Kevin Costner returns to the frontiers of the Old West for his passion project, Horizon: An American Saga-Chapter 1, a personal epic he’s been building towards for forty years. There is perhaps no modern actor more closely associated with the Western than Kevin Costner. The Yellowstone star who has led several films set in the lawless frontier and has also directed a pair of them, Dances with Wolves and Open Range. But Horizon is a different animal altogether. At the risk of a considerable amount of his personal fortune, Costner has crafted a sprawling, handsomely-shot old-fashioned, and occasionally meandering epic. The first chapter arriving in June with part two in August, and chapters 3 and 4 in the works, while Costner told me personally that he has his sights set on a fifth movie.
In short, Horizon is only a small piece of a much larger whole, and it plays that way. Set in the 1860s as the Civil War rages in the east, an assortment of familiar Western archetypes journey to the West to build a new life for themselves and find their fortune. However, the Apache already there are none too happy about it, leading to frequent raiding parties, murder, and the kidnapping of settlers never to be seen again.
It’s a familiar premise, and Costner is passionate about capturing the conflict from every perspective. As with Dances with Wolves, a considerable amount of time is given to empathize with the Indigenous tribes, but Costner also doesn’t flinch from capturing their savagery. But there’s no doubt the driver of the narrative are the settlers, a good many of them women, such as Sienna Miller’s widow Frances Kittredge and Jena Malone’s elusive fugitive Ellen. Costner’s stoic gunslinger doesn’t actually show up until later in the film, instantly becoming one of the most distinctive characters in a massive ensemble comprising more than two dozen actors.
A problem is that our perspective of the Western expansion has shifted. It’s tough to look at these explorers as purely good, as they were depicted in film and television for decades. Costner is still holding on to that feeling, though, gripping it tight like a cowboy holds his bullrope. Horizon feels like an artifact from another time, which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s tough to imagine that younger audiences will want to sit for an old-style 3-hour Western with no clear hook other than Costner. But then, those same audiences have loved everything about Costner in Yellowstone, and Horizon is very similar in style, tone, and substance.
The breathtaking landscapes and Old West symbolism are as powerful as ever, with Costner building a mythology infused with the American spirit of independence and adventure. It’s clear that Costner has put everything into Horizon, and that is also part of the problem. He has too much to say, too many characters with similar motivations, agendas, and backgrounds to keep track of. And at this stage there’s no clear story being told. Horizon might’ve played better as a long-form series than as a franchise of movies where each is expected to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. A sizzle reel closes out the film and serves as a teaser for the sequel, introducing a wagon train’s worth of new characters and honestly, it’s exhausting the thought of more people to remember. Still, it’s undeniable the cinematic heft of Costner’s ambitious effort. Whereas contemporary Westerns have endeavored to take the genre in many different directions, Costner has found that in the case of Horizon, the old ways are still best.
Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 opens in theaters on June 28th.
