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Horizon: An American Saga- Chapter 1<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 181 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, some nudity and sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kevin Costner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon Baird and Kevin Costner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: J. Michael Muro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 28, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Huston, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Luke Wilson, Will Patton, Tim Guinee, Ella Hunt, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jon Beavers, Charles Halford, Joe Burns, Dale Dickey, Michael Angarano, Jeff Fahey, Isabelle Furman, Hallie Purser, Naomi Winders, Colin Cunningham, Scott Haze, Tom Payne, Jim Lau, Georgia MacPhail, Douglas Smith, Roger Ivens, Larry Bagby, Hayes Costner, Daniel Link, Claudia Conner, John Coinman, Etienne Kellici.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0A funny thing happened while I was prepping to write my review of Horizon: An American Saga- Chapter 1<\/strong>. I was under the impression Kevin Costner\u2019s latest western opus was supposed to be a two-part project with Chapter 2 set to open on August 16. I was wrong. It\u2019s actually a four-movie series. Chapter 3 went into production this past May and 4 is in development. WOW! Now that\u2019s what I call ambitious. That bit of information compelled me to award Chapter 1<\/strong> an additional half-star for effort. I don\u2019t often do that as you know.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Now let\u2019s talk about the film itself. Despite its lofty ambitions, I couldn\u2019t get into it. I don\u2019t mind that it\u2019s three hours long. I have the patience to sit through lengthy movies at the cinema as long as my bladder cooperates. The story, which is all over the place, didn\u2019t pull me in at any point. I was too busy trying to follow the convoluted narrative. This movie jumps around a lot. It doesn\u2019t connect the stories and characters right away. It\u2019s a slow build to something that doesn\u2019t happen in this first chapter. It\u2019s really more of an introduction to the characters that we will presumably get to know better over the next three films. Good luck with that. You\u2019re going to need a scorecard to keep track of who everybody is.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0What are the plotlines introduced in Horizon: Chapter 1<\/strong>? I\u2019ll do my best to sum them up. The first hour mainly deals with a group of settlers who meet a grisly fate at the hands of Apache warriors in San Pedro Valley. Only a few lucky souls survive. Among them are widowed Frances (Miller, American Sniper) and teenage daughter (newcomer MacPhail). They are taken to safety by Union officer Lt. Trent Gephardt (Worthington, Avatar). Meanwhile, two brothers (Beavers and Bower) track down the woman (Malone, The Neon Demon) who shot their father (Halford, Outer Banks) to get out of an abusive relationship. She took their baby with her and Dad wants him (and only him) back.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0In the second hour, Costner finally shows up. He plays Hayes Ellison, a horse trader who comes to a small town in the Wyoming Territory to do some business. While there, he has a run-in with a gunman who wants to hurt his new friend, local sex worker Marigold (Lee, Mad Max: Fury Road). They have to get out of Dodge and quickly. The final hour shifts its focus to a wagon train making its way through Indian territory in Montana. The leader Matthew Van Weyden (Wilson, The Royal Tenenbaums) has plenty to deal with on what could potentially be a dangerous journey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The one thing connecting all the stories in Horizon: Chapter 1<\/strong> starts off as a mystery as stays that way throughout. Somebody named Pickering is printing and distributing pamphlets for a place called Horizon. It promises to be a land of plenty, but one can\u2019t help thinking there\u2019s something sinister at play here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Given the grand scope of Horizon: Chapter 1<\/strong>, it\u2019s obvious Costner is going for something along the lines of 1962\u2019s How the West Was Won. For those who don\u2019t know, the 1962 epic western was shown in a three-strip Cinerama format. It features a high-powered cast that includes Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, John Wayne, Gregory Peck and Henry Fonda. It was a big undertaking that mostly worked. I only saw it on TV, but I can imagine it looked great up there on the big screen. I don\u2019t feel that way about Horizon: Chapter 1<\/strong>. It\u2019s more like a TV miniseries that got a last-minute theatrical release. It didn\u2019t blow me away with its visuals or scale.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Costner has found his new niche playing grizzled older guys. He\u2019s pretty good here playing the kind of laconic guy who doesn\u2019t want to get involved in other people\u2019s business. The acting isn\u2019t too bad in Horizon: Chapter 1<\/strong>. The performances aren\u2019t the problem. It\u2019s that the characters aren\u2019t developed too well. We get more character types than actual characters. This again can be attributed to the fact that this first movie is something of a preamble. Costner the director and co-writer is just getting started. He also ends it with the promise of events to come with a montage of scenes from future installments. It took me a minute to realize that\u2019s what he was doing. It\u2019s kind of cool actually.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The depiction of Native Americans in Horizon: Chapter 1<\/strong> is markedly different from how they were shown in Costner\u2019s directorial debut Dances with Wolves. They were portrayed more sympathetically in the 1990 Best Picture winner. Here, they\u2019re mostly depicted as murderous savages who don\u2019t want the \u201cwhite eyes\u201d on their land. I find that rather interesting given the director and star\u2019s liberal politics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I\u2019m willing to give Costner the benefit of the doubt with Horizon: Chapter 1<\/strong>. I didn\u2019t really care for it. It\u2019s a chore to sit through, but I have to admire how he went all in with this project. It could either make him or break him. Only time will tell. Check with me again after I see Chapter 2 later this summer.<\/p>\r\n Horizon: An American Saga- Chapter 1 (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 181 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, some nudity and sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kevin Costner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jon Baird and Kevin Costner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: J. Michael Muro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 28, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Huston, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-westerns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Horizon-Chapter-1-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/1197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Horizon-Chapter-1-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C775&ssl=1\")
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