Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2 (2024) Movie | Kevin Costner, Sienna | Facts And Review

[Music] e e e e e e e e Hello friends how are you guys friends this is not a movie this is a full detail review and fact video about this movie if you want to know about this movie then you must like this video because in today's video we will tell you what is its story which actors and actresses have worked in this film the director producer cameraman of this film is going to talk about them in detail we will talk about the post-production pre-production budget and filming of this film The starcast of the film will also give details about The Supporting Cast and production guys if you want to know about this movie you must watch this video you will find all the details of this movie in this video what is the story of this movie If you like this video then share it with your friends and subscribe our Channel Horizon and American Saga chapter 2 is a four-part American pic Western film co-written with John B and produced by directed by an starring Kevin Cena the film co-stars an ensemble cast consisting of Sienna M Sam Worthington Javan ripsy Gina monea by Lee Michael Rooker Dana Huston Luke Wilson Isabelle fman Jeff fah will patent a tanker means Owen KATU Ella hunt Jamie Campbell Bower and Thomas Haden Church chapter premiered at the th kins Film Festival on May and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on June th while chapter will be released on August both by Warner Bros pictures chapter started shooting in May chapter is in development chapter received mixed reviews from critics Kevin Cena first commission at Orizon as a single film in and later approached Walt Disney picturess with the project after the release of his film open range it was announced in January that Cosner was set to direct and produce the film a passion project for him in addition TOS starring it began casting in February in April Warner Bros pictures and new line Sima joined the production to distribute in a June interview scener he plans to make four movies out of the and over speaking roles in August Sienna Miller Sam Worthington Jamie Campbell Bower Luke Wilson Thomas Haden Church Gina Malone Alejandro editat tanam me and Michael cast in the film of best hunt Jeff F and Tom Payne would be amongst numerous casting announcements made throughout September and October Will Patton owing crew and Danny Huston were added to the cast filming of at least the first installment began on August th in southern UT concluding in November filming of the second installment began by May before concluding in the summer of that year in a May interview scener expressed hope to have it the first film released by fall in October it was announced the film would release in two parts with chapter releasing on June and chapter on August later that month it was announced that K International the recently launched International sales arm of K Media Group would handle International sales on the film at the American Film Market in April it was announced that the first part of the film would Premiere out of competition at the cons Film Festival on May on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes percent of critics reviews are positive with an average rating of out of Metacritic wites is awaited average assigned the film a score of out of based on critics indicating mixed or average reviews Bill jabber of vulture gave AR reservedly positive review of chapter likening its incomplete nature to the film Dune part one and stating fa's stately Pace never feels boring so it doesn't feel like it should have been shorter but it also doesn't really work in its own and it feels impossible to judge this film because in some weird way it doesn't feel like anything has really happened yet in June Senor stated he plans to make four Horizon films in total shot back toback in November scer confirmed that the first film had been completed and that second had been greenlet set to be filmed in Spring production for the second film was com and by April with Glenn Turman Kathleen quinland and Javan NY Joy ning Cena Miller Worthington hunt Patton Wilson fulman and Haden Church you continue on from the first film director of Photography J Michael Mur production designer Derek R Hill Ed am Miko's R and costume designist Al would also return the second film finished production In Summer with the production of the third film being paused because of the Hollywood labor disputes and may casting calls for background actors had commenced while production was slated to begin later that month in St George uat it was reported that production initially commenced in before progress halted in part due to the rtrc tour strikes month following the completion of the previous installment scor began filming a manta G sequence at that features scenes from chap CA stated that principal photography comen on May explaining that production had initially been planned tment on April before being moved to matth in order to accommodate funding Horizon and American Saga is the first of four planned Western epics bik of and Cosner only two of them have been shot and scheduled for release and the fate of the remaining entries seems uncertain in case that sounds like Zack Snider's ill-conceived Rebel Moon project the comparison is apt Cosner's overarching plan far supersedes anything that ends up on screen and at a languid hours