REVIEW: Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (2024)

Movie Reviews

Horizon: An American Saga is Kevin Costner’s self-funded, starred, directed, and produced Western epic film series. Chapter 1 of 4 is out now, following several groups of characters in the American Wild West in the days of the Civil War. I typically like Westerns and haven’t seen any involving Costner that I didn’t enjoy. That being said, I wasn’t impressed with the trailers for Horizon. They didn’t convince me the movie would be bad, but failed to hype me up. It wasn’t clear to me what the story was about, aside from the usual Western staples like cowboys, women in need, and old-fashioned shoot-outs. Keeping in mind that this is one part of a four-chapter story, how does Horizon shape up? 

Chapter 1 primarily follows three characters/storylines. You have the Kittredge family, with mother Frances (Sienna Miller) as a major point-of-view character; Jena Malone as Ellen Harvey, a battered woman; and, of course, Kevin Costner as Hayes Ellison. Hayes is a lone wolf who prefers to avoid drama and conflict, but it seems to find him anyway. He rolls into a new town to work quietly, but a woman (certainly not a lady) named Marigold (Abbey Lee) drags him into the fight of his life. Frances struggles to make a new life for her daughter Elizabeth (Georgia McPhail) in the wake of tragedy as Ellen tries to escape her past. 

This movie has a lot of characters, and I mean that to the max. I struggled to keep some of them straight in my mind and will probably have to look up some names for this review. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll mainly focus on Hayes, Ellen, and Frances, and the characters directly involved with them. But we also have a wagon caravan headed by Luke Wilson’s Matthew Van Weyden. Van Weyden tries to keep the peace among his charges despite laziness, greed, and even voyeurism dividing the camp. Horizon has a lot of good ideas and characters to play with, but you’re probably starting to see my main issue with the movie. There are so many characters and so little context for much of the film’s runtime that Horizon sometimes left me confused. The movie begins with a major character doing something drastic that sets the rest of the film’s story in motion. However, I struggled to understand who this character was, why they did this, and how it relates to the rest of the story until the middle of the movie. I pay full attention at the movies; phone off, minimal talking (and only about the movie), totally focused, so it’s not often I fail to understand what’s happening in the film. 

I know it’s not just me, either; my husband confused this initial character with another central point-of-view character, and I had to explain it to him once I understood. We ended up chatting with another lady at the movies who had similar issues. This confusion doesn’t ruin the movie or even come close to it. I enjoyed Horizon a lot, and the audience I was with also seemed to as well. But I feel like some connective tissue could have better established the various storylines and POVs, making them less easily mixed up and clarifying which story we’re currently following. Some characters even physically resemble each other; two important little boys look alike, and I wasn’t sure which was which for a while. I wonder if Horizon would work better as a TV show, where they can slow down even more and give each character/storyline more space to develop independently. I know this is part 1 of 4, but I still need to know what’s happening to appreciate the story fully. With multiple interwoven stories and so much ground to cover, I imagine Horizon is a film series only because it’s too expensive to throw on a streaming service or plain old cable. 

However, that money is well-spent, and Horizon’s cinematography and music will quickly make up for any narrative confusion. Costner has a strong vision for this film, wordlessly conveying the freedom and expanse of the old West without shying away from the wicked deeds some do with that freedom. Some of the film’s most memorable shots don’t even involve the characters, just sweeping landscapes, arid deserts, and imposing mountains. John Debney provides the movie with a beautiful, emotionally affecting musical score that perfectly highlights the epic setting and smaller human moments equally well. The acting in Horizon helps a lot with getting invested in the characters, especially once it’s clear who they are and what they stand for. Sienna Miller and Kevin Costner are the obvious standouts, and their characters are at the movie’s heart. I’m most looking forward to seeing what happens to Hayes and Frances in the next part. I had mixed feelings about plenty of other characters, like Marigold, the wild woman who ropes Hayes into trouble in the first place. She has one redeeming trait, one choice she makes that is both admirable and selfless. Aside from that, Marigold is lascivious, self-interested, judgemental, and disrespectful to others, often including Hayes, despite all he does for her. I also found myself ambivalent about the Proctors, a married couple among the caravan. Something bad happens; don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely wrong and sad for them. But one of them is asking for it, and other actions leading up to this event made me question if they even belong with these people. The supporting cast is wonderful, involving talented character actors like Danny Huston and Michael Rooker. Tatanka Means plays Taklishim, a member of the Apache tribe; Means also starred in Reservation Dogs and Killers of the Flower Moon, and his father was actor and Native American activist Russell Means. 

If you are considering seeing Horizon, I recommend it for the cinematography, the acting, and the lovely original music. Just know that even an alert, interested viewer may sometimes be confused or frustrated. I plan to see Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 again before Chapter 2 comes out, and I recommend the same to others. I have a feeling we will all understand and enjoy Chapter 2 more if we re-watch Chapter 1.