Director: Kevin Costner
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Jena Malone, Michael Angarano, Abbey Lee, Jamie Campbell-Bower, Luke Wilson
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 181 mins

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is the first in a planned four-film epic Western series directed, produced, co-written and starring Kevin Costner. Costner is no stranger to the epic Western having helmed the (overrated) Dance with Wolves and Open Range. His aim with this series is to tell a story spanning multiple generations, akin to the excellent How The West Was Won. Still, films like this just aren’t made anymore so despite Costner’s historical lack of subtlety, I was hoping it would be successful for the genre’s sake. 

Told over a bum-numbing 181 minutes, this first chapter has three overarching stories, with separate strands within them. To keep it brief, Horizon, a supposedly idyllic paradise in the San Pedro Valley, is brutally attacked by an Apache tribe led by Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe). We see how some of the survivors, chiefly Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and how her daughter are offered santucary in Camp Gallant. 

In another story that begins in Montana, we see a woman, Lucy (Jena Malone) shoot James Sykes and escape, with the brothers hot on her tail. Within this storyline, we meet Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner) who befriends prostitute Marigold (Abbey Lee), who is looking after Lucy’s child. 

Finally, around two hours in, we are introduced to a wagon trail led by Matthew van Weyden (Luke Wilson) heading to Horizon.

It’s hard to definitively judge Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 without the context of its sequels but as a standalone film, it falls short of the mark. While it’s always watchable, nothing really happens and the different storylines are no closer to colliding by the end of the film. It’s certainly true that the characters find themselves in a different situation than the one we first see them in when they are introduced though. 

There’s some good setpieces, especially the opening, violent Horizon massacre but there’s a lot of baggage too that could have been edited to make the film tighter. Costner and Jon Baird’s script is very talky and not particularly sharp and the film lacks any of the emotion of How The West Was Won, often resorting to cliche. 

Despite J. Michael Muro’s expansive cinematography and John Debney’s throwback, swirling but ultimately unmemorable score, the film felt more akin to a television series rather than a piece of cinema. The ending is particularly criminal, without any kind of hook for the unengaged viewer to feel the need to instantly put on Chapter 2. We end on a random scene and then a montage (trailer) for Chapter 2, which felt like a particularly cheap move. 

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is an odd film – as a standalone piece of cinema, it’s a failure but in the context of a series, I am somewhat interested in what happens to these characters next. With the trailer for Chapter 2 seemingly promising more action, I hope better storytelling and pacing comes with it  because these are the critical components that hamper this opener.

With Chapters 3 and 4 in various forms of pre-production, I wonder if there will ever be a finished product. It certainly takes a devoted fan of the Western, who appreciates its sprawling and old-fashioned nature to want to persist with this story and realistically, I struggle to see this series performing well financially. With Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 set for release in August, we’ll undoubtedly have a clearer idea whether Costner’s passion project is a viable one.