Time: 181 Minutes
Cast:
Kevin Costner as Hayes Ellison
Sienna Miller as Frances Kittredge
Sam Worthington as First Lt. Trent Gephardt
Giovanni Ribisi as H. Silas Pickering
Michael Rooker as Sgt. Major Thomas Riordan
Danny Huston as Col. Albert Houghton
Jena Malone as Ellen Harvey/Lucy
Michael Angarano as Walter Childs
Abbey Lee as Marigold
Jamie Campbell Bower as Caleb Sykes
Jon Beavers as Junior Sykes
Owen Crow Shoe as Pionsenay
Tatanka Means as Taklishim
Luke Wilson as Matthew Van Weyden
Ella Hunt as Juliette Chesney
Tom Payne as Hugh Proctor
Georgia MacPhail as Elizabeth Kittredge
Will Patton as Owen Kittredge
Isabelle Fuhrman as Diamond Kittredge
Jeff Fahey as Tracker
Director: Kevin Costner

I definitely knew of Horizon: An American Saga. It was Kevin Costner’s ambitious western epic; not just a high budget 3 hour long epic, but 4 of them telling one grand story. The reactions to its first chapter have been very mixed and divided, but I wanted to check it out for myself. While it is definitely flawed, I actually liked it.

One thing I didn’t know going in is that this movie is made up of many separate characters and plotlines, and juggles between these multiple stories to create a bigger picture. It’s not exactly a revolutionary or new western, the things you see here have been in past westerns, it’s just that you are getting to see a lot more of them in one movie (or rather four). It is deliberately aiming to be a tribute to classic westerns, while also aiming to show the darker side of the frontier. As I said before, this is chapter 1 of 4 and while it seems obvious, I was surprised at how much it felt like a first chapter.  It is very much an introduction to characters and storylines and is setting up a much larger story. By the end of the movie, you really feel like you’ve only seen a quarter of a story, and even a quarter of each of the individual storylines. Because of this, it is very hard to judge the overall story; you don’t know who this will all fit together and doesn’t function as a standalone movie. That being said, I do admire and appreciate how it takes its time with its setup and story. Kevin Costner himself only appears an hour into the movie, and he’s only a lead in one of the many storylines it has. I generally found the movie to be compelling and I wasn’t bored, even if some storylines were more interesting than others. You definitely feel the length and slow pace at times, mainly because you are experiencing the first quarter of multiple storylines and less that the movie is 3 hours long.

Horizon has an absolutely massive ensemble cast and on the whole they are very solid, with the likes of Kevin Costner, Sam Worthington, Michael Rooker, Sienna Miller, Jena Malone, Isabelle Fuhrman, Ella Hunt, and Luke Wilson delivering some good work here.

This is very well directed by Kevin Costner, it feels on such a grand scale and the high budget is on display with the large set pieces. The cinematography is incredible, capturing some beautiful and lush landscapes and locations, the costumes and production designs are top notch, and the score from John Debney is fittingly stirring.

While it is messy, incomplete and definitely feels like a quarter of a much wider story, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is an ambitious, grand, and intriguing enough western epic, greatly directed and well performed by its stacked ensemble cast. I know that we are getting Chapter 2 this year, but based on the divisive reactions so far, I hope Chapter 3 and 4 do get made.