in length the first chapter is a major misfire set during the Le leadup to the American Civil War Horizon attempts to recreate the feel and enormous scale of Classic Hollywood westerns it performs a fitting visual impression in some regards but right from the start the Yellowstone star and Dances with Wolves director seems intent in both Reviving and refuting the genre attenion that isn't so much reconciled or even wrestled with as it is simply recognized in dialogue while the images themselves remain nostalgic for simatic era past the story is spread across disparate subplots folding far apart each with a colossal cast that does their level best to maintain interest as they never get any closer to meeting a brief but by no means comprehensive rundown of those plots and characters in Wyoming a peaceful makeshift town of whiter Christian families a settlement named Horizon sold to its residents as a new promised land is attacked by a ruthless apash tribe and their fanatical young leader pan Owen crew elsewhere in affid Montana mining town the scheming size Brothers Caleb Jimmy Campbell bow and Junior John beavers are on a mission to track down their father's mistress Ellen Gina Malone and retrieve Fair baby half sibling it's here where kasner Ma cas's onscreen appearance in arinto the movie is Lone Gunman Hayes Ellison likee Clockwork the hour mark reveals a third story and a third set of characters in the in the form of a wagon train headed for Horizon and headed up by Pioneer Matthew van when Luke Wilson at this point it starts to feel like thigh's material was better suited for an hourlong TV drama the siege of horizon is a blazing sequence with all the melodrama of Titanic and even some callbacks to its musical score though it doesn't lay enough emotional Foundation to fully click there's a viciousness to the way cenar films the town's native attackers who indiscriminately Slaughter white children and while he attempts to eventually provide some level off Dimension to these events the images themselves are hard to shake as a fixture typical of the western generates a particularly retrograde depiction especially disappointing to see in a post killers of the flower Moon world end when Senor eventually tries to subvert it his limited dramatic framing doesn't do Horizon any favors rather than a more complex Humanity offered to Native characters his solution is simple more screen time without the necessary Nuance this results only in more close-ups of the handful of Apache who silly stoically disagree with pal and of their peers whose bloodthirst despite attempts to explain the encroachment on their hunting grounds remains their primary trait all the while CA maintains a wistfulness for westward expansion the settlers of horizon are mostly duped into buying land to which they have no legal or cultural rights leading to the movie's bloody hostilities among the town Survivor s Francis kid Santa Miller and her daughter Eliz Elizabeth Georgia M Phil who ARA rescued and looked after by kindly members of the Union Army like first LT Trent J Sam Worthington and Sgt major reordan Michael Rooker jir usurps the role of Hero from the traditional Cowboy albeit in the most bring possible manner ining the people of Horizon and those of us inth thodi of their predicament Jeff Art speaks from a modern perspective about the rights of the indigenous a more respectful term today but one that feels encroachment on Native lands is fragile white innocence as OSS romanticism which senior cting to correct the myths perpetuated by class Quest erns Horizon creates one of its own turning Manifest Destiny into a big all manifest oopsy it's perhaps the most regressive of its half formed apology for the genre and for American hiside movie is blinkered to the point of aesthetically reinforcing the racism in it tries to correct but that's not its biggest flaw that would be the boring and banal storytelling it's a particularly talkative Western despite of odd shootout here or there and the occasional landscape shot reminiscent of how the West was one courtesy off cinematographer J Michael Muro mro also shot Cosner's more successfully revisionist Western Open Range its conversations often go in Cirus gesturing towards the Civil War and Apache settler skirmishes in scenes that go on far too long without revealing new bits of information or character and they barely glance at the white supremacist Notions at the heart of both conflicts worse yet the film has the goal to not even feature an actual conclusion to any of its stories or avend less desirable option of a cliffhanger will we ever be rid of this new part part one movie Scourge instead with its characters no closer to crossing paths it ends with a little will for what's the Cod teasing a duer ancient dirt that looks faring than anything in the preceding film Horizon plays in the process like amusive screwy you to anyone who has the tardy to spend hours being lulled tosleep by Cosner's noxious cinematic Nostalgia it's a movie that hearkens back to fast and that's where it AR left is Cil 4 Western epics Kevin Cosner's Horizon and American Saga chapter 2 chapter is a throwback that tries and fails to reckon with the genre's ugly history by the time the film ends its three story lines are nowhere close to intersecting heck one of them doesn't even get started until the hour mark with scenes that linger well past their welcome and a muddled