The real rating is Incomplete. After years on Yellowstone the TV show and decades away from his movie heights, Kevin Costner decided now was the time for his next big project. Horizon is going to be an epic of all epics on the American West: a tale about all the various people involved in the pioneering of the last great unknown territory in the United States. Yes Chapter 1 is a 3 hour preview of what’s to come, but the groundwork is compelling enough to at least make me interested if Chapter 2 can deliver in Chapter 1’s exciting story promises.
Let’s see if I can set this up quickly: Horizon is the name of a fictional town in the West in Arizona that gives hope for pioneers to settle in and build lives for themselves. There are a few attempts to start the settlement from people like Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and her family, but Apache warriors led by the young Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) burn the town down and drive the survivors into the arms of First Lt. Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington) and the Union Army in 1859. Also on the way there from Wyoming is the mysterious Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner), caught up in a dispute between Ellen (Jena Malone), Marigold (Abby Lee) and the Sykes Family. The third descendants on Horizon are a wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail led by Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson), leading a host of random people including a naive British couple (Ella Hunt and Tom Payne) through the various traps and treacheries on the way to Arizona.
Whew! For each hour of the movie, we get introduced to one of the new plotlines to follow along, and each one spins off into various other lines. So by the end of Chapter 1, we’re into like 5-7 plotlines across various characters as we approach the new settlement. The ambitious Costner put over $30 million of his own money to tell as comprehensive of a story as he could. With 30+ characters demanding time, we don’t get much more than intros into most of the cast, but most of the foundation is exciting. There’s the stuff we know: bounty hunters going after Indians, small rural towns trying to survive against all odds, familial scores to settle. Then there’s the rarer pieces: other than Meek’s Cutoff, there’s not a lot of films about wagon trains, which will be a big part of Horizon’s story. But especially noteworthy in Costner’s opus are the woefully neglected parts of history: we actually get real scenes setting up Apache society, plus I think this is the first time I’ve seen Chinese immigrants as part of the tale of the West (they did help build all the railroads). Yes our American Saga in Chapter 1 ends where it basically begins, but each new strand Costner introduces to us comes with many interesting questions, and a growing promise that we could have something special brewing in later chapters.
And a lot of that promise are in a series of small set pieces/sequences that shows Costner still has decent directing chops. What do we want to see in a Western? A shootout standoff. A scene in a bar. Epic nature shots, preferably on horseback. Native American/Pioneer fights. Campfire showdowns. Costner’s years on Yellowstone and making Westerns makes him the sturdiest set of hands to give Horizon real life. The opening raid on the first Horizon settlement is horrifying and beautiful in equal measure: a slice of Americana we read about in books, but comes wildly to life here through nighttime flames, and claustrophobia. It feels like it lasts forever, as various families, including young kids, end up in harms way hoping for a miracle that never comes; this sequence is juxtaposed with the end of the movie, framing that raid in an entirely equal and opposite light, no less horrible and beautiful than the first. The bar sequence is wonderfully staged, but Costner’s best piece is his big standoff. He replaces the stillness of a Mexican standoff and has him and his combatant circle around each other as they walk in the same direction, realizing what’s about to happen: a new wrinkle on an old playbook. And when there’s not something kinetic happening? We’re staring at the beautiful Utah landscapes, taking in the wonder of the setting Costner chose for Horizon, in awe of the majesty and audacity of the filmmaker, and every pioneer who bravely traversed into the unknown in hopes for that better future: that American Dream, every kid in the US reads about in the manifest destiny chapter of their history books.
And that’s what the best of Horizon does. It makes history a little more real for people who go see it. As long as you know going it you’re being set up for the real story, Chapter 1 will give you what you want out of a big Western setup. And give the hiking enthusiasts some new ideas on where to maybe book their next vacations. Though maybe stay away from Horizon: looks like it’s gonna get ugly there in Chapter 2.