Susan Granger’s review of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” (Warner Bros.)
After innumerable accolades for portraying Montana rancher John Dutton in “Yellowstone,” Kevin Costner left that successful TV series to pursue his passion project: “Horizon: An American Saga” – four epic films about the settling of the West before and after the Civil War.
At three hours, one minute – the same running time as Costner’s Oscar-winning “Dances With Wolves ” – “Horizon: Chapter 1” was just released. Costner is – literally – betting the ranch on its success, having mortgaged his 10-acres in Santa Barbara to help finance this budding franchise.
Co-written by Costner and Jon Baird (“Tetris,” “Filth”), it’s directed by Costner, who makes the most of J. Michael Muro’s spectacular cinematography, beginning in an 1859 township called Horizon in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley, where White Mountain Apaches attack the homesteaders who are claiming ownership of their ancestral lands.
Escaping from the massacre that took the lives of her husband (Tim Guinee) and teenage son (Hayes Costner, Kevin’s real-life son), Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and her daughter Lizzie (Georgia MacPhail) take refuge in a nearby fort, manned by Union Cavalry Colonel Houghton (Danny Huston), First Lieutenant Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington), and Sgt. Major Riordan (Michael Rooker).
Meanwhile in Montana Territory, abused Lucy (Jena Malone) wreaks revenge on lecherous James Sykes (Charles Halford), fleeing with their infant son, infuriating the mean Sykes matriarch (Dale Rickey) who dispatches her other two sons, Caleb (James Campbell Bower) and Junior (Job Beavers), to bring back her grandchild.
Then there’s laconic “saddle tramp” Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner) hooking up with opportunistic prostitute Marigold (Abbey Lee), who babysits for Lucy, now married to kindly Walter Childs (Michael Angarano).
Plodding behind, Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson) shepherds a wagon train filled with even more settlers, including bumbling Brits (Ella Hunt, Tom Payne).
Bottom Line: Too many characters pursuing different storylines. Eventually, they’re bound to intersect but – in this incoherent Chapter 1 – they’re unstructured, clichéd and confusing.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” is a surprisingly scattered, stilted, sprawling 6 – with Chapter 2 scheduled for release on August 16 and Chapter 3 still in production.
