Hello out there film fans! It’s Slick Dungeon and I’m back to review yet another movie. This time we’re heading out west to talk about Kevin Costner’s highly ambitious project Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One. There will be some spoilers in this review so if that’s not your thing, head out into the sunset, watch the movie, and come on back here to read up. Got it? Okay good, then saddle up and let’s get riding into the review!

Manifest Destiny

I’ll admit I am not a huge fan of westerns. There’s only a few I really enjoy so I was skeptical about Horizon: An American Saga. Add to that, this is a film with a three hour run time and it’s part one, so I wasn’t sure what I was getting here. Before I go into the details of the movie, I will give a warning that this film is not for everyone.

If you don’t enjoy sweeping epics with a large cast of characters this film is not for you. Absolutely hate westerns? This is also not for you. Need a film to come to a complete conclusion at the end? This movie is not for you. And if you can’t handle a three hour run time, this will not be for you.

But, if you have the patience to sit through three hours, understand you are only seeing the first chapter, and can enjoy a western, this is for you.

As someone who enjoys really long fantasy films like The Lord of the Rings, I had no problem with the run time. Or following along with the cast and plot. I didn’t feel the need for it to complete since there are at least two more films coming.

There are plenty of reasons to see the film, even if you wouldn’t normally do so. This movie is not a sequel, prequel, remake, or even based on an existing property. If we want to encourage Hollywood to make more films that are original, you’d be wise to support this film.

Due to the sweeping cast, it can be hard to keep track of all the characters. There are at least three story threads going on at the same time. And all of those threads have a huge cast of characters. There are only a few main ones you need to focus on, and it’s easy enough to keep track if you don’t get wrapped up in trying to remember all their names.

That being said, the cast is full of stars you’ll likely recognize from Kevin Costner (obviously) to Michael Rooker and Sam Worthington to Luke Wilson and Sienna Miller.

At its core, the film is about the idea of westward expansion and manifest destiny. Back when there was a ton of wide open spaces in America and there was a fight going on between the Native American population and the pioneers who wanted to settle the land.

the storylines of HOrizon: An American Saga

The film starts quietly with three surveyors in the San Pedro Valley. They lay a foundation for houses or maybe a town. While they do this, they are being watched by two young Apaches. A war party approaches. In the next scene a traveling missionary arrives and looks out at the horizon. He has a flyer with him. At the top of the flyer is one word. Horizon. It promises a new place to settle and be free. The missionary is told he went past the town at the river and he needs to turn back. When he goes back, he finds the bodies of the three surveyors. He decides to bury the bodies and creates makeshift crosses to mark the graves. The missionary goes back across the river and begins his settlment.

This marks the end of the implied violence in the film. For the rest of the movie any time a fight or gunshots break out, we see all of it. This happens four years later as the Apache decimate the settlers who are not expecting an attack. Only a few survive and the rest of the film mostly ties into these people. We also follow a contingent of Union soldiers who are there to keep the peace.

Threads in different locations

We get a second storyline which starts in Montana. Here a woman shoots a man and grabs a baby. The payoff takes a while to arrive but it does set up the main villains of the film. And those villains are memorable. We have the unhinged Caleb Sykes played by Jamie Campbell Bower and the mountain of a man Ben Sykes played by Jon Beavers. Both of these guys give great performances and I wanted more screen time from the two of them.

Our third storyline is a wagon train moving along the Santa Fe trail towards Horizon. This focuses on the leader of the wagon train played by Luke Wilson. It’s a little hard to see him as a cowboy but ultimately he serves the film well.

Costner makes his appearance

If you’re wondering where Kevin Costner is in all this, other than behind the scenes, he does show up. But it’s surprisingly late in the film. He plays the most stereotypical kind of western hero here. He’s gruff but seems to have a good heart. And he’s mostly silent. When he takes action it happens fast and it’s lethal. His story is wrapped up in the Montana storyline but his role in it is not entirely clear. At least not in this film.

I won’t give away where all these storylines go but I will say, I can’t wait to see how exactly they tie together in the next chapters.

Directing and Cinematography

You might expect a film with the name Horizon to have a lot of shots of, well, the horizon. Yep, there’s plenty of that. But I will say the cinematography is more than that. The action sequences and the smooth transitions from storyline to storyline keep the viewer engaged. While this is good directing without question, I can’t say it is the best directing I have ever seen. Costner does a fine job laying out the story and he’s judicious enough not to put too much of himself in front of the camera. But there are times when there seem like there may be missed opportunities.

There are some scenes involving the Apaches which give us a deeper look into what is happening there but Costner could have focused more on them in my opinion. I’m hoping we’ll see more of that in further installments.

There are clearly huge set pieces and there is no question everything here was built for the film. There’s not really any CGI to be found which is refreshing. Things just look better when they are real. And in a western, that’s vital.

Score and Sound

The score is great and the sound does the job well here. I could see the potential for an Oscar nod for either of those. The sound is especially complex in the action scenes. Music here is ever prevalent but never distracting, even when we see empty landscapes. But I won’t go as far as saying the score is as good as anything John Williams might come up with.

Acting

There are some fantastic performances here. I enjoyed Michael Rooker more than I expected to. And Sam Worthington does a fine job in his role. While Kevin Costner does a good job, it still feels like vanity to see him be the hero in his own film. We’ll have to see if that keeps up in the next two films.

There were times I felt it a little hard to buy Luke Wilson. But I got over that after a few scenes of him dealing with the others in the wagon train. To me, the standout performances were with the villains. And with Abbey Lee who plays a town prostitute named Marigold.

I’m not sure there is any Oscar worthy performance here but the acting is good overall. I enjoyed the performances well enough to want more.

The biggest problem with Horizon: An American Saga

The one spot to criticize here is the end. The last three minutes is basically a trailer for the further installments. But it’s not played after the credits. This makes things confusing. There could have been a more definitive ending rather than a lead in to a next installment. A few places would have worked to cut off. If Costner had done that, audiences would want more. That’s only a small gripe though. The film is engaging, entertaining and worth the watch.

In conclusion

This is a great film. Lots of people disagree with me and that’s fine. I wasn’t expecting to like it but I did. I also think there is too much backlash against it. People keep comparing it to a TV miniseries. That’s a fair comparison. But people also love TV miniseries. I don’t have a problem with one being played out on the big screen. It’s an original film. It is ambitious. Costner should be lauded for having a vision. Most movie studios are not brave enough to do that anymore. The only way to get that back is to encourage films like this. Even if this isn’t your favorite, I suspect you’ll enjoy the experience if you give it a chance.

The box office has been poor but I suspect this will do much better on streaming as people actually see it. I know this is not for everyone but I also don’t think it deserves as low of a rating as it has on Rotten Tomatoes. I’m refreshed by the vision here and I want to know what happens next.

Want to see what I thought of another sweeping epic? Check out my post for Killers of the Flower Moon.