Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
Kevin Costner's Western epic kicks off on the right foot.
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As a lifelong fan of Westerns and a Kevin Costner apologist I was always gonna dig “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” (now in theaters) to some degree. It’s not a perfect picture, but it’s a good one. It’s adept enough that I’m certainly curious to check out subsequent chapters of the saga. (There are currently four planned – “Chapter 2” releases Friday, Aug. 16.)
The advertising for “Horizon” is somewhat misleading. It’s not a Costner star vehicle (he doesn’t appear until a third of the way through this three-hour movie), but rather a series of ensemble anthology films chronicling the American West before, during and after the Civil War.
One story concerns Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and her daughter Elizabeth (Georgia McPhail) surviving a Native American attack on their settlement led by Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) and subsequently being taken under the protection of Union soldiers First Lt. Trent Gephart (Sam Worthington), Sgt. Major Thomas Riordan (Michael Rooker) and Col. Albert Houghton (Danny Huston). A pubescent boy by the name of Russell Ganz (Etienne Kellici), another survivor of the strike, takes up with Elias Janney (Scott Haze) and a tracker (Jeff Fahey) in order to hunt down indigenous peoples … whether they had anything to do with the assault or not.
Another story chronicles a woman named Ellen Harvey (Jena Malone) snatching her young son back from his father James Sykes (Charles Halford) – shooting Sykes twice in the process. Harvey goes into hiding, takes up with salesman Walter (Michael Angarano) and houses working girl Marigold (Abbey Lee), who aids in caring for her child. Aggrieved, Sykes’ grown sons Junior (Jon Beavers) and Caleb (Jamie Campbell Bower, Vecna from “Stranger Things”) are searching for Harvey at the behest of their mother (Dale Dickey) looking to dole out some good old-fashioned revenge. The only person standing between the Sykes boys and Harvey is horse trader Hayes Ellison (Costner), a prospective john of Marigold’s.
The final story focuses on a wagon train being led by Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson). The members of the traveling party also include another faction of the Kittredge clan – Owen (Will Patton) and his daughters Diamond (Isabelle Fuhrman), Evie (Hallie Purser) and Martha (Naomi Winders) – as well as prim and proper British couple Hugh Proctor (Tom Payne, making a habit out of playing wieners between “Imaginary” and this) and Juliette Chesney (Ella Hunt), who aren’t pulling their own weight. Chesney draws the unwanted attention of herders Sig (Douglas Smith) and Birke (Roger Ivens), which causes conflict that’ll need to be resolved by Van Weyden.
“Horizon” is simultaneously new and old school. The parents and grandparents who watch Costner’s “Yellowstone” series will likely lap this stuff up. Costner put $38 million of his own money into making these movies and his passion is palpable. I was reminded a bit of the TNT mini-series from the mid-aughts “Into the West” … only the language, sex and violence are more graphic. (A “This season on ‘Horizon’” montage that concludes the picture, which while masterfully edited by Miklos Wright (he also cut Costner’s last directorial effort, “Open Range”), feels especially televisual.) The script by Jon Baird and Costner working from a story by Baird, Costner and Mark Kasdan (brother of Costner’s “Silverado” and “Wyatt Earp” director Lawrence Kasdan) occasionally sports dopey dialogue (especially coming from its kid characters), but it balances its various storylines with great aplomb. It’s beautifully shot by J. Michael Muro (another “Open Range” vet) and is at its best when being violent or building towards violence. The settlement attack is visually arresting and entirely visceral. A tense walk and talk between Costner’s Ellison and Bower’s Caleb is one of my favorite scenes of the film with Bower giving the movie’s best performance.
Costner definitely gambled by bankrolling and making “Horizon,” but the gamble seems to have paid off. I’m eagerly anticipating the next installment.