Kevin Costner, capitalizing on his Yellowstone acclaim, had a grand plan when it came to finally making his long-proposed Horizon: An American Saga films: four really long big-screen Westerns beginning just before the Civil War.
Two of the four were supposed to be released this summer, but Chapter 2 had the plug pulled on its August release after the first Horizon epically bombed at the box office. I would like to tell you that the public has made a mistake and shortchanged Costner’s would-be magnum opus—but the reality is that Chapter 1 is a total mess. It’s too long; it looks like a Western costume party; and the story is literally all over the place.
It begins just before the Civil War, with settlers trying to establish a little town in Native American territory. They wind up getting ambushed, and we see the aftermath of that with unmemorable characters played by Sienna Miller, Michael Rooker and Sam Worthington sporting a bizarre American accent that sounds like he was born in Brooklyn in the 1950s.
In another thread, a wagon train is going through a different Native American territory and facing their own version of peril. The wagon-train captain is played by Luke Wilson, and he is probably the best thing in the movie.
Finally, another thread involves a so-called “saddle tramp,” played by a gravelly voiced Costner, who stops in a small city and finds himself on the run with a local prostitute and a small child. Costner doesn’t show up until an hour into the film.
The big problem is that none of these threads come together at all in the first film. Perhaps they will find a way to unite in future installments, but over these three hours, it plays out as if each plot thread should’ve been its own standalone film. If I were to pick a favorite thread, it wouldn’t even be the one with Costner in it; that would go to the Wilson thread, because he’s the only one who seems to be truly inhabiting his part.
The movie is painfully melodramatic due to schmaltzy acting and its score, and it’s too clean-looking for a movie set nearly two centuries ago. Everybody is running around in pure white pants that look like they were made for a high school production of Oklahoma! There’s no dirt anywhere on the performers; these folks would’ve been buried under soot. You can’t make an authentic Western if everybody looks like they just picked up their wardrobe at Old Navy.
It’s too bad, because I love a good Western, and Costner is capable of making a good Western. (See Open Range.) If you made the decision to avoid this in theaters, you made a wise choice. I wouldn’t bother watching it at home, either, until future films are released (and there’s a big question mark on if and when that will happen) and perhaps prove the whole enterprise is worth watching.
Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1 is now in theaters and available via streaming services.
