Directed by Kevin Costner, Horizon: An American Saga is an expansive, fresh interpretation of the classic Western genre. With an all-star cast and a beautiful frontier backdrop, Horizon highlights a compelling story with multiple interwoven protagonists, offering audiences a unique look into the origins of the American West.
The film is the first in a planned four-part series and is set in a vast, Western-themed cinematic universe. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, most of the film's characters are doomed travelers heading west in search of a better life.
The film is broad in scope, as it covers a wide range of characters’ stories, but it manages to create an atmosphere that focuses on the struggles of the everyday traveller in this period, rather than forcing a historical or political narrative.
A still from Kevin Costner's role as Hayes Ellison in directorial Horizon: An American Saga. Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema.
“Our research has tended to focus on lesser-known figures and their firsthand, contemporary accounts of the era and its challenges,” the film's screenwriter John Baird wrote in a document shared with The Daily Caller.
“If we look back and squint our eyes many years from now, we might see the outlines of the westward migration, the disappearance of the frontier, the Civil War and the Apache Wars,” Baird continued. “But their letters and diaries paint a much more real, practical, if not more profound, picture of early American life.”
A running theme throughout the film is the town of Horizon, an idyllic hamlet advertised in flyers to which all of the film's characters seem to be heading.
“We travel with these people, we struggle with them, we witness their good and their evil, we avoid death, migration and boredom with them, and we find that these individual stories overlap, over time, to form a collective history – a vision of a city and the difficult times of the birth of a nation,” Baird continues.
Filmed amid the stunning scenery of Zion National Park in Utah, a cinematic landscape of mountains, desert, blue skies and wide open spaces, the film is visually stunning and its cinematography will transport you back to an exhilarating period in our nation's history.
““This landscape is so dramatic, so beautiful, so vast. It's endless. The beauty is in the starkness,” Costner said. “Where developers see thousands of houses, I see open space that represents the lost Garden of Eden.”
While many classic Westerns depict conflict between settlers and native peoples, Horizon tells an old story in a fresh and exciting way. The film depicts a brutal and harrowing attack by native peoples on an American settlement, including scalpings, burning down homes, and all the other bloody atrocities that western fans are accustomed to seeing (tastefully, of course). (Related article: Kevin Costner reflects on what's driven his success after decades in the spotlight)
But the film also explores the political dynamics within the film's main Native American tribe, the White Mountain Apaches, and their internal disputes surrounding their war with the whites.
“Though the story is told primarily from the perspective of the settlers, it was very important to me in showcasing the Native Americans with their dignity and ferocity, because they were fighting for their way of life, their religion and their existence,” Costner noted.
The storyline is actually made up of multiple stories that intertwine and promise to be an ever-expanding saga. Besides Costner's masterful portrayal of Hayes Ellison, there are other noteworthy performances from veteran actors such as Sam Worthington, Luke Wilson, Michael Rooker and Sienna Miller.
A still of Sienna Miller's character in Kevin Costner's upcoming film Horizon: An American Saga. Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema.
A still of Luke Wilson's character in Kevin Costner's upcoming film Horizon: An American Saga. Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema.
A still of Sam Worthington's character in Kevin Costner's upcoming film Horizon: An American Saga. Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema.
One small but notable role that I found particularly fascinating is that of Junior Sykes, the younger Sykes brother and antagonistic brawler to Costner's character, played by Jamie Campbell Bower.
All in all, this three-hour feature tells a fascinating and original series of stories in a genre that's already been all but exhausted, while also setting the stage for a future trilogy and giving each of its controversial main characters (I counted seven) the potential to have their own fleshed-out story.
The film will be released in theaters nationwide on June 28th.