perspective on the past told through boring verbo fil making the project is practically Dead on Arrival Kevin Cosner's new Western epic may have gotten a minute standing ovation at cans but once critics got back from Festival screenings to their hotel rooms they posted reviews for Horizon than American Saga chapter that were far less enthusiastic ftic Horizon is the first film and writer director star Costner's massive four picture gamble that he famously leveraged one of his home's towel Finance spending dollar million out of pocket for the dollar million budgeted film chapter is three-hour and is largely focused on setting the stage introducing a sprawling Ensemble of characters with a promise of more dramatic events to come in the remaining films there are not a large number of reviews for the Post Civil War Western tale so far but some of the critiques are pretty the most common complaints is that Filson so much as a trio of back-to-back episodes of a new TV series and one that's rather jumbled at that as the film jumps between four Central story lines Su are even comparing it tocis for sces anding passion Pro that has drawn Scot at the F or any format this first part of a quartet of films is littered with inessential scenes and characters that go nowhere taking far too long toon its messy plot threads any of these plot lines might have sustained an hour of compelling television but fed don't add up to much in this awkwardly stitched quilt which rarely provides the space for anyone's experiences tonate cenor in a form fitting role will be a reassuring presence he was never an actor with the broadest range but always appealing even when he arrives late as he does here and remains in the glum side Vanity Fair CED more like water world than Dances with Wolves a jumble of cliche plots rendered in washed out color and washed out performances Horizon May rival megalopolis as the biggest American boond doll at this year's Ken perhaps all the story lines will cogently even movingly converge in chapter but there's little reason to have faith this first for us sets a table that seems beyond saving by the end at least the rizon accomplishes is one staggering feat it makes one wonder if we were maybe a little too hard on the postman in called it the dullest Cinematic vanity project of the century and rizon is shot handsomely with a capital H by J Michael Muro with the aspect ratio and Camera placement of AI budget television series which along with the movie's clumsy episodic structure leads you to believe that Ceno may have been trying to out Taylor sherid and Taylor Sheridan the Yellowstone showrunner he's rumored to have drama with as the show supposedly readies for return Sans Cosner cno's Vang glorious efforts in crafting a sincere Western Opus he poured much of his own money into our commendable mainly for what he's put on the line here but Horizon makes even that other dollar million plus vanity project at can Francis Ford ca's megalopolis looked like a work of uninhibited genius by comparison the guardian after three saddle sore hours Kevin cner shantam looking but oddly listless new Western doesn't get much done in the way of satisfing storling admittedly this is supposed to be just the first of a multiart saga for which Senor is direct toker writer and star but it somehow doesn't establish anything exciting for its various unresolved storylines and doesn't leave us suspensefully hanging for anything else screen Dilly said the film moves between Fascination and frustration beautifully shot with a d command of period detail and a staran symbol cast Costner's civil War said epic offers an old-fashioned celebration off the Pioneer spirit and a clutch of story lines that never quite have time to engage before the film moves unian is in the mood for a lush old-fashioned Utah shot saddle Saga will probably not be disappointed though they will almost certainly skew to an older demographic but but even an audience who may have enjoyed Cosner's pensy Montana bullet ballet open range risk being alienated by Horizon bracingly abrupt pivots between its various stories variety wrote that it feels like the seedbed for a miner is much of what happens is wispy and not re forceful the film doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to aim in a clear direction scener as an actor doesn't show up until and when hedo is playing a Gruff horse trader who's more than a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of the film lacks what you realize after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorified TV serus made with more expensively gritty production values it's the setup for a TV series the real problem is the script the Cena and John be which is shapeless it doesn't weave these stories toast for it Stacks them next to each other like a series of Cabos Roger Ecom gave it two stars out of five while the first film in the possible Horizon series does well in setting up future pictures continuing the momentum Costner gained before he left Yellowstone this single film is a chore to sit through it rarely gives viewers what they want seeing scener on the Open Range it gives us few memorable characters outside of Cosner I can't remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes it feels like a debilitating mistake to bank ossible future films to land the entire concept Horizon keeps far too many of the best bits far out have reached the