#44: HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA – CHAPTER ONE

Written, directed and starring Kevin Costner along for the ride Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Huston, Story by JOn Baird, Kevin Costner and Mark Kasdan, screenplay by Jon Baird and Kevin Costner, music by John Debney. Directed by Kevin Costner. Budget $100 million. Running time 181 minutes. 

Epic in scope, ambition, vista and running time this is a Costner western so expect a lot of staggering beautiful landscapes, contemplations about the meaning of existence, and period detail out of the wazoo. The last epic western to be this realistic was Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate and that one ended up not only destroying his career but it also caused the collapse of a movie studio.

This three hour epic is the first of four epic three hour films to be released over couple of years. 

The multiple characters we are introduced sure are varied, as we watch a select group of characters linked by the notion of a place called Horizon somewhere in the America landscape, which just so happens to be in Apache territory. For a film running to three hours, the plot is rather sparse, to the point of non-existence, as the vast running time is spent establishing the world of the Wild West of 1845 and just how grim it was to live then. We meet a vast slew of characters some of whom won't even make it past half-way mark, from pissed off Apache warriors to the widow and daughter of an Indian massacre, to a cavalry lieutenant, to a long-in-the-tooth cowboy, to a tart with a heart, to a runaway wife, to grizzled sergeant, to a camp commander, to the gang of Indian hunters, to a vengeful gang of men hunting the woman who tried to kill their father, to the inhabitants of a wagon train and everybody inbetween. 

Indeed there's a lot of characters to cram into the 10,860 second running time of this epic, but very little plot and goddam almost no story. This is just character and incident. With a glimpse of more to come in the second chapter, which seems to offer a lot more pow for your buck.  

Costner is clearly fascinated by the concept of the wild west and epics, indeed his first directed movie was the simply superb, and epic, Dances With Wolves way back in 1990, for which he won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director. This doesn't match the epicness of Dances With Wolves, and it's hard to judge the entire four-film vison on the strength of this first part, but I hope it has more story in the next chapter, otherwise it might not make it to final part, which is scheduled for 2026.

This looks utterly stunning and is best seen on a huge screen, the soundtrack is wonderful and used beautifully to evoke feeling, without feeling sentimental or manipulative. Costner is a good director and his handling of the action is strong and confident. It's great to see something not propelled by CGI, or superheroes or super spies. This is a film that doesn't try and shoehorn in wise-cracking sassy kids, or appease a diversity blind-casting bingo card, and as such it's filled with old fashioned notions and attitudes which might not sit well with a modern audience. It's not an easy watch but it is impressive and leaves you wanting to know what happens next to this vast gaggle of characters, and the film is wise enough to give you a hint with an extended dialogue free sequence of what to expect in chapter 2.

Best summed up as long, slow, languid, and truly epic, this is only lacking in the oomph and story department. Still you can't fault the man for his vision.

7/10