Director: Kevin Costner
Writers: Jon Baird, Kevin Costner
Stars: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Jena Malone
Synopsis: Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.
Has Kevin Costner lost his mind? The Academy Award-winning actor/filmmaker is embarking on a journey that has cost him a lot, personally and professionally, spending over $38 million (maybe more) out of his own pocket to partly finance his four-part Western epic Horizon: An American Saga. Moreover, Costner also left one of his most acclaimed roles as John Dutton in the Paramount+ series Yellowstone to focus on completing his saga and has recently confirmed that he will not be returning for Season 5B, telling audiences in a heartfelt video, “I’ll see you at the movies.”
Such a vanity project never gets made in the theatrical landscape we live in today. If Costner didn’t pay some of the budget from his own money, there’s no chance a Hollywood studio would say yes to a four-part original Western, with each installment lasting over three hours. We now require filmmakers passionate enough to cook to spend their personal finances so they can make what they want with little to no interference, exactly how Francis Ford Coppola sold his winery to finance his Megalopolis, which will be released later this year. This type of big swing needs to be celebrated and seen by the masses, but in this economy, Horizon is poised to flop and arrive with little to no fanfare, even if it would’ve received glowing reviews at Cannes.
With the 181-minute-long Chapter 1, Costner sets out to showcase his unadulterated vision of the American West by crafting a sprawling epic that will span decades and alternate between different characters who will (likely) eventually intersect. Stuff like this is what the big screen craves, especially when Hollywood has completely forgotten the majestic art of the Western, producing very few of them in any given year (which are usually released directly on VOD, such as Paul G. Volk’s unwatchable The Night They Came Home). Many have been unfairly stating that such a project feels like episodic television, but it’s way more in line with Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall’s decades-spanning, five-chapter How the West Was Won than any televisual approach to Western storytelling popularized by Taylor Sheridan with Yellowstone and its endless spinoffs.
Because of this, I can’t be mad at Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, even if Costner’s saga is off to a pretty dismal start, only because of its crazy ambitions. A saga like this has never been attempted in the history of movies, and Costner seems to want to go down in the history books with this. And, as he said, “You can’t make your film for the opening weekend. You have to make it for its life.”
It’s unfortunate that Chapter 1 isn’t at all fulfilling as an introductory part to a planned franchise and a self-contained movie. It forgets essential storytelling elements that all “Parts One” must aspire to, especially if it’ll be over three hours long. For instance, who are the characters Costner wants us to spend time with? Hey, with a three-hour runtime, there’s more than enough time to draw (and introduce) compelling arcs that will ultimately develop as the films continue. From my understanding, there will be three stories Costner and editor Miklos Wright alternate between. One is focused on Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) joining an Army General’s (Sam Worthington) group after being rescued by his men following an Apache raid, while young boy Russell (Etienne Kalicki) flees the village after the attack and joins a group of bounty hunters who are going after the Apache.
The second story involves Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner), a rustler who is visiting a nearby town and gets embroiled in a conflict involving prostitute Marigold (Abbey Lee) and a child, Sam after it was taken by Lucy (Jena Malone) many years ago. Years later, Sam’s grandmother (Dale Dickey) sends her children, Caleb (Jamie Campbell Bower), and Junior (Jon Beavers), to retrieve Sam and kill Lucy, who adopted the name Ellen after marrying Walter Childs (Michael Angarano). However, Hayes inadvertently gets caught in the situation after talking to Jamie and finding out his plans, causing him to flee with Marigold and Sam, so they can have a fresh start.
The third – and final – story involves a group of travelers on the Santa Fe Trail led by Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson), who is nearing Horizon, a land discovered and developed by a group of settlers. So far, this is the least fleshed-out part of the bunch, only serving as an introduction to Wilson’s character, alongside Will Patton and Isabelle Fuhrman as Owen and Diamond Kittredge, respectively. A rivalry is also established between British couple Juliette Chesney (Ella Hunt) and Hugh Proctor (Tom Payne) and two of Matthew’s men, who are peeping on them, particularly Juliette while she is bathing.