telegraph called it Grandad Cinema in ag good way part of the pleasure of horizon is the sheer magisterial sweep of the thing with mountains and butts and M with these who need CG but it's in small we often learn about characters from their approaches to work it honest manual labor or otherwise perhaps its full Grandeur won't be apparent until these Tales are completed in part two that there's more than enough CR you here too be getting on with arriving in the middle of the art smus board that's the Ken's Film Festival hour Western directed by Kevin Cena sounded like it might be just the ticket for a perfect night of counterprogramming a grandly scaled slice of neoclassical Hollywood but after all describes the other two Western Cena has directed Dances with Wolves and open range as well as his quirky sci-fi pseudo Weston the postman there's no question that Horizon an American Saga chapter Cosner's fourth outing as a director gives off some off fat traditional flavor the movie set in in territories that spraw from weing to Kansas has stately Mesa backdrops that look like they'd fit right into Mon Valley it's got a rousing Zess musical score by John debney that lays on the old west sentimentality of wend dire things are happening and a good portion of the movie is built around the violence that erupts between sers and Indigenous tribes of theme that takes it back to the age when American Western were flagrantly racist which isn't true of horizon though when it comes to dealing with Native issues the film is not without its problems vintage horse op for a trappings aside one of the most cherished aspects of the classic Western is its pleasingly mythed storytelling on that score though Horizon is not the movie a lot of people may be expecting instead of unfurling a western Saga in a solid powerful Arc Cosner serves up hoursof anecdotes cross cutting among groups of characters dropping in on situations that are dropped just as quickly taking a skittery overview of life on the Range and and asking the audience in manic cases to stitch together the backstory of what they're seen there's a hallowood place in cinema for multi-car dramas but Horizon simply put doesn't feel like amov it feels like the seated for a miner is much of what happens is wispy and not very forceful the film FM doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to him in a clear D John Cena as an actor doesn't show up until an hour and end when he does playing a Gruff horse trader who's more than a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of thil lacks what you realized after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorified TV series made with more expensively gritty production value as it'ss the setup for a TV series it's the early stuff we need to know before the drama totally kicks in and that feels like a major disappointment as a standalone film which it isn't but let's pretend for a M Horizon is by turns convoluted ambitious intriguing and Meandering but it's never quite moving its too busy laying down narrative tracks and hammering out the mini of situations that don't feel like they're reling anywhere special Cena to his credit wants to nudge the Western away from a white hat black hat methology that's now outdated he wants Shades of Gray and characters we can't pigeon holy as heroes or villains though there are a few of those but too often the action feels hurried both overstaged and undescriptive one of the key locals is the settlement of hor and advertise on hand bills a place that's not quite a place yet because when people show up to settle there they tend to get killed by a local Apache we see an Apache raid that ends up an apocalyptic fire and experience it from inside the home of Francis krid Sienna Miller and her daughter Elizabeth Georgia mfil the two of whom hide in a hole under the living room which is so airtight that they have to poke a rifle out of the ground and use the gun barrel as a breathing tube that's a vivid detail and then Francis loses her husband and son but it's jarring to take this all in before we've even had a sense of who this family is native characters are the attackers but we see several extended scenes from their point of view they are never theat the simple enemy that said there are two speeches in the movie One by anaph war chief Gregory Cruz and one by OS Cavalry officer Danny hustin that addressed the fundamental issue of the indigenous tribes trying to stop what they call the Whitey settlers wav invaded their land and both speeches weirdly make the same point that even if native people are Justified and even if they keep trying to fight the settlers that do to lose the settlers will keep coming history from the na scenes an awfully definitive Vision Doo LD and Anda doesn't seem unsympathetic to his native characters it's not clear as of now how much they'll take on a life of their own the film hopscotches to a ramshackled town where maragold a biley a perky prostitute in blonde ringlets is caring for the illegitimate son of Lucy junam Malone who has abandoned her family after trying to kill the man who made her pregnant his two adult sons their names are junior John beavers and Caleb Jamie Campbell Bower though you can just call them mean and meaner go looking for her but it's to their misfortunate that maral the boy's caretaker how did she become his caretaker that's one offeral scenes that seem to be on The Cutting