Summary
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Critics find Kevin Costner’s
Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1
overly long and lacking engagement, lasting over 3 hours. - The movie only sets up future chapters without resolving any story lines, disappointing early reviewers.
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Horizon
:
An American Saga
feels more like the beginning of a TV series than a feature film, lacking cohesive story structure and character depth.
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Early reviews for the first chapter of Kevin Costner’s long-gestating passion project Horizon: An American Saga have skewed sharply negative, which doesn’t bode well for the continuation of the traditional Western epic. Horizon‘s interconnected story will be split into four parts, and is an ambitious chronicle of the American expansion into the West before, during, and after the Civil War. It features a sprawling cast of characters who traverse the territories that will someday become Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana. Unfortunately for the Academy Award winner, Horizon debuted to one of the worst Rotten Tomatoes scores of Costner’s career.
Given how much of his own money Costner has sunk into the project, the four-part epic represents an incredible gamble, and poor early reviews won’t help buoy Chapter 1‘s box office outlook. While the first two chapters are already filmed and will be released back-to-back, the production of the planned third and fourth chapters likely hinges on the success of the first two. Horizon marks the fourth time that Costner has been in the director’s chair, and so far there are several common reasons why critics haven’t embraced Horizon: An American Saga.
8 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Is Overly Long
The movie’s runtime is over three hours
While it’s not unusual for large-scale stories to be split into multiple movies, critics have taken issue with the runtime for Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. Per Costner’s own assessment, the entirety of the grand Horizon: An American Saga narrative will unfold over the course of 12 hours of runtime, and with only four chapters, each movie will need to average around three hours. That holds true for Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, which clocked in with 181 minutes of runtime.
Unfortunately, critics seem to agree that it feels even longer. Nicholas Barber of the BBC referred to the film as a “three-hour slog” in his review, further noting that the movie was “full of stultifyingly slow dialogue scenes.” His thoughts were shared with many of the early reviewers, as the near-unanimous sentiment is that the level of engagement in the film simply doesn’t align with the colossal runtime. With as many story lines and characters as there are in Horizon, it seems likely that just over three hours may even be on the lower side for runtime.
7 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Only Focuses On Setting Up The Next Chapters
Many characters and locations are introduced with no follow-up
Almost across the board, early reviewers of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 criticized the movie for not seeing any actual resolution for the many characters and stories that are introduced. Again, it’s not uncommon for stories to be told over the course of multiple movies, but the general understanding is that each movie provides a satisfying stand-alone structure and plot. That appears not to be the case for Costner’s epic, as critics were displeased by the fact that the movie doesn’t seem to have an interest in doing much more than acting as a prologue for the remaining chapters.
Owen Gleiberman of Vanity Fair summarized the detached nature of Chapter 1:
Instead of unfurling a Western saga in a solid powerful arc, Costner serves up three hours of anecdotes, cross-cutting among groups of characters, dropping in on situations that are dropped just as quickly, taking a skittery overview of life on the range, and asking the audience, in many cases, to stitch together the backstory of what they’re seeing.
With a massive ensemble cast and many story lines that take place over a span of years, any stand-alone movie would struggle to feel cohesive, hence Costner’s four-movie plan. Unfortunately, just because the overall story is far longer doesn’t mean it’s permissible for Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 to act as no more than an exposition machine. Ideally, the stories introduced in Chapter 1 will all be resolved and concluded in the coming chapters, but the disjointed introduction to the larger world of Horizon is a red flag.
6 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Doesn’t Feel Like a Movie
It aligns more with a TV series than a feature film
The sheer scope of the overarching story being told, along with the massive cast and varied settings, have led to a common thought among early reviewers: that this would work much better as a TV series than as a series of feature films. Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire described it bluntly as, “a quote-unquote sweeping American saga that feels like an expensive miniseries compressed into feature form.” The fact that so many different characters and plot threads are introduced all at once recalls the early episodes of prestige dramas like Game of Thrones or Westworld.
Unfortunately, when that occurs over the course of three hours instead of a compact 54 minutes of episodic television, it becomes jarring and unpleasant. Horizon: An American Saga seems to be following four “major” threads, but judging by critic reactions there isn’t enough time spent with any of those threads to establish the plot or characters effectively. In that way, Horizon ends up feeling more like episode 1 of a massive show about to unfurl across 7+ episodes, and maybe 4-5 seasons, like the hit drama Yellowstone that Costner left. That’s not the desired effect for a three-hour theatrical experience.
5 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Lacks Story Structure
Basic structure is eschewed in favor of character introductions
As little more than a stilted avalanche of character and location introductions, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 supposedly lacks anything representing a cohesive story in the traditional sense. By continually marching out new plots and people, Chapter 1 punts on the concept of story structure; it has no beginning, middle, climax, or end because all the different threads finish a sort of cliffhanger, knowing that there is at least one more movie to come in which they’ll be resolved. Again, this works for the pilot of an episodic television show or miniseries, but it doesn’t work for a feature film.
