It’s the 1860s, and as the American Civil War rages east, a loose group of characters heads west toward a settlement called Horizon, coming into conflict with the Apaches already living on the land.
Westerns have been heralded more for the death of Dracula, but Kevin Costner – who turned to the genre once his fame allowed him to make his own films – is betting a large portion of his personal fortune that there is life in the old horse. yet. The result is a meandering three-hour spectacle that’s merely a prequel to a longer saga (Chapter Two will follow in August, and Chapters Three and Four are still in production).
His gamble may pay off. He instinctively feels that there should be an audience for an old-fashioned story about warring settlers and Native Americans; Of wagon trains and saloon girls. Younger audiences may not have grown up on endless variations of the theme like Costner’s generation, but that may help make some of his older beats feel fresh. The evocative landscapes and iconography of the time are still going strong, after all, and cinematographer J. Michael Morrow squeezes the stunning locations for every drop of wonder.
In fact, it’s a series of vignettes. Some of them are exciting or funny. Others pull.
The problem is that the settlers can no longer be seen as heroes, and in trying to acknowledge the competing forces fighting for survival on the frontier, Costner sometimes fails. Dances with Wolves shows great sympathy for the tribes displaced by the American frontier, as do some scenes here, but it follows an initial wave of horrific brutality that undermines the sentiments of “both sides.” Costner also makes an effort to include non-white people who shaped the West, from Chinese railroad workers to black urbanites, but few of them have substantive roles. It’s not clear whether his treatment of Frances Kittredge, played by Sienna Miller, is commenting on the Western tradition of semi-deified white femininity — especially the pretty blonde kind — or merely reinforcing an old trope. She doesn’t have enough inner life to make it clear. Some of the film’s time jumps are also confusingly indicated, so that the final montage that essentially announces the second act initially feels like just another disjointed jump.
Costner’s “horse tramp” doesn’t appear until an hour in, so it’s no simple vanity project (although his character turns out to be instantly lusted after by a much younger, glamorous woman). It’s really a series of vignettes: an attack, a confrontation, a chase, a comedic skit. Some of them are exciting or funny. Others pull. However, three hours later, most of our supposed leads are still heading off to see the titular Horizon City, or meet each other, and there’s no sense of how their fates will intersect. Then the movie stops. The next installment is only a couple of months away, but it was nice to make this feel like a complete story, like the classics that inspired it.
It’s nice for the saga to expand, but you want a sense of purpose at the same time, and that saga sometimes loses its way. However, it is beautifully shot and well performed, and is a throwback to the glory days of horse operas in juvenile films.
