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Western saga by and with Kevin Costner – “Horizon”
It’s the summer of westerns: Viggo Mortensen’s “The Dead Don’t Hurt” has just been released, and this week Kevin Costner’s “Horizon” follows – the first of a four-part film series. The saga about the settlement of the American West, with a prominent cast including Costner himself, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington and Danny Huston, celebrated its premiere at the Cannes Festival and was celebrated with minutes of standing ovations. However, mixed reviews followed and the film fell far short of expectations when it was released in the USA. The American distributor has cancelled the theatrical release of the second film for the time being, but it is due to be released in cinemas here in November.
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The film’s title is metaphorically ambiguous: the horizon seems so close, but you can never reach it. It is about the settlement of the American West in the mid-19th century, over a period of 12 years: before, during and after the Civil War in the fictional town of Horizon. Leaflets that are repeatedly passed around in the film advertise the good life in the future, which still has to be fought for – against the elements, against the indigenous people.
“You just have to stand by the river and you will see what drives these people”says the mayor of Horizon, played by Danny Huston. “It’s what brought them across the ocean to this country. Hope.”
Image: TOBIS FilmReinterpreting America’s founding myths
The Western genre has always fascinated Kevin Costner as an actor and director, starting with the first leading role of his career, as an actor in Lawrence Kasdan’s “Silverado” to most recently as the toxic-cool patriarch in five seasons of Taylor Sheridan’s Western series “Yellowstone”, as director of his directorial debut “Dances with Wolves” through “Open Range” to the epic Western saga “Horizon”.
The series “Yellowstone” marked a triumphant comeback for Costner, whose momentum he used to make the western of all westerns, which he has dreamed of for more than 30 years. Even before “Dances with Wolves”, in which he took a much more differentiated, tolerant look at the indigenous peoples in 1990, he was a pioneer in reinterpreting the founding myths of the United States long before it became fashionable. With a long breath and from many multicultural perspectives, Costner spent 12 years retracing the settlement of the American West.
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Between existential fear and hope for the future
Costner unfolds this violent story in the standard situations of the Western: from the hardships of a covered wagon trek to the attack of indigenous people on a settlement and the soldiers’ fort as a bastion against the enemy forces. However, the times when such stories were only told from the perspective of white men are over; “Horizon” takes a look at indigenous people alongside white settlers, farmers and businessmen, soldiers and civilians, fortune hunters and swashbucklers, and women alongside men.
Kevin Costner als Lone Ranger
Not only does the star direct without pushing himself into the foreground, he also takes on one of the central roles. It’s almost an hour before he comes riding in as a variation of the Lone Ranger who has already seen a lot: at peace with himself – someone who is enough in himself, in a quiet, reserved way that draws the gaze of women who flirt with him as well as hot-headed men who challenge him. Although he wants to stay out of it, he quickly finds himself drawn into a conflict.
Image: TOBIS FilmDarker and more realistic than the classic Western stories
With a running time of 12 hours, the four planned films combine to form the epic length of a television series. You can feel the DNA of Taylor Sheridan’s hit series “Yellowstone”, in which Costner played the cattle baron John Dutton for five seasons, and also in “Horizon” the love for the genre, as well as the modern, multi-perspective narrative and the tone, which is darker and more realistic.
However, the stirring archaic power is missing. Many locations and characters are only sketched out in a jumpy manner, similar to a pilot film. Nevertheless, there are good reasons to see the grandiose panoramas in the cinema, the many dazzling actors in leading and supporting roles – from Siena Miller, who becomes a single widow after an Indian raid, to Sam Worthington as a cavalry captain, Danny Huston as an unscrupulous businessman, Owen Crow Shoe as a hot-headed Indian warmonger and Abbey Lee as a cunning prostitute, to name just a few of the approximately 170 speaking roles.
Above all, “Horizon” is a promise that the next films, some of which have already been shot, must fulfill.
As of 21.08.2024
