kevin Costner An underrated western from Costner, co-starring the mighty Robert Duvall, the awesome Annette Bening and a young, pre-Star Wars Diego Luna.
In “Open Range” Duvall is Bass Spearman, the patriarch of a wandering group of western settlers who pass through a town ruled by a corrupt sheriff (James Russo) and are forced to fight him to protect his men and the cattle they carry. Based on the novel of Lauren Paine with a screenplay of Craig Storper, “Open Range” gives precisely range to all of its actors (including Academy Award nominee Annette Bening; Diego Luna right after “Y tu mamá también” and late British actor Michael Gambon, among others) to shine bright, but the quiet and masterful acting of Mr Duvall on scenes such as one when he tells his story to Annette’s character (the wife of the town’s doctor) and Charley (Costner), as he hasn’t at that point opened to his pal all those years they’ve been together, is worth a ride to the stream.
Available for rent on Prime Video