Once upon a time in the West, Kevin Costner had an idea for an epic story about manifest destiny lasting 12 hours, and the first part of that was Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 (now available on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video). Dear reader, it was a flop and left the next nine hours in limbo (Episode 2The release date of ‘s was postponed, Chapter 3 I started filming a few months ago and I don’t dare to bet if Chapter 4 None of this is particularly surprising when the state of theatrical movies is in such a state of flux, and when an old dog like Costner — who wrote, directed and starred in the long-in-the-making project, and ended up shelling out some of his own money to finance it — insists on cranking out an overstuffed cast of dozens of ultra-Western movies that mostly appeal to a small, aging audience. Then again, none of this says whether his efforts are creatively in vain; maybe when we sit down to watch it, it will actually be pretty good (said, to the deafening sound of crickets and possibly your snoring).
HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA – CHAPTER 1STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: I guess we’ll start with the first massacre. Yes, the first One. There are some in this movie. It gets pretty tough, but it could get tougher if we ever felt involved in it on a level beyond Hey, violence is bad! Anyway, the year is 1859 and white settlers have their eyes set on a piece of land by the river in the San Pedro Valley. There, they will build the town of Horizon. A surveyor drives some stakes into the ground and ties a rope between them and then he and his family are killed by the Apaches, who do not take kindly to such territorial encroachment. A holy man whose name I didn’t catch (and it doesn’t matter because he only appears in a couple of scenes before he is left in the dust of the narrative) comes upon the bodies and buries them and sets up camp and four years later, there is Horizon. It’s a bunch of tents and some houses and the Great Day Dance Hall and the white people find some happiness until what is at least technically the second massacre of the film occurs, which we get to see this time in all its horror, including a terrible scene where a cornered family lights a barrel of gunpowder and kills themselves along with a handful of attacking Apache warriors. Misery.
A boy named Russell (Etienne Kellici) escapes the carnage to seek help at a nearby military outpost. Lieutenant Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington) and Sergeant Riordan (Michael Rooker) arrive the next morning with some men to sort through the ashes. They find Frances (Sienna Miller) and her daughter Diamond (Isabelle Fuhrman), who hid in a basement while their house burned and family members died, only slightly worse for wear. They all return to the military camp and settle in, and before you can utter the last syllables of “grieving widow,” we get the feeling that manifest destiny may have plans for romance between Trent and Frances, as they are the most attractive people around these parts. Meanwhile, Russell falls in with some idiots who set out to collect Indian scalps to offer bounties on. We also get a glimpse or three of the Apache camp, where the elder Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) doesn’t think Taklishim’s (Tatanka Means) murderous raids on the white camps are particularly wise; “their sons will hunt you down,” Pionsenay says, meaning, of course, Violence breeds more violence.
We don’t see Costner’s face until an hour into the film, which is shocking, but at least we’re introduced to him via a heroic low-angle shot that idolizes him. He plays Hayes Ellison, a horse trader or something (we get the sense he’s more than just a horse trader, though we don’t really find out by the end of the film, as there are plenty more movies to come) who arrives in the Wyoming Territory and is instantly propositioned by the hottest young woman in town, Marigold (Abbey Lee). Yes, she’s a lady of the night, but still, when Costner directs himself, he’s going to be absolutely feremonalMarigold is friends with Ellen (Jena Malone), who we met in an earlier scene (yes, this movie has been butchered) while she was shooting a few buckshot at an old pervert, who somehow survived to send his kids on a revenge mission. Marigold babysits for Ellen, whose husband is a posh, book-learning guy who doesn’t seem particularly suited to surviving in the Wild West. And so that’s the thing?
