Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Dir: Kevin Costner (13th Floor Film Review)

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A Flawed but Epic Old-School Western

Starring Kevin Costner, Luke Wilson, Tatanka Means, Sienna Miller, Jena Malone, Wase Winyan Chief, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jena Malone, Sam Worthington, Isabelle Fuhrman, Ella Hunt, Michael Rooker, Abbey Lee, Danny Huston, Will Patton and more.

A lot has been said about Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, Kevin Costner’s passion project. “It’s doomed to fail” is a sentiment that is echoed online in the hyperbolic vacuum that is X, formerly known as Twitter. This may be true. The hyphen outlines that Horizon: An American Saga is the first of a quartet of Westerns about the allure of the Old West and the interwoven tales of those who live within it. Chapter 2 won’t be arriving in theatres on August 16 after all, as its been pulled from the release calendar for now.

After Chapter 1’s premiere at the Cannes 2024 Film Festival, it received a seven-minute standing ovation, a gesture of respect often insincere and awkward. Costner was left teary-eyed, having poured $60 million of his own money to co-finance this project, but it received a slew of negative reviews. The film has been called “the dullest cinematic vanity project of the century” by critic Ryan Lattanzio. But despite the scattered first 30 minutes or so, as Costner introduces a sprawling number of characters and locations, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 when it settles into its groove, is an ambitious and enthralling film. A brutal night-time raid on the fledgling settlement of Horizon, built on the banks of a river in Apache country, is spectacular. Raging flames, crimson blood and hazy gunsmoke—a throwback to epic Westerns like The Searchers, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Unforgiven. While Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 may never be considered a classic, drawing on a number of clichés, the American Frontier and the ecosystems of people and communities scraping out an existence in its far-flung corners are strikingly realized.

Costner, with cinematographer J. Michael Murodoes, does a wonderous job of allowing audiences to inhabit this world. The film wants to be about its characters. Despite his wonky accent, Michael Rooker delivers a standout performance, but Luke Wilson stands out for all the wrong reasons. He feels dropped in from another world, never convincing as the elected leader of a caravan of prairie wagons headed for Horizon.

Rather, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is at its most absorbing and majestic if you think of it as a mood piece. The film’s vivid rendering of the sweeping Great Plains, the massive migration and the violence at the forefront of the mythological American frontier is rarely seen on screen these days. The Western genre, once a staple of Hollywood, is a part of a bygone era. Films like The Assassination of Jesse James, There Will Be Blood, Django Unchained, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs have subverted and reinvented the genre. But Horizon: An American Saga is unashamedly a straight shooter. An old-school Western that will transport you to a time of cowboys and gunslingers.

Thomas Giblin

Opens in cinemas today. Click here for tickets and showtimes.

Thomas Giblin
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