Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is a conservative western that should’ve been a TV series

One of the most successful actors turned directors in Hollywood, Kevin Costner has never looked too far from home. From his debut, Dances With Wolves, to his latest, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, the examination of what it means to be American becomes an urgent question. Producing his first Westerns long after the genre’s heyday and after filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood rebuilt it for a contemporary audience, Costner seems to strike a balance between a classical and revisionist style.

Envisioned as a four-part epic, the first part of Horizon, leans heavily in exposition. We’re introduced to characters living in various parts of the country, with a timeframe that spans a 15-year period before, during and after the Civil War. A small community of settlers attempts to set up base in a small community they will call “Horizon.” By a river and in the shadow of Monument Valley, tents become houses, houses become a small village. Optimistic and desperate, the new residents of this land ignore the makeshift graveyard on the other side of the water.

The film’s most thrilling and impressive sequence happens when the camp is raided by members of a nearby Indigenous community. As night takes hold, men on horses storm the village, armed with arrows and fire. Unprepared, Horizon is taken by surprise and are unable to defend themselves. This sequence feels reminiscent of an early scene in John Ford’s The Searchers, one that sets into action the festering rage that will drive Ethan Edwards (John Wayne’s) racist ideology.

Costner’s read on a raid by Native Americans carries surprising nuance. It reveals crucial divides between members of the same Indigenous tribe and a foolish optimism on behalf of early settlers. While we might think of classical Hollywood westerns as occasionally indulging in the idea of the “noble savage,” many are equally guilty of idealizing the “innocent settler,” two ideas that Costner seems to reject outright. While he maintains a certain optimistic inevitability to the American project (no one is going to stop the endless wagons moving westward), his writing and direction has a surprising complexity. The film though, quite unmistakably, has a conservative bent — it’s hardly radical or confrontational, either. 

The comparisons to Ford, though, also reveal some of the film’s flaws, notably its TV-quality aesthetics. Perhaps due to its epic sweeping scale, necessitating a practical and flourished filmmaking style, Horizon often looks cheap. The beautiful locations are rendered flatly through the plain digital aesthetics. Landscapes and faces feel a little too sleek and contemporary, as if seen through a phone. There’s not enough texture or grime; there’s not enough colour. The actors are all just a little too beautiful as well. Sienna Miller’s perfectly coiffed curls no doubt look great, but they feel out of place in the aftermath of a violent raid where she was forced to take refuge underground.

The TV-ness extends to the film’s structure. It’s not unreasonable to imagine how this four-part series would do better on TV. The film’s rather meandering pace would even benefit from the structure of individual episodes, its characters and locations not just introduced for the sake of exposition, but also to keep the attention of the audience. The organization of scenes lacks a forward momentum, hampered by a pacing structure that can feel glacial at times. 

Frustrating but still mostly engaging, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 doesn’t feel complete. While that’s by design, with a three-hour runtime, it does test your patience. Not a lot happens in the movie, and as often as it has moments of brilliance, it indulges in predictable character and narrative tropes that lack punch. Strangely, rather than closing the film on an epic cliffhanger, the movie ends with an extremely extended montage — a preview of the next part (or parts) of the saga. Despite my growing impatience by the end, this was a remarkably effective marketing ploy. It seemed as little action was present in Part 1, it will be more than made up in the next installments. Costner better not waste that good will though. Fool me once, shame on me… fool me twice… you know how it goes. 

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is currently playing in Montreal theatres.

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