You’ll leave the theater immediately excited about Chapter 2.
If you are unlucky enough (like me) to call Twitter your daily hangout, then the comments you’ve seen there may have convinced you that the first part of Kevin CostnerThe multi-film western epic is a deserved box office flop on its opening weekend. While it is true that Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 It’s not exactly a movie that fills seats – that has nothing to do with the quality of the film, but rather with the viewer’s expectations. The film is a three-hour Western drama, just the first part of something bigger by design (it’s right there in the title, folks) meant to leave some with a slight feeling of incompleteness – but it’s also a totally absorbing experience that’s by turns thrilling, tragic, campy, messy and beautiful. Horizon It’s not just the start of an epic, it’s a great ensemble western the likes of which we don’t see anymore, and it’s a film you’ll probably regret not seeing on the biggest screen possible if you just sit back and wait to watch it at home.
As the American Civil War rages on in the East, a small group of settlers arrive at a remote riverbed in New Mexico to stake a claim to a place to call home. The invaders are summarily massacred by the Apaches, but it isn’t long before more white settlers arrive nearby and put shovel to ground on the beginnings of a town. They too are attacked by the Indian tribe disheartened by the newcomers’ (poor) treatment of the land and its natural bounties, but this time a few survivors stick around to see the next morning. Some decide to hold their ground and rebuild, others head out for revenge, and a small group, including recently widowed Frances (Sienna Miller) and his daughter take refuge with a Union Army battalion led by Lieutenant Gephart (Sam Worthington).
Elsewhere in Wyoming, a small group of horse traders arrive in a small “town” looking for rest and relaxation, but Hayes Ellison (Costner) finds trouble instead. A woman (Jena Malone) is on the run after leaving her child’s father for dead, and Hayes’ sense of honor and distaste for abusers puts him in the middle of it all. Meanwhile, a caravan led by a man named Van Weyden (Lucas Wilson) makes its way through Montana, and while the native tribes pose a potential threat, there are rumors from within that they could be just as dangerous.
These are the three main threads. Horizon: Chapter 1But they are not the only stories and characters to be found here. Numerous other characters appear onscreen with their own wants and needs, their own morals and determinations, but each of them, down to the last, is a cog in a giant wheel, just trying to survive one more day. Some choose violence while others value compassion, some act out of greed while others take a more charitable path, and all of them understand the inevitability of manifest destiny. For many 19th-century American settlers, moving west is the mountain they have to climb simply because it is there, and that drive remains even when the truth sets in that this particular “mountain” promises suffering, hardship, and death above all else.
The script, co-written by Costner and Jon Bairddevotes part of its three-hour running time to indigenous peoples, where we see how their reaction to this westward expansion tears a tribe apart. Just as the settlers are divided on how to proceed, the indigenous people are forced to decide how to welcome them back: with peace or with moonlight raids. While Costner’s Oscar-winning film Dancing with Wolves (1990) explores the idea in much more detail, screen time, and nuance; its inclusion here acknowledges the Native experience as part of the whole, though it focuses more specifically on that journey west and the various personalities who made it possible.
To be clear, this is an epic cast, and that means there really isn’t a main character or central story. Costner himself doesn’t even appear until an hour in, and while he can’t help but project the weight of a Gary Cooper-style star, he never feels like he’s rising above the fray. We may not get as much time with certain characters as you’d expect, but Horizon: Chapter 1 It’s less a story about individuals and more a tale of people and places in an inevitable collision with each other and with history itself. Some recognizable faces die within minutes or simply walk off the stage, while others see their story continue, but big or small, known or unknown, the cast does a solid job across the board. Hunt for Ella, Danny Houston, Michael Rooker, It will be Patton, Tatanka means, Isabelle Fuhrman, Miguel Angarano, James Russo, Jeff Fahey, Dale Dickey, Jamie Campbell Bower, Giovanni Ribisi — Every few minutes a new face appears, giving life to a new character, a new dilemma, a new corner of this great story.
Costner is no stranger to the western genre, having starred in major films such as Silverado (1985) and Wyatt Earp (1994), and directed two modern classics in Dancing with Wolves and Open range (2003) His vision of Horizon It covers four films: Episode 2 hits theaters in August while Chapter 3 is currently filming, and that inevitable lack of closure expected with each installment is something viewers will have to do without. It’s already been argued that the project belongs on television, but while it could easily exist as a twelve-episode limited series in the vein of Taylor Sheridan’s 1883 (2021-2022), Costner knows there’s something magical about a western on the big screen.
Director of photography J. Michael Murowho also photographed Open rangeHe knows this too. He is also aware of what both Costner and the Western itself demand, and he delivers it in an elegant and restrained way. From a striking profile shot of a boy running for his life on horseback and a shootout that ends in atypical framing and reflection, to wide vistas, mountains and plains full of color and warmth, Horizon: Chapter 1 The film finds its fair share of beauty. It contrasts sharply with the ugliness of man, something Costner and Muro capture with brief but powerful scenes of violence. There is brutality here, and the camera doesn’t flinch even when women and children fall victim to the carnage.
The specificity of the camera gaze goes beyond beauty and action in much more subtle ways, displaying an appreciation for both the Western “genre” and cinema in general. One sequence follows Hayes and Bower’s whiny but cruel bully as he slowly walks up a hill, and it’s one of the most suspenseful sequences you’re likely to see in theaters this year. Other villains manufacture an armed standoff between children in an attempt to teach the white boy his supposed “rights” when it comes to Native peoples, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking to watch knowing that it’s not too far removed from how hatred and violence are passed down from generation to generation even today.
The characters’ introductions serve double duty with the film’s themes, as they stand out against open skies and vast landscapes. They believe the land is theirs and that reaching Horizon (a newly founded city, an open space that offers freedom and a home to anyone who sees the planes) is their destiny, but Costner and Horizon: Chapter 1 I know that’s as far from the truth as the open countryside of the East Coast was. There are plenty of evil characters here, but the film’s truth about westward expansion doesn’t suggest that ordinary people are among them. They’re people caught up in something much bigger than they know, and the film does a beautiful job of telling their story.
Passion is somewhat underrated when it comes to our subjective appreciation of art. Each of us has our own standards as to what makes a movie good or bad, but very few of us recognize and praise the role that a filmmaker’s passion and enthusiasm play in the “success” of a film. We don’t watch Ed Wood’s movie Plan 9 from outer space (1959) because it’s good (it’s not) or because it’s “so bad it’s good”—that concept is nonsense—we watch it because Wood’s passion for cinema was undeniable despite his severe lack of talent. Costner is just as passionate about film and Westerns, but the difference here is that he’s also an incredibly skilled director. He’s not flashy—maybe that’s too earnest for some of you—but he’s a strong filmmaker who lives and breathes cinema, a director who cares about the art form and respects it as entertainment and as a document of our interests, interactions, and stories. Dancing with Wolves, Open rangeand now Horizon: Chapter 1 They all serve as proof of this.
Related topics: Kevin Costner, Western films
