Horizon an American Saga Chapter 1 (2024)

I'm a fan of westerns, a genre that doesn't get much love these days. It's rare when a Western shows up in a theater, although there seem to be a plethora of them on streaming services. Actor/director Kevin Costner seems to be a fan of westerns also, he made two terrific westerns in the past, one of which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I have yet to catch up with the various seasons of Yellowstone, and having seen only the first three episodes of the first season I'm not sure how closely it hones to traditional westerns, but from what I saw it sure felt like a contemporary version of some of those old style films.

"Horizon" attempts to do something that is very ambitious, tell a story about the settling of the West, through multiple characters in simultaneous time settings. It also attempts to do this by making the characters complete and the stories unique. As a result of this attention to detail, there is a vast amount of information and story play out. This means that even a 3-hour movie will be insufficient to provide the canvas that screen writer Kevin Costner and his co-authors have come up with. Thus, this movie is only Chapter one. Chapter 2 is complete and will be coming in August, and Chapter 3 is being filled now. It doesn't look like the films will be making back the money that was invested in them, so I have some doubt about whether the fourth film in in The Saga will be completed. That is neither here nor there though, today we are talking about the first film.

From my point of view "Horizon" is managing to do something that is terrific, giving us an engaging story with a multiplicity of plot lines that all managed to engage us but in completely different ways. Some of the stories involve a mystery, that will certainly be explained as we go along. Some of the stories are a bit of a quest, mostly with characters seeking vengeance, or defying the inevitable wave of immigrants seeking a home in the West. It also looks like we are going to get some love stories, a little bit of political intrigue, and definitely more gunfights.

This first chapter opens quietly with a few souls trying to survey property that they hope to turn into a homestead. Then later, as a larger group has assembled in this particular spot, there is a massive Indian raid and and dozens of homesteaders are killed, and the animosity between the Apache's and the new immigrants is set up. Sienna Miller plays a woman whose family is decimated in the attack, and with her preteen daughter, she seeks security and safety with a troop of Calvary men not too far from where the massacre took place. Sam Worthington is the lieutenant who back ends into managing the aftermath of the Indian Massacre, he also looks to be a potential romantic partner for the newly widowed Miller.

It takes more than an hour before Kevin Costner's character appears on screen, but the roots of the conflict that he's going to become involved in were set up early in that first hour with the character played by Jenna Malone. It actually becomes quite complicated, because it is uncertain what Malone's character has done, and why. Let's just say that a toddler, a lady of the evening, and a saddle tramp are about to be connected in a very unusual way. Meanwhile we are also introduced to a wagon train filled with immigrants headed toward Horizon, which is the name of the future town that they hope to establish. They will be facing cultural disputes, personal antagonisms, along with water shortages and hostile indigenous people.

We are not seeing this story merely from the perspective of the new immigrants however. The Native Americans are having their point of view illustrated on screen as well. There is no unanimity among the natives as to how the indigenous peoples want to confront the newcomers. The oldest chief, seems ready to cave to the inevitable tide of white men coming into his territory. Two of his sons and the band of followers however have a vastly different approach to the influx of a new population.

The film looks spectacular, it was shot in Utah which has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the West. Director Costner is taking full advantage of the diversity of physical settings that are available in these locations. His character Hayes Ellison, is traveling through these vistas, accompanied by a temporary family, and pursued by another family who are out for vengeance. You can see the tension building in all of the stories, but you will not find a complete plot in this movie. It literally is a single chapter in a much larger tome.

It looks like the general critical word on this movie has been negative, but that's the polar opposite of my view. This is going to be one of the finest films of the year, and it has more ambition, interest, and compelling characters than any of the other films that I've been seeing this year. Although the movie is 3 hours long, it flies by because some of the action scenes are so compelling that you don't realize how much time has gone by. We never stay too long with one story, before another story starts playing out its events, and then we're on to the next story before you know it. As we come back to each set of characters we have an expectation that something new is going to take place, and it is usually enough to keep us wanting more.

Admittedly director Costner has cribbed substantially from The Works of John Ford, but if you're going to steal from someone it makes sense to steal from the best. Long live the Western, I can't wait for chapter 2 in August.

A Million Ways to Die in the West

I've not seen "Ted", I don't care for "Family Guy" and I thought his hosting of the Academy Awards was probably not appropriate. That does not mean I don't think Seth Macfarlane is funny, there are a lot of things about this movie that are amusing. I think that in limited doses and with some strong story telling, he could have made this a classic comedy that will be laughed at by audiences for years. As it is, it feels a little tired about halfway through and it fails to take full advantage of some of it's assets.

Let me start by mentioning a couple of things that worked really well for me, the songs and Charlieze Theron. The title song is actually sung over the end credits and it was funny as heck without descending to some of the sad punchlines the rest of the movie relied on. It was the one element that reminded me of "Blazing Saddles". The other song in the movie that also worked well was a dance number that did give Neil Patrick Harris the chance to show off some of his talent. It was a reworking of a Steven Foster song, so while not completely original, I know that the lyrics have been juiced up a bit by the screenwriters.

Charlieze is the one performer who seems to be trying to play a character in a story. Everyone else is mostly mugging for the camera, she plays sweet, and tough and winsome all at once. Even when she is doing comedy shtick, she still seems like a real person. Maybe not always an 1882 person, but not just a joke on two legs. MacFarlane, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman, and even Liam Neeson, are camping it up for the camera. Silverman especially, because her part is the broadest and most risque, plays it like a live action cartoon character. After getting the great dance scene, Harris is subjected to a remake of a scene from "Dumb and Dumber" and "Bridesmaids" and it feels tired and the visual punch is for shock value only.

Part of the problem is too much of the premise is given away in the title and the trailers. We are constantly on the lookout and waiting for the next horrifying thing to happen. Instead of being surprised, we are anticipating and the lack of payoff can probably be lain at the feet of the marketing department. Rapid jokes and punchlines are fine, I loved "Airplane!" and it's successors. Here it was just more redundant than it needed to be. I think a lot of the humor relies on being politically incorrect, but that is as far as it goes. When Mel Brooks or Richard Pryor made a joke about race or religion, it was in aid of a bigger laugh, it was not the laugh itself. So much of what MacFarlane does just feels like poking the bear for the sake of getting a rise out of him.

I enjoyed seeing several cameo appearances in the movie, but I also liked seeing several familiar actors from television and movies show up in smaller parts. Matt Clark has been making movies since the 1960s and he has a nice part as a grizzled prospector in this film. He has appeared in several Clint Eastwood Westerns, at least one John Wayne film and several TV westerns. The movie needed a few more references to those roots rather than just the contemporary stunt casting used for quick visual jokes. This movie was entertaining but not special enough to make it essential repeat viewing. I don't know that there are in fact a million ways to die in the west, but I do know that there are a million ways to make a potty joke, and this movie uses about half of them.