★★★
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is the cinematic equivalent of “this meeting could have been an email”. What is indeed an interesting and ambitious experiment from Kevin Costner turned out to be a part one that is 3 hours of pure setup. A tedious one to get through. It's an impressive effort, but it naturally feels incomplete, serving as an extended introduction to many characters and storylines, much like the initial episodes of a miniseries. It feels like a 3 hour compilation of the first acts of 5 different movies — and not one plot thread is approaching a payoff or even a cliffhanger by the movie’s end. I expect a certain lack of resolution with a part one but I can’t even say I fully grasp the story I’m 3 hours into. Perhaps it will work better when taken as a whole with the other upcoming parts, but as of right now, I feel like I wasted my time. I want to live in a world where a filmmaker of Costner’s caliber can make this massive epic for theaters. I just can’t say I’m invested in the journey for anything other than borrowed trust in Costner as a filmmaker and high-fiving him for pursuing his passion. Maybe part 2 will lock me in? This first chapter is undeniably grand, with a sprawling, romantic depiction of the Old West, high production values, solid performances, and an epic score by John Debney. However, the writing feels archaic, often meandering with disconnected threads. It’s hard to judge since it’s not a complete story, but I’m reserving my full opinion until I see the rest of what Costner has created. I love that Costner bet on himself and delivered his love letter to a dying form of movie-making with no concern for the money, but I think this may have become a project that is too ambitious to pull off. Very conflicting and frustrating as a movie fan who loves ambitious, grand filmmaking, but can’t stand the overindulgence of this filmmaker who essentially made a vanity project.
Film Info:
Comments