Reviving the Western: “Horizon: An American Saga” by Kevin Costner | Review

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Cannes 2024

Horizon: An American Saga

Kevin Costner out of competition at Cannes with his love for the western. An epic composed of four films begins. First part: the ambition of a universe becoming reality. An experience

di Gian Luca Pisacane

Open Range was the best western of the 2000s. It told the story of fierce cowboys, fearless cattlemen, and ruthless landowners. The clash between town and prairie, and the virile friendship that animated so much of past cinema, was captivating. It felt like watching a great classic, honoring Howard Hawks‘ masterpieces (Red River) and believing in the American dream.

Over time, the western has either faded or become a testament, and it’s incredible that someone still upholds the flag carried by masters like John Ford. The director is Kevin Costner, who presented the beginning of a new epic at the Cannes Film Festival out of competition: Horizon: An American Saga. Three flowing hours, in theaters from July 4th, but this is only the first part. The second will be released on August 15th, and two more are yet to be filmed.

Perhaps Costner is the only one still in love with the western, at least in Hollywood. It’s no coincidence that his first directorial work was Dances with Wolves, in 1990. It was the story of a Union Army officer who left civilization to immerse himself in a twilight frontier. His “discovery” was that the Indians were not savages but human beings. It wasn’t the first time natives were portrayed as the good guys. Ralph Nelson’s 1970 Soldier Blue was one of the pioneers. However, no one has a passion as visceral as Costner for an epic and a staging that evoke a Hollywood that no longer exists.

To define his viewpoint, one could cite a sequence from Ford’s magnificent The Searchers: John Wayne at the door, who, after completing his mission, walks away alone. He doesn’t reap the fruits of his labor; the hero is solitary and doomed. Steven Spielberg was struck by this powerful image, incorporating it into Saving Private Ryan when the mother receives news of her son’s death at the front. Costner embraces the legacy of those still unsurpassed moments.

But he knows he cannot be John Wayne and embody the spirit of the 1950s. He doesn’t reject the genre’s evolution, from Sam Peckinpah‘s The Wild Bunch to Clint Eastwood‘s Unforgiven, but he reworks it. He brings darkness into his universe: prolonged silences, the village siege reminiscent of John Carpenter‘s Assault on Precinct 13. The horseback adventure is his bread and butter, and the ambition is boundless. Who today would think of creating a frontier saga where each chapter lasts 180 minutes? Perhaps only Costner, who creates a melancholic film, looking to a past that no longer exists.

Horizon is pure love for cinema, the contemporary “they rode together,” the High Noon that still warms the heart. The cowboy myth is never tame, carried forward by a handful of ageless brave souls. Remember George Stevens’ 1953 Shane? We didn’t know the hero’s origins; he was an angel with a gun, ready to restore justice. Costner recalls him, makes him modern, and expands the horizon, as the title suggests. Horizon is a place to reach, a paradise to settle in. The ambition is to create a choral western, where seriality blends with the feature film. This first chapter restores the everyday life of the West, focusing on all the genre’s archetypes. Many narrative lines intersect, and Costner appears only halfway through the film. He’s in no hurry.

Caravans, gunmen, and a furiously impactful nighttime attack stand out. It’s as if Horizon unites tradition and progress. In the era of streaming sagas, Costner reuses that narrative model for the big screen. Could it be the genre’s revival? Perhaps. As for video games, it has already happened with Red Dead Redemption. Maybe purists will turn up their noses, especially at a story that takes its time to unfold. Many subplots hide within the protagonists’ adventures. The ambition is to build a world, creating a franchise, and immersing in a project its author has worked on for decades.

The real driving force of Horizon is dynamism. Those who lead a quiet existence are uprooted, those with the jacket ready to transform into a Northwestern rider must confront their romantic side. Outlaws are ready to invoke hell, the wandering cowboy is always in the saddle, but, at least for now, the corrupt sheriff is missing. Horizon proposes itself as an experience to gradually entrust oneself to. It could be the genesis of something memorable. At the official screening on the Croisette, Costner was moved and, after the credits, conversed with the audience, going against the grain. Usually, it stops at the thunderous applause. The director instead, besides thanking, said he is already beyond and will soon shoot the third and fourth chapters simultaneously. He masters the western’s potential; perhaps a revolution is coming. Or at least it’s nice to believe so.

Cinematografo, May 20, 2024