Chase Hutchinson of Collider noted that, “there is very little thematically or narratively connecting characters, making it feel like more of an anthology that’s been haphazardly stitched together.” Kevin Costner has been responsible for some truly great Westerns as an actor, producer, and director, but the hallmarks of those movies were well-written characters and engaging plots. That was specifically the case for his smash hit Dances with Wolves, but it doesn’t seem likely for Horizon: An American Saga, if early reviews are to be believed.
4 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’s Characters Lack Depth
Somehow, despite the movie exclusively focusing on character introductions as opposed to an engaging central story, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 still fails to actually flesh out any of the characters. The movie’s habit of flitting from scene to scene leaves no time for actual character development despite the lengthy runtime, and therefore the movie is left with few characters to actually get invested in. Without building characters that an audience cares about, there is very little appeal to seeing what happens in Chapter 2.
Related
1 Horizon Scene Proves Kevin Costner’s Character Isn’t Just Yellowstone’s John Dutton With A Mustache
A moment in the Horizon: An American Saga trailer should ease worries that Kevin Costner’s character will be exactly like John Dutton in Yellowstone.
Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com put an exclamation point on the notion that Horizon does a poor job of building its characters: “It gives us few memorable characters outside of Costner: I can’t remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes.” It’s a severe misstep to not pay proper attention to any of the characters who are supposed to carry the narrative. It seems pretty clear that Costner would have benefited from perhaps cutting out some of the lesser characters and plot threads in favor of fully fleshing out the ones that truly matter.
3 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Is Boring
It brings nothing new to the Western genre
Another common thread among early reviews is the lack of anything memorable in Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. When he first envisioned Horizon in 1988, Costner wanted to be very deliberate about creating a traditional Western, and by all accounts he’s at least hit many of the notes that audiences would expect from a traditional Western. Unfortunately, that leaves little room for anything unique or original, and the movie suffers from a lack of excitement because of it.
As Hoai-TranBui of Inverse put it, “…every magnificent vista and each swooningly romantic moment can’t make up for the fact that Horizon is excruciatingly dull.” While nobody was expecting Kevin Costner to challenge Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall with something that revolutionized the Western genre, there is something to be said for challenging the status quo. Judging by early reviews, Costner was content to hit all the most familiar notes, and when combined with the lack of an engaging story, the end result is a movie that’s outright boring.
2 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Is Low On Action
One of the hallmarks of a traditional Western is the Western action; horse chases, gunfights, shootouts, and train robberies are as much a part of the Western aesthetic as deserts, arid mountains, and saloons. Unfortunately, it seems as though in the rush to introduce all the characters who will play a role in the overarching Horizon saga, the action fell by the wayside. As Gregory Ellwood of The Playlist opined, “To be frank, there aren’t many standout cinematic moments in Horizon.”
One of the most oft-praised scenes from the early reviews is the film’s opening, which includes an Apache attack on the blossoming Horizon settlement. It received praise for how it was shot and its intensity, but as Ellwood further noted, “…in many ways, this extended sequence teases what the movie might have been.” Costner didn’t lean into some of the most exciting aspects of Westerns, and why they always have and likely will always appeal to American moviegoers. The movie evidently suffers for it.
1 Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Doesn’t Develop The Indigenous Perspective Well
With Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon dominating last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 had a direct comparison to look at when it debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately, early reviewers seem pretty unified in the fact that Costner came up short in properly establishing the perspective of the Indigenous tribes during the time of the American expansion. That’s not to say it completely returns to the spaghetti Western style of the 1960s in its handling of the sensitive topic, but it isn’t a resounding success, either.
To be clear, there are attempts made by white characters to explain the justified motivations of the Indigenous tribes that war with the settlers. Unfortunately, that comes well after the aforementioned early scene that depicts Native American warriors massacring a settlement of mostly white people. Esther Zuckerman of The Daily Beast described the attack, saying, “…the Native American assailants are shadowy figures who attack unprovoked. There are nods to nuance that come later, but far too little in the first part of Costner’s passion project…”
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 introduces a plot thread from the perspective of an Indigenous tribe, but critics seem to agree that it isn’t given the proper weight. If more attention is given to that perspective in Chapter 2, it could be a positive step in truly telling two sides of the story of American expansion in the Old West. However, as with most of the criticisms of Horizon: An American Saga, movies shouldn’t be made that rely completely on a second chapter for the story to be understood and appreciated, especially when the movie is three hours long.
Source: BBC, Vanity Fair, IndieWire, Collider, Inverse, RogerEbert.com, The Playlist, The Daily Beast
Horizon: An American Saga
R
Drama
Western
Horizon: An American Saga is a Western film directed by Kevin Costner, and sees him in the starring role. The film explores multiple generations surrounding the expansion of the American West before and after the Civil War. Horizon is the first in a series of four films, all of which were greenlit by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Director Kevin Costner Release Date June 28, 2024 Studio(s) New Line Cinema , Territory Pictures Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures Writers Jon Baird , Kevin Costner Cast Kevin Costner , Sienna Miller , Sam Worthington , Luke Wilson , Giovanni Ribisi , Thomas Haden Church , Jena Malone , Abbey Lee , Michael Rooker , Danny Huston , Isabelle Fuhrman , Jeff Fahey , Will Patton , Tatanka Means , Ella Hunt , Jamie Campbell Bower
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