Having starred in and/or directed his share of Westerns, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Kevin Costner (Open Range, The Bodyguard, Zack Snyder’s Justice League) embarks upon his most ambitious project yet with Horizon: An American Saga. A 12-hour epic broken up into four full films, this could very well be Costner’s magnum opus, a passion project he’s worked on in various forms since 1988. 

With Chapter 1 now in cinemas, does it succeed? 

The road to Horizon

Where once they ruled the box office, big-screen Westerns have largely disappeared, save for the occasional spoof (Blazing Saddles, 1974), deconstruction (Unforgiven, 1992), prestige project (Dances with Wolves, 1990; Tombstone, 1993), or outright remake (3:10 to Yuma, 2007; True Grit, 2010; The Magnificent Seven, 2015). These days, while people might know what goes into a Western, changing tastes and sensibilities mean that most have likely never actually seen one. 

This is a situation that Yellowstone star and award-winning filmmaker Kevin Costner sought to address with Horizon: An American Saga. Sprawling in scope, and meticulously crafted, Horizon was conceived to honor both the Western genre and the frontier spirit that inspired it. The film tells the stories of multiple characters in Civil War-era America, each trying to survive in the so-called “Wild West” as the country undergoes hitherto unimaginable political and technological upheavals.

The Horizon experience

Part of the allure of classic Westerns was their ability to showcase the beauty of the untamed frontier, and on that front, Horizon doesn’t disappoint. Veteran cinematographer J. Michael Muro (whom Costner worked with previously on Dances with Wolves) does an exemplary job at capturing the natural beauty and lighting of the film’s Utah locations, maximizing the frame to create stunning portraits that evoke the old West. This is a movie that demands to be experienced on the big screen, and spends nearly its entire runtime justifying that decision – from end to end, Horizon is just a beautiful film to look at.

The film

The film features multiple characters in unconnected storylines that trailers suggest will intersect in Chapter 2 (set for release in August). The cast contains many familiar faces, including Sienna Miller (The Rise of Cobra), Luke Wilson (Idiocracy, Legally Blonde), Sam Worthington (Avatar), and Costner himself.

Unfortunately, the cross-cutting nature of the screenplay makes keeping track of their respective narratives somewhat of a challenge. A time jump in the third hour is particularly jarring, leading one to wonder if a dedicated episodic format would have been a better fit for the material. 

In no particular order, the main stories can be broken down as follows: 

The widow and the soldier

A brutal Native American attack on a frontier village leaves homemaker Frances (Miller,) and her daughter among the few to survive. For a film that purports to show both sides of the conflict between the white settlers and the Indigenous people whose land they stole, it’s certainly an interesting choice to open the film, and a later scene where the Indigenous elders condemn the attack feels like pandering.

Frances and her daughter take shelter with a military contingent led by Col. Houghton (Danny Huston, 30 Days of Night) and Lt. Trent Gephart (Worthington). Despite Gephart’s warnings, some of Frances’ fellow survivors head out with mercenaries to hunt down the “Indians” who attacked them.

The virtuous gunman

Hayes Ellison (Costner) is a drifter who gets involved in the troubles of prostitute Marigold (supermodel Abbey Lee, of TV’s Lovecraft Country), whose existence is shattered when outlaws come searching for the mother (Jena Malone, The Hunger Games) of the child she’s babysitting. Shown to have a code of honor, Hayes may be a man of few words, but he knows his way around a gun and reluctantly takes on the role of Marigold’s protector.

While it would have been easy to set himself up as the film’s hero, Costner. Doesn’t show up until over an hour in, and is so low-key and subdued that his presence actually hurts this storyline. In any case, the actors playing the pursuers (Jon Beavers and Jamie Campbell Bower) are clearly having a ball, playing up every villainous cliché under the sun.

The Wagon Train

Finally, we have Matthew Van Weyden (Wilson), who is leading a wagon train to the titular Horizon settlement, lured by the promise of fertile lands, fresh water, and — most importantly — safety from indigenous attack. Aside from some indecent exposure and a blissfully tone-deaf couple included in Matthew’s headcount, there’s really not much to be said about this storyline, other than it is included.

To be continued

Narrative quibbles aside, this is an altogether difficult film to assess, based on the mere fact that we know it’s only the first of four. While this isn’t the first title to feature an intentionally staggered release, it’s perplexing that none of Horizon’s storylines clear any definitive narrative goalposts before the film just…ends with a preview for the next installment. In short, everything up to that point was just place setting.

Thinking back on scenes like The Bride vanquishing O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill Part 1, the Fellowship vowing to save Merry and Pippin in Lord of the Rings, or even Voldemort acquiring the Elder Wand in The Deathly Hallows – those sequences helped close their respective films’ narrative arcs organically, while setting us up for what lay ahead. By comparison, Horizon’s Chapter 1’s idea of an organic end point is a literal trailer for Chapter 2.

The bottom line

Following decades of development, the passion that’s gone into Horizon: Chapter 1 is palpable in every sequence. Undoubtedly, the runtime may prove daunting to many a moviegoer, but it will be interesting to see how audiences ultimately react to Kevin Costner’s epic passion project. While the eye-watering beautiful vistas will certainly justify the trip to the cinema, one can’t shake the feeling that we probably would have been better off with a 12-part miniseries.

Your move, Yellowstone.

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