Manashimaya
“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” marks Kevin Costner’s much-anticipated return to the Western genre. Set in 1859, the film showcases vivid characters, from settlers to Native Americans, across territories from Wyoming to Kansas. Despite its ambition and scope, this review of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” reveals that the film feels more like the set-up for a TV miniseries rather than a cohesive cinematic experience.
Arriving amidst the Cannes Film Festival, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” seemed poised to offer a grandly scaled slice of neo-classical Hollywood, reminiscent of Costner’s previous works like “Dances with Wolves” and “Open Range.” The film exudes traditional Western flavours with its stately mesa backdrops and rousing 1950s-style musical score by John Debney. However, as this review of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” highlights, the film’s sprawling narrative often jumps around too much and explains too little.
The film attempts to address the violence between settlers and Indigenous tribes, a theme that harks back to classic Westerns. However, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” struggles to maintain a powerful narrative arc, instead presenting three hours of loosely connected anecdotes. The film cross-cuts among various groups of characters, offering glimpses into quickly abandoned situations, leaving the audience to piece together the backstory. This disjointed storytelling makes “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” feel more like the preliminary episodes of a TV series than a standalone film.
Despite its vintage horse-opera trappings, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” fails to deliver the mythic, rounded storytelling that defines classic Westerns. While ambitious, the film’s multi-character drama lacks depth and force to build impact. Kevin Costner, who appears an hour into the movie as a gruff horse trader, provides some grounding, but his presence is not enough to anchor the sprawling narrative.
One of the most vivid sequences involves Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and her daughter hiding from an Apache raid in a hole under their living room. However, this intense moment is jarring as it unfolds before the audience has a chance to connect with the characters. This issue recurs throughout “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” where the action often feels hurried and the storytelling is overstated and unscripted.
The film also explores the perspective of Native characters, attempting to present them as more than simple enemies. However, speeches by an Apache war chief and a U.S. cavalry officer highlight a definitive vision of the inevitable loss of Indigenous tribes to the settlers, a theme that feels prematurely conclusive for the period depicted.
As the narrative hopscotches through various locales, including a ramshackle town and a covered-wagon trail, the film introduces characters like Marigold (Abbey Lee), a prostitute caring for an abandoned child, and the Proctors, an effete English couple naive about frontier life. While some characters are intriguing, none are particularly memorable, underscoring the film’s inability to weave its many stories into a cohesive whole.
In conclusion, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” is an ambitious yet flawed epic that feels more like a TV series introduction than a complete film. This review of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” reflects on its sprawling yet thinly spread narrative, suggesting that while Costner’s vision is grand, the execution leaves much to be desired. As a stand-alone movie, it struggles to engage, making it a sprawling prelude to what may become a more developed saga in subsequent chapters.