With resurgent fame and clout from his hit TV series Yellowstone, Kevin Costner decided to do the natural thing as he approached his 70th birthday: make a massive, multi-part epic movie Western called Horizon, based on an original story.
Costner had eyed the project since the late-1980s but decided now was the time. Spending some of his own money, he set up Horizon as a four-part saga, with the first two parts arriving this summer. It’s the all-in personal, risky project that we’re meant to cheer, even as we remember that epic, out-of-control projects, many of them Westerns, have been part of the story with Costner for the bulk of his career.
The Horizon project is off to a sluggish start. The first film, out now, got a muted reception in Cannes, and for a good reason—it’s uneven, disjointed, and confused about history, the West, or anything else. It also doesn’t look great; epic Westerns, even boring ones, usually offer sweeping and pretty vistas. Even worse, as demonstrated in a closing montage that’s more of a sizzle reel, the entire three-hour movie feels like an extended trailer for future films.
Chapter 1 is mainly about the characters' journeys to the Horizon settlement. The rest of the series is presumably set there, with all the characters in or near the same place. Glimpsed at the end, that version looks much more interesting than the movie we just watched. But it’s nervy to ask moviegoers to buy a ticket and sit for three hours for what’s essentially a preamble for other, later movies.
The film tells about a half-dozen stories of various seriousness and stakes. It kicks off with a massive massacre of settlers by Apaches, but most of what follows doesn’t have much to do with that. Costner plays an uninteresting man of mystery who doesn’t even show up until an hour in.
More than 35 years ago, Costner directed Dances With Wolves, which won many Oscars. While the film was what today would be called a white savior narrative—and by no means deserved to top Goodfellas for Best Picture—it at least showcased its American-Indian characters, including giving plum roles to actors like Graham Greene. But Horizon does little of note with its Native characters.
The score, by John Debney, is very good. The film has a strong cast of welcome faces like Sam Worthington, Sienna Millers, Michael Rooker, Thomas Haden Church, Danny Huston, and Jeff Fahey.
There are hints of fascinating stuff, especially a woman (Jena Malone) fleeing the husband she shot and a kid who appears uninterested in the type of violence that’s forced upon him. But the Horizon jumps around so much that it abandons its best subplots for long stretches. The film also can’t find much beyond one dimension for its female characters. And Abbey Lee isn’t up to the major part of a sex worker with eyes for Costner.
Was it worth it for Costner to spend tens of millions of dollars, mortgage his ranch, and exit Yellowstone early? That’s up to him.