Room floor meets hay Ellison Cosner who with his mustache and hat and laconic Manner and Colt is the closest we're going to get to Gary Cooper Cosner makes him a man of few wordss and his face off against the taunting Caleb is a nice bit of staging what a real shootout probably looked like Hayes and maragold look like they're destined to become a couple and then at a certain point it seems like the are a couple fine but did we miss something there are also scenes set on a covered wagon trail that Center on the Proctors and E English couple who joined the wwth movement with ped W almost charmingly entitled attitude they they don't realize that they have to work too fat other settlers are not their servants but Matthew vanwin the leader of the Wagon train sets them straight As play by Luke Wilson who is very good shaking off any semblance of his usual irony meanwhile Francis and her ughter wind up being taken care of at his army encampment where first lieutenant Trent Jeff Art Sam withington attracts Francis attention by being both handsome and too gentlemanly for his own good a few off these characters are interesting none of them are memorable Horizon is nanome dove though Senor tries and mostly succeeds at setting aside Western kishes about what towns really looked like and how frontier life worked there out problem is the script by CER and John B which is shapeless it doesn't weave these stories together it Stacks them next to each other like a series of Cabos yet I think the idea is that the design of it all will come into Focus as we see Horizon and American Saga chapter 2 chapter later this year and then at some point chapter which is now scheduled and maybe if all goes according to plan more chapters I seriously hope not I'm not sure how much juice there is to squeeze out of these characters but even if there is some I don't want to see mve is turn into television just every Western the studio era came in and so most of the revisionist westerns and some of those were complicated there's a reason for that it's all the time they needed over years ago directors Henry haway John F and George Marsh joined forces to tell the story of America's push tremendous taking it Tracy John Wayne Gregory Peak Henri felmer R and many many more in a canvas that seemingly stretch it further than the country it self its story is one of white perseverance to conquer the land the people already inhabiting it and each other It suffers from its Grand scale competing visions and regressive politics and yet there is a mistake to the very audacity off attempting it for actor Kevin CA the the film must surely have been at the Forefront of his mind while making his ambitious directorial return Horizon an American Saga chapter a hour work attempting to rewrite past wrongs while suffering from the same glut that Afflicted the film it most recalls Horizon isn't trying to subvert the Western relying on many well-worn tropes it's also a slow build of intersecting strees that take so long to get going that sener doesn't even appear on screen until an hour and instead the first third off Horizon is merely a long Preamble a structural decision indicative of a film grinding and failing to prove itself as a Standalone feature the sizzle reel that ends chapter in fact featuring alur of clips and characters for future movies does well to tease the kind of high filmed we could get but don't necessarily here into in San Pedro Valley a famous surveying a plot of land by a creek is gruesomely murdered by Apache Warriors who are none too happy to find white Outsiders on their AR and these deaths however do little to deter more fromc coming to the point of settling in a town guarded by armed citizens at nightfall during a Town dance the Apache Warriors return turn the grizzly vicious Massacre backgrounded by rumbling flames and deafening screams is frankly edited and bluntly imposed to the point that it feels as normalized as breathing a few off the town's folks surviv some decide to hunt down their attackers in a bid for Revenge others like Lizzie Georgian and Her Mother Francis Sienna Miller leave with the Union Army led by LT Trent Jeff Art Sam Worthington to their lad of safety of a fort even with the cataclysmic scenes of death the first who does little to endear these characters they bespoke people whose connections aren't in immediately clear and only become vaguely obvious toward the picture's conclusion before long we whisked away to the Wyoming territory and introduced to some brand new characters cner finally appears a Shay's Ellison a horse trader among many other skills he befriends local work maragold a creeky Ab who is hunted by a band of gunmen because of a secretes hiding the series gains a minor pulse once scen her featuring a Gruff low voice appear screen but even when he DS appear Fe Osa the filmmaker and writer he co-wrote the script with John beard knows how tall of a to SK he has introducing all of his main players consequently the power of His presence is left limited to the film's detriment the final ARS introdu in the final hour is the high point it involves a wagon train making its way with an unlikely cast of characters through the Montana tur territory Luke Wilson the head of fing group is the strongest actor in this cast too he is more than a shadow of a western archetype in bue Matthew van when with a groundedness that the series sorely lacks because as much as cosna