Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 (2024)
Directed by: Kevin Costner
Premise: Set in the 1860s, various settlers make their way toward the frontier town of Horizon. A rogue group of Apache resist the encroachment of settlers on native land.
What Works: The technical aspects of Horizon are quite good. It’s well photographed by cinematographer J. Michael Muro and the production design by Derek R. Hill looks authentic and lived in. Horizon has a large cast and the actors are paired well with their roles. Kevin Costner has cast himself as a cowboy who unwittingly ends up escorting a prostitute (Abbey Lee) and a child across the frontier. It’s the kind of gruff but good-natured western character that Costner does well. Tom Payne and Ella Hunt play upper class travelers out of place on a wagon caravan and their characters feel fresh in a film that is otherwise familiar. The most interesting aspect of Horizon is the story of the Native American characters. A young Apache (Owen Crow Shoe) leads raids on the settlers which his elder (Gregory Cruz) fears will bring the wrath of the United States cavalry. The generational and philosophical conflict causes friction within the native community, eventually leading to fracture. This story would have been interesting on its own and it is the one place where Horizon approaches a satisfying dramatic shape.
What Doesn’t: Kevin Coster has worked in plenty of genres but he’s probably best known for his westerns, namely Dances With Wolves and Open Range. He returns to the genre with Horizon, the first film he’s directed in over twenty years. Costner seems overwhelmed by the scope and ambition of the project. This is the first chapter of an intended four film story. It has too many characters and storylines. The picture is too diverted between them to build drama and character and Horizon often feels generic, utilizing storytelling tropes and substituting stock types in place of plot and characterization. This isn’t a proper story. It’s just a bunch of scenes. The film doesn’t build toward anything; there is little conflict or crisis. Horizon plays as the equivalent of a television pilot, introducing characters and setting them on a path that will play out in future episodes. This doesn’t work for a feature film, even one intended to kick off a series. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope set up characters and subplots that paid off later but also brought their immediate stories to a conclusion. Nothing in Horizon sustains interest over the film’s running time and despite spanning three hours, the film feels like pieces of the story are missing, so much so that portions of Horizon are incoherent.
Bottom Line: Horizon has a few elements that are promising but many more that are uninteresting and generic. It is a bloated mess that is unlikely to make anyone interested in watching the subsequent chapters.
Episode: #1005 (July 21, 2024)