“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” (2024) is directed by Kevin Costner and has a loaded cast including himself, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Will Patton, Jamie Campbell Bower, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson and Jeff Fahey. The film follows different groups of people in the Old West as the Civil War begins to divide the country.
A film like “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” was an expensive gamble. The film cost $100 million to produce, but only grossed a little over $35 million worldwide.
It is unfortunate that Costner could make an elaborate western with dozens of familiar faces, breathtaking set design and locations and fail at the box office. People may point to the film’s runtime, clocking in at 181 minutes, as one of the main reasons for its downfall.
The attention span of audiences has decreased gradually over time. A study conducted by Microsoft in 2015 found the average attention span decreased from 12 seconds to eight seconds from 2000 to 2013. Despite the decline in adult attention span, film such as Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” (2023), which also clocked in at three hours long, was the third highest grossing film of 2023.
With other films of similar length performing well, the runtime of “Horizon” is not solely to blame. Other factors people have noted, such as a disinterest in the western genre, have also floated around as potential sources. However, with film like Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” (2015) performing well despite its western setting, this is also not the root cause.
What held “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” from being something special is its convoluted plot. The film has multiple storylines following characters who are not integral to the main plot. Costner is expecting the audience to care about these characters in an effort to draw in an anticipated audience for the film’s many sequels. However, the film does not establish the characters well enough for moviegoers to care what happens next.
Additionally, the pacing is all over the place. Some stories will have more screen time than others, leaving the audience to witness a cut to a story with characters they have not seen for 15 minutes. A good example of this is a story involving actor Owen Crow Shoe playing an Apache leader named Pionsenay. He is only given two scenes in the whole film and is never seen again until his name appears in the end credits. With better spacing or removal of some stories, the film could provide enough time to resonate each arc with the audience. Overall, the film would have worked much better as a television show alongside “Yellowstone” (2018–) and “1883” (2021–2022).
However, there are still compelling characters throughout the film. The two strongest character arcs happen with Hayes Ellison (Costner), who is on the run, and Frances Kittredge (Miller), who is on journey with her daughter after her home is destroyed. Everyone else is kind of pushed to the wayside.
Despite these criticisms, the film does a handful of things well. While most of the characters are underdeveloped, the acting from every cast member is great. No one phones in their performance, no matter how much time they are given. The film also has stunning cinematography, costumes, set design and production.
“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” is an expensive gamble from Costner. For Costner, it resulted in the second chapter in a four-film planned series to be canceled. This film isn’t a necessity to watch, but one to see and decide where one can go from here.
Rating: 2.5/5