Two hours into the film, we meet more new characters. A caravan of pioneers in covered wagons led by Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson) kicks up dust on the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas. Among them are a pair of posh Englishmen, Juliette (Ella Hunt) and Hugh (Tom Payne), who don’t like getting dirty or doing their share and treat others like servants. Matthew keeps an eye on a pair of louts leering at Juliette as she bathes and ponders what he and Owen (Will Patton) should do about the two Indians on the mountaintop spying on their group. Where this squad fits into the larger story remains to be revealed. Tired yet? I imagine some of these scattered subplots will converge into one big Secret Wars plot after a while, if you’re still willing to buckle down and stick it out for the next nine hours or so.
What movies will it remind you of? Horizon It’s essentially Costner. Once upon a time in the Westthough I’d wager that Leone’s classic has more to say about westward expansion in three hours than Costner did in 12. I’d also like to highlight Costner’s previous directorial work, Open rangewhich was essentially his own Unforgivenbut it’s so good that you’ll forgive any of its derivative thematic elements.
Performance worth watching: I’m going to pick Sienna Miller from this sprawling cast, as she cuts through this heavy, oppressive, businesslike material to show the occasional flash of charisma. You’ll believe her emotional performance before you believe she could keep her hair so neat and golden in a tent on the ground in the mid-19th century.
Memorable dialogue: “I will not sing of your victory today.” – Pionsenay’s response to Apache raids
Sex and skin: Brief topless female sex scene; a chilly sex scene with Costner.
Our opinion: The problem here is clearly evident: Horizon It feels like an episodic television series. There is no dramatic arc that… Chapter 1. He spends hours literally setting up the board to make important moves later. Nobody wants to watch this now and forget all about it before the second movie comes out, whenever that happens, and then rehash it two more times. The key word is “forget,” which, yes, is a criticism of the fragmented attention span that gets more media than it can handle, but it’s also a criticism of Costner and co-writer Jon Baird’s material, which struggles to emotionally engage these characters.
The only visible arc here belongs to young Russell, who finds himself in the eye of the storm of the climactic sequence — such as it is — which, yes, is another horrific massacre. It’s a Sherlock Holmes-style moral conundrum: The bounty hunters tell him it’s okay to kill Apache because they killed his parents. But he’s also learning that one person’s terrible ideology doesn’t represent a people. He’s too young to witness such brutality, but the final sequence loses some of its dramatic power because so much of what preceded it was a muddled nap that meaningfully introduced him in four or five scenes, and paid no attention to his character development. That’s a common problem throughout the film.
Thematically, Horizon It is shaping up to be Costner’s attempt to confront the nation’s sins. Thisthe film implies, This is what colonialism producedand Chapter 1 The possibility of the Civil War having repercussions in future films is hinted at. It’s not a terrible idea by any means and is the subtext of many classic Westerns. The director has a fantastic eye for John Ford’s beautiful vistas and loves horror films. loves The atmosphere of the firelit faces. Its action sequences are shot and edited with the necessary urgency. Visually, the film is considered and classically beautiful. And the soundtrack is so old-fashioned in its deployment of strings and energetic pianos that I’m not sure if it’s endearingly retro or just annoying.
The biggest hurdle is the writing and editing. Good moments are mixed in with terrible moments, but too many moments are boring, unmemorable filler. The film is haphazardly cut together, resulting in an odd pacing; characters disappear for what seems like hours at a time. Official diagnosis: too many characters. By the time Luke Wilson shows up in this film, all we can do is sigh, because our interest in Russell, Ellen, and Hayes must be put aside for another subplot doomed to be neglected until God knows when. It’s too easy to criticize Costner for his past ego epics, for example, Dancing with Wolves, Wyatt Earp, Aquatic world, The postman – Wow, there are a lot of them – and Horizon takes it a step further: an attempt to establish Kevin Costner’s Wild West Extended Universe. It’s a rocky road so far, and makes him seem less like the accomplished filmmaker we know and more like someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Our calling: As someone of a certain age and with an appreciation for classic westerns, I was willing to… Horizonand I am tempted to say Bear with me and see if it makes sense after Costner finishes telling the whole story.But, man, that’s asking too much of us. So skip it for now and let the experts determine if it’s worth watching all the magic in the future.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
