There’s a scene deep in Kevin Costner’s new Western where he and a woman are on the run from bad guys on horseback. They pause at a breathtaking view and he turns to her: “You just have to keep going,” he tells her.
That should be the tagline for “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” the first three-hour salvo in what could become a four-part epic about the West that could test even the biggest cowboy fan.
Give Costner – co-writer, director, producer – his due. This is a labor of love he’s been thinking about since the 1980s, and he has a lot to do with it: He took out a mortgage on his 10-acre home in Santa Barbara, California. At least one of his houses. He’s not a total idiot.
“Chapter 1” – “Chapter 2” will be out in August, with parts three and four depending on whether people continue – is a sprawling, often unwieldy placesetter, introducing dozens of characters in various parts of the West who, one has to assume there will be an interaction at some point. If they survive, that is.
It’s a spectacularly unsubtle film, from the opening moment when a group of ants on a mound of dirt are crushed by a surveyor’s wooden stake. If there’s any doubt about what we should feel, listen to John Debney’s ponderous, pretentious score, with its criminal overuse of cellos.
Costner throws the plot – devised by him and Jon Baird – into disarray almost immediately by offering a climactic battle scene within the first half hour, in which a small white settlement in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley (thanks, southern Utah!) sneaks is attacked by Apaches during an innocent dance.
It is a slaughter and it goes on for far too long – cruelty on the one hand, noble victims on the other. Mothers are hit by arrows while carrying their babies, unarmed musicians are killed without a thought. “Ready son?” a father asks his teenage son, as he hands him a gun and faces certain death. “I think so, Dad,” is the courageous response. In the aftermath, a mother cradles her son’s corpse and talks to it.
This carnage spawns a few storylines: some survivors (like feisty new widow Sienna Miller and her daughter) find refuge in a US army camp led by a painfully honorable lieutenant, played by Sam Worthington. In another storyline, bounty hunters seek out the Apaches who have attacked the settlement, seeking profit and revenge.
“Horizon” also shows the internal divisions within the Apaches, with the chief’s hot-headed son and new father (Owen Crow Shoe) ready to keep fighting. “Their sons will hunt you,” the chief warns. “I will not sing for your victory today.” We learn that white settlement violated agreements designed to appease the West.
Costner’s universe is both fatalistic and inevitable. Both sides can be right or wrong, but there will always be another round of cruelty. “There is no one on earth who can stop these cars,” says an exasperated army officer at one point.
After an hour, Costner himself arrives, a quiet, strong loner who enters a settlement in Wyoming Territory hoping for a nice drink and some female company and yet leaves on the run to find a sex worker (Abbey Lee) and a boy in his protect home. her concern for psychotic riders who want to harm them.
Two hours into the film, another slew of characters arrives, with Costner’s menu now completely confused. It’s a wagon train led by Luke Wilson (never a cowboy, ever) who faces some class issues – a wealthy, oblivious couple is working class – and some Peeping Toms. It’s all too much, but add in a dash of anti-China xenophobia, some budding romances and gruesome scalpings.
Director of photography J. Michael Muro romanticizes nothing and grinds the action into the smoke, heat and chicken-pecker dust of the West, so much so that at points you could taste a grain in your teeth. It helps that Costner has positioned everyone at the top of a scenic hill, showing their profiles.
Part of the problem with “Chapter 1” is that the editing not only has too many characters, but it’s also pretty bad. Viewers will grapple with some violent cuts where Costner has moved the action forward months within the same chapter without any clues.
Yet Costner is still an impressive director with an eye for the natural beauty of the American West and a soft spot for loners. Yes, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” is a huge swing that can’t really stand on its own. But we owe it to him to ride next to him a little more. Let’s see if he can hold the landing.
“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” a Warner Bros. release. which hits theaters Friday, is rated R for “violence and some nudity and sexuality.” Playing time: 180 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
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MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17s require an accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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Online: https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/horizon-an-american-saga-chapter-1
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Mark Kennedy is present http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
