Kevin Costner’s new Western epic may have received a 10-minute standing ovation at Cannes, but when critics got back to their hotel rooms from the festival’s screenings, they posted reviews for it. Horizon: An American Saga , Chapter 1 who were far less enthusiastic.
Horizon It’s the first of writer-director-star Costner’s massive four-film gamble, in which he used one of his houses to help finance it (he spent $38 million out of his own pocket for a film with a $90 million budget). Chapter 1 It’s a three-hour film, and focuses mainly on setting the stage – introducing a large cast of characters, and promising more dramatic events to come in the rest of the movie.
There haven’t been many reviews so far for this post-Civil War western, but some of the early criticisms have been pretty harsh. The most common complaint is that the film doesn’t feel like cinema, but rather like a trio of back-to-back episodes of a new TV series, and that it’s confusing as the film jumps between the four central stories. Some are even comparing it to a Francis Ford Coppola film MetropolitanAnother directorial passion project decades in the making that has garnered rave reviews at the festival.
Here are some early review highlights:
, The Hollywood Reporter calling it “a clumsily exhausting film…It’s like a limited series overhauled as a movie, but more of a hastily produced rough cut than a release ready for any format. This first of a quartet of films is littered with unnecessary scenes and characters that go nowhere, taking too long to tie up its messy plot threads…Any of these storylines could have sustained an hour of compelling television, but they don’t add much to this awkwardly stitched quilt, which hardly offers room for anyone’s experiences to resonate…Costner would be a reassuring presence in a form-fitting role. He was never an actor with the widest range, but always engaging—even when he comes off as sloppy of late, as he does here, and teeters on the gloomy side.”
, Vanity Fair It’s called “more like” water World instead dances with WolvesA mix of cliched plots presented in washed-out colors (and washed-out performances), Horizon could be a rival Metropolitan As for the biggest American boondoggle at this year’s Cannes … Perhaps all (the stories) will come together coherently, even poignantly, in Chapter 2, but there’s no reason to believe so. This first attempt sets a table that seems impossible to save until the end. At least. Horizon Achieved a staggering achievement: it makes one wonder if maybe we were a little too tough postman,
, IndieWire called it “the dullest cinematic vanity project of the century” and wrote, “Horizon Beautifully shot by J. Michael Murro with a capital letter H, it has the aspect ratio and camera placement of a high budget television series. Which, along with the film’s clumsy episodic structure, leads you to believe that Costner was perhaps trying to outdo Taylor Sheridan taylor sheridanThe Yellowstone His drama with the showrunner is rumored as the show is reportedly set to return without Costner. His futile attempts to craft an honest Western opus featuring Costner, in which he has invested a lot of his own money, are admirable mainly for what he has at stake here. But Horizon The other vanity project that cost over $100 million at Cannes – Francis Ford Coppola’s Metropolitan – seems, by comparison, the work of an unaccustomed genius.”
Guardian: “At a tedious three hours, Kevin Costner’s handsome-looking but oddly dull new Western doesn’t deliver much in the way of satisfying storytelling. Of course, this is the first installment in a multi-part saga for which Costner is director, co-writer and star. But it somehow sets up nothing exciting in its various unresolved tales, and doesn’t leave us in suspense for much else.”
, ScreenDaily said the film “veers between fascination and frustration” … “Beautifully filmed, with adept control of period detail and a star-studded cast, Costner’s Civil War epic offers an old-fashioned celebration of the pioneer spirit — and a cluster of stories that never find time to connect before the movie moves on … Viewers in the mood for a lush, old-fashioned Utah-shot saddle saga probably won’t be disappointed, though they’ll almost certainly lean toward an older demographic … But even a viewer who enjoyed Costner’s contemplative Montana bullet ballet open Range (2003) risk being isolated Horizon‘The sudden twists and turns between the various storylines.’
, Diversity wrote that “this feels like the seed for a miniseries. What little there is is thin and not very substantial; the film doesn’t make an impact, and it rarely seems to be aiming in a clear direction. Costner, as an actor, doesn’t appear for over an hour, and while he plays a gruff horse trader who’s more than a horse trader, you get the feeling the film lacks substance. After a while, you realize that Horizon isn’t just a fancy TV series made with more expensive and stronger production values. It’s to install For a TV series … the real problem is the script (by Costner and Jon Baird), which is shapeless. It doesn’t weave these stories together; it piles them up next to each other like a series of caboose.
— RogerEbert.com gave it two stars out of five: “This is possibly the first film Horizon The series does a good job of laying the groundwork for future films, and continuing the momentum that Costner had gained before he left the industry. YellowstoneThis single film is exhausting to watch. It hardly gives the audience what they want: to see Costner out in the open. It gives us few memorable characters other than Costner: I can’t remember any of the character’s names without looking at my notes. Relying on potential future films to bring the whole concept to life seems like a debilitating mistake. Horizon Many great things remain far beyond our reach.”
Yet there are some positive reviews as well, such as…
Wire It’s called “grandfather cinema” (in a good sense): “Part of the joy Horizon It’s a magnificent thing, on the whole – with places like mountains and buttes and mesas, who needs CG? But its texture lives in the small, obvious details: we often learn about the characters from the way they do things, whether it’s honest physical labor or something else. Perhaps its full grandeur won’t be apparent until these stories are complete in part two. But there’s more than enough grandeur here to keep going.”
Horizon It also stars Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Houston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, and Jamie Campbell Bower.
Chapter 1 The film will be released in theaters on June 28, followed two months later by the second chapter. Costner is currently filming the third film.
