Shadows on the Wall | Horizon: An American Saga Chapter I

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter I

dir Kevin Costner
scr Jon Baird, Kevin Costner
prd Kevin Costner, Mark Gillard, Howard Kaplan
with Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Georgia MacPhail, Luke Wilson, Dale Dickey, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jon Beavers, Danny Huston, Michael Rooker, Isabelle Fuhrman, Michael Angarano
release US/UK 28.Jun.24
24/US New Line 3h01

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Kevin Costner takes a deep dive into the Wild West with this three-hour epic, which sets up several story strands and ends on a preview of what's to come. So essentially we're watching an ambitious TV pilot on the big screen, and it's a robustly entertaining collection of scenes. Even with minimal character set-up, the people and storylines are gripping and sharply well-played against glorious landscapes.

In 1859, developers launch the town of Horizon in Apache hunting grounds, with predictably brutal results. Survivor Frances (Miller) and her daughter Lizzie (MacPhail) recover in a military encampment under the protection of Captain Trent (Worthington) and commander Albert (Huston). Meanwhile in Montana, Sykes matriarch (Dickey) and her thuggish sons (Beavers and Bower) vow to find her husband's mistress (Malone) and her child, who's now in the care of prostitute Marigold (Lee) and cowboy Hayes (Costner). And in Wyoming, Matthew (Wilson) is leading a wagon train full of settlers whom the natives are watching closely.

Several more threads weave into the film, including brief glimpses into the Apache community, with differing views represented by gung-ho warrior Pionsenay (Shoe) and conflicted family man Taklishim (Means). There are many more characters taking their own journeys through these various events, which span around five years, leading up to the start of the Civil War. It's not difficult to follow the narrative strands, and they're edited together adeptly, but this film is all about build-up, so those who survive are still in rather precarious places at the end.

Performances are understated, so will resonate stronger on the big screen than smaller ones. At the centre are several powerful women, skilfully played by Miller, Malone, Lee, McPhail, Dickey and others, each with her own challenges in male-dominated places. And Costner, Worthington and Wilson are solid as sensible, thoughtful men amid others who prefer to shoot first. The textured roles hold the interest; even hotheads like Bowers' wild-eyed brat are fascinating. So tension builds sharply into each conflict, including outbursts of gruesome inhumanity.

Costner's grand-scale approach is a refreshing change from the usual over-focussed blockbuster, although it's hard not to think that the screenplay could have been shaped to give this opening episode a momentous arc. As it is, it's an interwoven series of absorbing set-pieces that generate thrills, drama, horror, intrigue and romance. It's both grittier and more nuanced than most Westerns, and because we become invested in these people and their world, it leaves us with some anticipation for what's coming.

themes, language, violence, sexuality 25.Jun.24

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