Kevin Costner is a curious figure in American cinema. He’s directed Best Picture winners, dragged flops kicking and screaming to theatres, and delivered a eulogy at Whitney Houston’s funeral that will absolutely destroy you emotionally. He’s an interesting figure but as a director his sensibilities behind the camera are always interesting. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is a bold, three-hour swing that has its ups and downs but the man can shoot the hell out of the American West.
America’s stern dad made you something and none of you went to see it in theatres.
It’s a hard ask, to be fair. This massive, sprawling epic is going to span four films in total and I hear a lot of rumbling about how this should have been a television series. I say no. I say we let something like this exist in theatres and I do agree with Costner, who hoped that families would go see it, enjoy, and go together to see the future installments. They’d have to, since this thing has no real ending or resolution and is currently up in the air. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 was pulled from release and will premier at the Venice Film Festival but I have no idea when I’m going to see this thing.
So many people in my life will binge twelve hours of television for a story that ends on a cliffhanger that they have to wait several years to see resolved. That’s fine for them, but the same thing in a few theatrical installments? For some reason that’s a hard no. Their loss, because The big Cos has filmed a gorgeous, if uneven, story involving several characters and plotlines that are all set to converge in the fictional town of Horizon.
You’ve got Luke Wilson as Matthew Van Weydan, leading a wagon train west. You’ve got Costner as Hayes Ellison, partnering up with a young prostitute named Marigold (Abby Lee) to save an orphaned child from murder. That orphaned child? The spawn of Ellen Harvey (Jenna Malone), who begins her story by shooting her abusive partner (owner?), James Sykes (Charles Halford). Sykes sends his sons Junior (Jon Beavers) and Caleb (Jamie Campbell Bower) to retrieve her. The initial attempt to found the town of Horizon is foiled by a midnight raid, a group of Apache warriors attempting to reclaim their land. It is horrifying, violent, and yet listening to the warriors speak together you understand that they are in a trepidatious situation since these settlers have just moved in where they don’t belong. Sam Worthington is a Union First Lt. He flirts with Sienna Miller. It’s quite cute.
Confused yet? You will be, as these multiple storylines are told over the course of several years and we’ve still got a long way to go. Kevin Costner has been trying to get this made for years and, in a seeming attempt to reduce his assets before a costly divorce, has ponied up quite a bit of money to get the first two finished. The money is on the screen, with multiple great performers against gorgeous landscapes. It’s beautiful to look at, even if the film itself tends to drag in places.
The opening raid is truly terrifying, something akin to a war film mixed with a home invasion horror flick. The tension lasts for a LONG time as the sequence runs nearly half an hour. Serving as an inciting incident and the most engaging sequence in the film, it’s hard to follow it up as we get a bit of a dip in the action for a lot of moving around and discussions in a pre-Civil War environment. Heck, the big Cos and his big ‘stache don’t even show up for over an hour and not too much happens in that storyline in the first installment.
Luckily this thing ends with a rip-roaring, adventurous trailer for the next movie. I have to admit it looks great and just when I thought I might be out he drew me back in. Costner knows his audience (and also knows a lot of them are going to be buying DVDs to watch this thing at home) and knows how to keep them engaged. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is a weird object but one that I think I have to continue with. That alone is enough for me to recommend it and request that you all watch it. I genuinely want all four of these movies. What an odd experiment and a weird hill to die on for Costner but damn, this thing looks beautiful. Your dad, uncles, and grandparents will love it. You just need to direct them to the right streaming service. Watch along because you, too, may come to love Costner’s sprawling vanity project.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 will stream on HBO Max this Friday.
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