All of these stories show some form of promise, but none of them actively take the time to sit with the characters. Instead, Costner jarringly cuts away from a specific story just as it’s about to get interesting and returns to another one without much narrative flow, which always hampers the development of protagonists, which should be primary in part ones. Any first chapter always needs to clearly state what (or who) the main threat(s) are, while also giving us enough to attach ourselves to the people treated on screen, whether they are good or bad.
Many protagonists in Horizon seem to live in a morally grey area, but we never get to explore this aspect of Hayes, Frances, or even Marigold. Most of the “big names” appear for a brief scene and are never seen again, coming and going like a revolving door of stars who want to appear in such an extensive project but have nothing to do in the first chapter and add little value to what’s on screen. Of course, this is the first part of four, so audiences should expect lots of exposition and worldbuilding, with many unresolved plot threads to boot (such as in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, as a recent example). However, how Costner structures his initial chapter makes very little sense. By alternating randomly with the three stories, the pace is lethargic and bloated, the exposition delivered by the characters feels unimportant, and the world Costner tries to build feels weightless because none of the characters have any compelling attributes or a reason to be on screen. Things happen, but we’re never invested in what’s happening.
While I wasn’t crazy on the first Dune, it at least understood the basis of a “Part One,” spending time sitting with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and exploring Arrakis before Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) executed his plan. It also gave a few clues to where the sequel would go, ultimately paying off in more ways than one with Part Two. But Costner never allows us to either explore the world he’s constructing or spend meaningful time with his protagonists, despite the three-hour runtime! With such a massive length, he has the time to do it all, and save the “good stuff” for subsequent installments, which looks to be the case after viewing an ending montage acting as the trailer for Chapter 2.
Unfortunately, it feels as if we’re watching one long trailer instead of a movie that sets the table effectively and asks us to come back to more, not by teasing what’s to come but by giving us enough leverage through the character arcs and worldbuilding naturally. Hell, there’s another 181-minute-long ‘Part One’ in theaters right now with Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD that does exactly what I’m talking about. The first hour-and-a-half is dedicated solely to worldbuilding and character development, along with introducing the audiences to its primary antagonist, while the last hour-and-a-half goes all out on the action and further develops the protagonists within those massive set pieces. The exposition never feels like exposition, and the characters have a fully-fledged arc that will be further fleshed out in subsequent films, ending on a cliffhanger with the villain acquiring new powers. Perfect.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 could’ve followed that same template and been a far more satisfying picture, solidifying the foundation of Costner’s grand vision for the audience to want more as the credits rolled. But I desperately wanted to leave the cinema not even thirty minutes after it began, with action scenes captured like a single-camera television series, with no sense of grandeur and scope, alongside a bludgeoning score from John Debney that makes its more dramatic moments feel more caricatured instead of raw, human, and steeped in the tradition of the classic American Western popularized by John Ford.
It also doesn’t help that we barely know who any of these people Costner showcases on screen are. What are their names and their relation to the main conflict at hand? Why should we care about each of their individual stories? Costner doesn’t seem to care, with the only interesting character moment being when Giovanni Ribisi’s Pickering Bailey gets teased as the main antagonist of the second installment, looking at the pamphlet his company is printing for Horizon in contemplation for the land that is to be the main attraction of the White settlers who will eventually intersect in future films. This is the only time I felt my time wasn’t wasted, and it genuinely made me excited to see what Costner has in store for us in August. However, he’ll have lots of screenwriting and character ineptitudes to overcome if he is to go down in the history books as the auteur who risked it all to give us the Western saga of a generation. It doesn’t look like it’ll be the case (for now), but it also doesn’t matter. I’ll be there for parts two and four, no matter what. It’s the least I can do for the man after doing everything he possibly can to get these films made and released.
I’ll see you at the movies, Kevin.
