Horizon: An American Saga, Ch 1

On Monday, June 24th, I attended the LA premiere of the new Western movie saga Horizon (2024), written and directed by Kevin Costner, who also stars as one of the main characters. Although the movie poster only shows Costner's character, the film centers on the different characters' stories during the 1860's and their journey across the US to settle in a new piece of land named Horizon. Horizon Ch1 achieves to capture the nostalgic elements of the Western genre with guns and arrows, indigenous Americans against white settlers, and wide open spaces in nature seen on horseback. In addition, it includes melodramatic elements to intensify the characters for their goodness or their malice. However, unlike other Western films, Horizon Ch 1 does not serve as a movie with character arcs, plot, and resolution; rather it functions as really long establishing scenes of different characters (too many to count) whose story has barely begun. The movie exists to set up the next one rather than to stand by itself and provide audiences with the satisfaction of a narrative,  which unfortunately is not uncommon anymore but always disappointing. At least audiences can leave the theatre prepared for Horizon Ch 2 (released on August 16, 2024) after watching the previews that show before the credits roll.

Movie poster for Horizon Ch 1, An American Saga

At the premiere, Kevin Costner gave a brief speech before the screening and told the audience that back then people could only rely on luck, an important theme of the film. This proved to be true in the film since the characters endure misfortunes thrown upon them. One of these instances happens to Costner's character when he finds himself caught in the middle of a persecution (which does not involve him), but makes a decision that demonstrates his role as a hero. His character appears late in the movie, but feels important to viewers since he makes the decision to protect weaker individuals despite not knowing anything else about them. Throughout the movie, I kept thinking how the rest of the characters lack this decision-making power and passively undergo unlucky circumstances. I understand the matter of luck in a no-man's-land Civil War Era, yet luck alone cannot connect different characters in different situations and passivity does not lead to character growth. Nonetheless, this might be the point of the first movie, to introduce the characters, but most importantly the hero, and keep us in the dark until the following chapters of the saga.

Kevin Costner at the LA premiere of Horizon Ch1