tries to play an even hand attempting to give the indigenous and S a perspective equal attention it doesn't wholly work yes we meet the family of the Apache Warriors but their screen time pales in comparison to the bar Earth a white counterparts it also doesn't help that the white women characters are for the most part so clean and luminary a speck of dust on them despite their grungy surroundings that they appear Angelic on screen the score ially telling it's a gorgeous big triumphant old Hollywood score whose most sympathetic notes are reserved fourth film's white character scener does at least include a diverse cast nodding toward the present of black people and Chinese immigrants in the history of the West tracing across the vast sumule photographed landscape by dpj Michael Muro while Horizon teases a kind off conspiracy theory a mysterious publisher is printing and sending pamphlets promising a land of milk of Honey thaat's only occupied by death I can't help but continue to think about the film in relation to How the West Was one that Western ultimately couldn't overco me the weight of the era it was created in or genre conventions like forced feeble Ran's Horizon is arriving in a more enlight time especially considering the release of Martin score's killer of the flower Moon and other indigenous made works such as reservation dogs wild Indian the body remembers when the world broken open beans and more that presents put even greater pressure on Kostner and so far he hasn't completely overcome being the director of dancing with wolves that filmmaker For Better or For Worse still exists here in every corner of this epic picture while the first film in the possible Horizon series does well in setting up future pictures continuing the momentum cner gained before he left Yellowstone this single film is a chore to sit through it rarely gives viewers what they want seeing cenor on the Open Range it gives us few memorable characters outside of Ceno I can't remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes it feels like a debilitating mistake to bank on possible future films to land the entire concept Horizon keeps far too many of the best bits far Out Of Reach good luck to you and all who play along toy roads with you if the first chapter of Kevin Costner's Horizon an American Saga compels you to seek out the forthcoming second one this Civil War era Old West expansion epic is a dollar million vanity project that finds the active filmmaker in familiar terrain and with a goal to cast himself as an apparently Swoon inducing cowboy in a world where all the women are either ball busters prostitutes or profoundly stupid and the men house seeds are Great American Heroes told across four interwoven tales in and around the territories that became Wyoming Montana and Kansas Horizon gets its title from a fictional Pioneer settlement in the s that stomped out an Apache tribo battling to get back their land but they're padded on inclusion at all feels more like a committee driven gun to head corrective rather than an organic necessity of the story Cosner is far more interested in the pre plights of the white settlers and ultimately in himself then the cultures they eraser is fully in traditionalist mode here painting a quote unquote sweeping American Saga that feels like like an spensive Miner comper estin feature form chapter even ends with a kind of and on next week's episode Montage anticipating moments from the second installment ending on the face ofield just tell you Javan ribsy Cosner and John be atic and digressive Es scen playay from a story created with Mark cast and jumps from the settlers to unionists though the Civil War is more far off backdrop than Factor here and occasionally the First Nation spreading itself too thin across a sprawling cast the film begins in San Pedro Valley where the beginnings of a white settlement are discovered by indigenous Brothers pan oen kasu and taclan tanaman its surveyors later found dead with an ominous warning from the Native is Horizon then flings us to Montana territory where woman of the woods Lucy Gina Malone shoots a man dead in Fetch and runs off with his small blond-haired CH child Mrs Sykes dedik the Dead Man's mother dispatches her sons Caleb Jamie Campbell Bower engine your job beavers to retrieve the child back at Horizon pan and Tass HIM lead aention of the homestead or settlement in a sequence thrilling enough to make you almost wish there were more violent set pieces that than the Blends do domestic dramas that do after Hiding Out Below floorboards of her family's pillage Jack Francis Sienna Miller emerges with her daughter to a raiding party sent by Union to survey the damage and Destroy any Native Americans getting in the way of their Manifest Destiny they include first LT Trend Jeff Arts Sam Worthington whom the now widowed Frankish is a school girl crush on emerging swiftly and unscathed from her grief atone Point she hides behind a tree to avoid Jeff Art fixing her hair and all but checking her makeup before staging and impromptu runin poor Sienna Miller gets nothing to work with other than a few ready to wear Shaws and chunky belt strolling into the movie is CER himself as Hayes Ellison a lone wolf who somehow catches the eye of prostitute maragold to by Lee when not turning tricks Marl shoving herself into Slatterly Beast ass tends to the kid Lucy stole Lucy also goes by Ellen now and is