Best Kevin Costner Movies, Ranked

The Best Kevin Costner Movies

You may not be aware of this (if living under a rock) but before Kevin Costner turned everyone on to his hit TV series Yellowstone, he had already won two Oscar Awards. Costner has been involved in film and television for over four decades and has a number of films that are highly rated. So, here is a look at the best of Kevin Costner when it comes to feature films.

10. Silverado (1985)

Kevin Costner owes this high-ranking of the 1985 hit Western Silverado to his ensemble cast. Costner stars as Jake, brother to Scott Glenn’s Emmett, a role that doesn’t give Costner as much screen time as he may have wanted. But he made the most of what he got.

Along with Glenn, Costner works well with Kevin Kline, Rosanna Arquette, Brian Dennehy, and Danny Glover in a story that finds a group of misfit friends who are hell-bent on dealing with a criminal sheriff and powerful, cowardly businessman.

9. Open Range (2003)

One thing we know for sure about Kevin Costner is that he does Western films really well. This is evidenced by Open Range, a movie in the genre that has him playing Charley Waite, a cattleman with a dubious past as a Union soldier and gunslinger. Charley is forced to once again take up arms when he and his crew fall on the wrong side of a corrupt lawman. Annette Benning, Robert Duvall, Diego Luna, and Michael Gambon co-star.

8. Thirteen Days (2000)

Thirteen Days was not a box office success, but it sure won over the critics. The film had Kevin Costner playing political consultant Kenneth P. O’Donnell, a key figure in The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. This film shows what happened in those 13 days when the United States was on the brink of nuclear war with Cuba. The film also stars Bruce Greenwood as President John F. Kennedy.

7. A Perfect World (1993)

When you add screen-legend-to-be, Kevin Costner, with screen legend, Clint Eastwood, you get A Perfect World. Eastwood directs and co-stars with Costner in a film set in 1963 Texas. Costner is Butch Haynes, an escaped convict who takes a young boy as his hostage. Eastwood plays Texas Ranger Red Garnett, who is hot on Haynes’ trail.

6. Field of Dreams (1989)

“If you build it, he will come.” That is pretty much the gist of Kevin Costner’s hit 1989 film, Field of Dreams. Here Costner plays everyman Ray Kinsella, an Iowa farmer and devoted baseball fan who, troubled by the sadly broken relationship with his late father, hears voices and sees visions while walking through his cornfield. Spurred on by these, he builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield. Yes, “he” does show up.

5. JFK (1991)

Filmmaker Oliver Stone has never shied away from controversy and boy did he stir it up with JFK. In this one, he takes care in breaking down every detail of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Kevin Costner play real-life district attorney Jim Garrison, who led the investigation into the murder and who was involved. Stone, through Costner, presents a compelling case.

4. Dances with Wolves (1990)

As far as Kevin Costner’s Westerns go, you can count Dances with Wolves as his best. Here he plays a Union Army soldier who, after almost getting his foot amputated because of a battlefield wound, turns into a battlefield hero. It allows him the award of a transfer to the western frontier. The story then takes on a different vibe as Costner’s John Dunbar meets his “neighbors,” Sioux Indians who first try to scare him off, then become true friends.

3. No Way Out (1987)

No Way Out is a political thriller that resembles a Hitchcock film and has Kevin Costner starring as Navy Lieutenant Tom Farrell. He’s a man who gets caught up in a coverup and eventual witch hunt when a politician accidentally kills his mistress. The problem for Farrell is that he also was having a relationship with the dead woman. Gene Hackman, Sean Young, and Will Paton also star.

2. The Untouchables (1987)

Brian De Palma puts his crafty spin on the real-life events that transpired when Elliot Ness took his group of cops and went after mob kingpin Al Capone. Kevin Costner stars as Ness and is supported wonderfully by Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, and Robert De Niro as the overly violent Al Capone.

1. Bull Durham (1988)

Baseball and Westerns, two things that Kevin Costner does best. With Bull Durham, Costner mixes in an ample amount of humor in this Ron Shelton film that is based on Shelton’s experiences in minor-league baseball. Costner stars alongside Tim Robbins as two minor leaguers who are both trying to gain the attention of Susan Sarandon, a baseball groupie. Baseball and sex, who knew the combination would be so much fun?