Craig Storper Movies
Kevin Costner stars in and directs the Western Open Range. Robert Duvall stars as Boss Spearman, a rugged old-timer who free-grazes cattle. He and Charley Waite (Costner) have been partners for ten years. As the film opens in the 1880s, the pair and their employees -- the beefy, rugged, likable Mose (Abraham Benrubi) and the impetuous Mexican teenager Buttons (Diego Luna) -- are driving cattle across the West. Mose is attacked and thrown in jail during a visit to a town. The local cattle rancher Baxter (Michael Gambon) wants the free grazers off his land and warns Charley and Boss when they retrieve Mose that they have until the next day to be out of the area. Boss decides to fight back, especially after Baxter's men do harm to the foursome. Charley confesses his past as a killer during the Civil War and strikes up a tentative romance with Sue Barlow -- the sister of the town doctor. The film's centerpiece is an extended gunfight between the duo (with some assistance from sympathetic townsfolk) and Baxter's hired gunmen. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, (more)
- 1986
This 1986 HBO movie tackles the subject of homosexuality in a high-school setting. Brad Stevens (Scott Baio), the West Point-bound son of an Army major (Michael J. Reynolds), spends his time at football practice and hanging out with his best friend, Alex Prager (Peter Spence), who's an accomplished pianist as well as an athlete. When Alex spurns a truck driver (Barry Greene) who comes onto him in a service-station rest room, a scuffle ensues, and the guy claims that it was Alex who hit on him. The story gets out around school, but Alex doesn't deny it; he confesses to Brad that he actually is gay. Although Brad's initial reaction is shock and outrage, he slowly realizes that Brad is the same wonderful friend he's always been. Such loyalty doesn't sit well with Kay (Jessica Steen), Brad's status-conscious girlfriend, or with his stern father. Things come to a head the night of the football team's championship game, when the rift between Brad and the rest of the student body threatens the school's chance at going undefeated for the third year running. Adapted from Anne Snyder and Louis Pelletier's 1981 novel Counter Play, The Truth About Alex won a cable-TV Ace Award. In addition to Baio, who was a teen heartthrob at the time of its release, The Truth About Alex starred future sci-fi and TV fixture Steen. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
