Horizon (Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1)
U.S.A. 2024

Opening 22 Aug 2024

Directed by: Kevin Costner
Writing credits: Jon Baird, Kevin Costner, Mark Kasdan
Principal actors: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe

Academy award winning (Dance with the Wolves, 1990) director-co-writer-star-producer Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga – Kapitel 1 epic four-part narrative incorporates the forward surge of immigrants and earlier arrivals looking to homestead their own land, people running from something and/or toward finding or expanding fortunes already in place, and the explorers or restless at heart. The lure of an endless frontier was an unquenchable incentive many felt compelled to follow. As well, set in the mid-nineteenth century the fledgling nation was at the crucial juncture of a Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865).

Horizon takes some concentration because, like the times, its constant, continuous movement manifests the country’s restlessness and residents. Union and Confederate soldiers, deserters and destructors, wagon trains, trappers, cattlemen and newspaper men, pleasure givers and takers, forts and Indigenous peoples flow on/off screen as colorful characters bump into one another, fledgling towns give way to open plains and rough camps that spin into swirling motifs, and constellations to straddle the untamed territories, or simply disappear.

The cast inhabit their characters with talented tough passion. Central are Sienna Miller as the pioneer wife/widow Frances Kittredge, Kevin Costner’s rootless wanderer Hayes Ellison, and Sam Worthington as the rescuer Sargent Gephart. Georgia MacPhail as Francis’ daughter, whose family shatters one unforgivable night; Michael Rooker as the Sgt. Major, plus a slew of others serving at the overstretched and undermanned Army post Colonel Houghton (Danny Huston) commands; Abbey Lee’s spicey, gutsy Marigold held in check by Jena Malone’s troubled Ellen Harvey and a toddler. Apaches protecting their land and livelihoods against never-ending waves of pale-faced peoples portrayed by Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Etienne Kellici and many more. And the nefarious, bullying Sykes clan doing Mama Dale Dickey’s bidding—Jamie Campbell Bower, Charles Halford, Joe Burns, Jon Beavers, et al. Luke Wilson and Lindsay Foster portray the dreamers, Antonio D. Charity and Adriane McLean the goodhearted, and H. Jack Williams the scurrilous scalp hunter.

Costner’s thirty-years-in-the-writing script “outlined how really tough it was,” and “I wanted it to be as raw as it is;” he co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Baird. Miller noted, “the script was like reading a novel … it wasn’t pursuing action per se, it was mining human behavior.” The cast unanimously praised Costner’s directing as “incredibly meticulous,” “he trusted us,” “he delegates,” and “…makes every frame come alive.” Together with J. Michael Muro’s expansive cinematography, Derek R. Hill’s production design, Lisa Lovaas’s costume design and John Debney’s praiseworthy music. The film is one of four pieces of an American tapestry of cultures, customs, controversies and stoic courage covering twelve years and a handful of connecting central characters. Chapter 2 is scheduled to premiere at September’s Venice Film Festival. (Marinell Haegelin)