married to the kindly Walter child's Michael anger things don't end well for him once trigger happy Caleb shows up to reclaim the child but Caleb is screw it on hey a tacern marksman and the prevailing moral center of the movie steps into these wor characters so much as the smokes of H of their story lines moving a sift being pulled by horses across the entire span of the American West their air their story lines on leaving out full carish for the SC ran play so scattered that the wires get more Tangled as iten folds it's all a haze as Horizon lurches toward not a conclusion and notan its halfway point as Cosner wants to film two more parts in addition to the finished two the most risible of theil's many strands his hay relationship let's call it with maragold who looks at him with inexplicable toyed interest but doesn't have a clue how disinterested in sex he is a Turn Point she listlessly rides him as Haze Fades into a super the child asleep next to them and this is not the first time today maragold has in that tent in front of the kid elsewhere the Cavalry sent to post Massacre Horizon that includes LT Jeff Art is headed up by Colonel H Tom he's played by Danny Huston The Great Character actor Ever capable of elevating literally any P roject he's an except for this one hot and exists as the mulloth piece of the film's thin stance toward the indigenous explaining to the Raiders why the Apache ought to be SED off in the first place even kastner's best picture winning Dances with Wolves made more than three decad SEO offered a more rounded portrait traal of Native Americans than what's afforded here and that other hour epic was also more about CA he'll admit this than anything else the natives are at first cartoonishly villainized in that opening Ambush however well staged and expensive looking it is only for the movie to slowly start to unpack how the attack is a response to the taking of ancestral another strand of horizon introduces a why am I here Luke wia's Wagon Train leader Matthew van when shepher his troop through harsh conditions and supply shortages among his cavalcade our hairbrained British couple Juliet El and Hugh Tom Pay Juliet makes herself the target of some puant HS when she takes a sensuous sponge bath al fresco basical a stopping short of jerking it right then and there in another of the film's objectifying snip pets of Homespun women and Snippets only there Horizon is shot handsomely with a capital H by jichael Muro with the aspect ratio and Camera placement of a high budget television series which along with the mov clumsy episodic structure leads you to believe that Cena may have been trying to out tailor shered and Taylor in the Yellowstone showrunner he's rum to have drama with as the show supposedly readies for return Sans Ceno Cosner's vain glorious efforts and crafting a sincere Western Opus he poured much of his own money into our commentable mainly for what he's put on the line here but Horizon makes aent that other million plus vanity project at K Francis Ford Kappa megalopolis look like a work of uninhibited genius by comparison early reviews for the first chapter of Kevin Cosner's long gestating passion project Horizon and American saaga chapter 2 have skewed sharply negative which doesn't bode well for the continuation of the traditional Western epic Horizons interconnected stre will be split into four parts and is an ambitious Chronicle of the American expansion into the West before during and after the Civil War it features a sprawling of characters who Traverse the theing and mon unfortunately for the Academy Award winner Horizon debuted to one of the worst Rotten Tomatoes scores of Cosner's career given how much of his own money Senor has sunk into the project the four-part Epic represents an incredible Gamble and poor early reviews won't help boy chapter's Box Office Outlook while the first two chapters are already filmed and will be released backtack the production of the plan third anforth chapters likely hinges on the success of the first two Horizon marks the fourth time that Cosner has been in the director's chair and so far there are several common reasons why critics haven't embraced Horizon in American Saga while it's not unusual for large scale stories to be split into multipen of these critics have take an issue with the runtime for Horizon an American Sagat chapter per Cosner's own assessment the entirety of the grand Horizon an American Saga narrative will unfold over the course of hours of runtime andwith only four chapters each movie will need to average around hours that holds true for Horizon and americ Saga chapter 2 chapter which clocked in with minutes of runtime unfortunately critics seem to agree that it feels even long in a show as Barber of the BBC referred to the film as an hour slog in his review further noting that the movie was full of stultifyingly slow dialog sini's thoughts were shared with many of the early reviewers as the near unanimous sentiment is that the level of Engagement in the film simply doesn't align with the Colossal runtime with as many story lines and characters as there air in Horizon it seems likely that just over hours may even be on the lower side for runtime almost across the board early reviewers of horizon an American Saga chapter criticized the movie for not seeing any actual resolution for them manyy characters and stories that are introduced again it's not uncommon for stories to be told over the course of multiple movies but the general understanding is that each movie provides a satisfying Standalone structure and plot that appears not to be the case for Cosner's epic as critics were displeased by the fact that the movie doesn't seem to have an interest in doing much more than acting as April a for the remaining chapters credit where credit is due Kevin C has made what is essentially a hour prologue into something that is occasionally moderately entertaining however just as often Horizon an American Saga chapter 2 chapter woly wanders Every Which Way some bits can be intriguing in isolation both lightly complicating and reving in the Mythos off classic Western though the result as a whole is simply far too SC to hold together for every moment where ya get a brief visual reference to something like the searches the rest proves to be much more of a non-descript slog just when you think you're getting to know something about a collection of characters let alone one will shift a away to another setting and place to begin the process cenor himself doesn't show up until about an hour in and his introduction isn't the last the film throws in a lot is going on all at on but little of it coheres into anything substantive let alone actually memorable or meaningful much of this is understandable as this is the first first of multiple film scener is planning te a make but an opening film should still be able to somewhat stand on its own for all the criticism that was given to recent films like Doom part one or Spider-Man across spiderverse for telling only half of their story those look like fully told Masterworks compared to this it feels like we're watching an overly long episode of a television pilot which is funny as Ceno reported couldn't return to the series Yellowstone as he was working on this project there is very little thematically or Nel conic in characters making it feel like more of an anth ology that's been halfhazard stitched together this may be merely the start of a bold new future for epic westerns but there is still a long way to go before that can become aity after this start it's hard to tell whether it will make it there this will not be remembered as a new Dances with Wolves or even arrange for Ceno those films were successful because off Basics as they created well-written characters and carved out a unique place in the genre this proves IND discernible from any Bargain Bin Weston it's frequently derivative completely unmemorable and with an utter lack ofon new ideas set in the film is all about providing initial snapshots over for smattering of characters all either trying to make a go of it out west or briefly the indigenous people already this is something that represents one of the central conflicts with fights between the two groups occurring throughout it is also where Senor seems to be attempting not to fall into tropes at at least initially he and co-writer John bet try to explore the interiority off some of the indigenous characters as well as the differences in perspective they have on their Collective future unfortunately while this too could be set up for something more thoughtful in the next films this soon Fades entirely into the background instead we see the world through the eyes of a couple of key characters there is Francis play B Sienna Miller who is trying to make a new life with her daughter after her husband and son were killed just as cheff forms a new connection with first LT Trent Jeff Arc played by Sam Worthington while the American Civil War looms elsewhere The Loner Hayes Ellison CER ends up stumbling into AAL conflict that will send him on the run with Moraga played by with yet kid May to know where there are a whole lot more people in the ensemble cast such as will patent of the great sci-fi western series outer range youo is reduced to essentially just popping up for me a handful of moments as part of a TR main tracks theil taking they if the bizer concluding Montage that feels like one of the longest next time on segments ever made is difficult as none of them seem to be going anywhere this could certainly change in the future but as it stands now this first film feels like IIs going nowhere fast there are quick shootouts and plenty of horse riding forther who are looking for that in their Western however what it's all aiming or riding towards feels much more inconsequential the longer it goes goes on everything moves along at a relatively Speedy clip but competent assembling does not a compelling film make on the review aggregator web Cotten Tomatoes percent of critics reviews are positive with an averagerating amount of Metacritic which uses a weighted average assigned the film a score amount of based on critics indicating mixed or aage reviews bill jabir of vulture gave a reservedly positive review of chapter likening its incomplete nature to the film Dune part one and stating that E's stately Pace never feels boring so it doesn't feel like it should have been shorter but it also doesn't really work in its own and it feels impossible to judge this film because in some weird way it doesn't feel like anything has really happened yet in June Senor stated he plans to make four and back to back in November Coser confirmed that the first film had been completed and F second had been greenlet set to be filmed in Spring production for the second film by April with Glenn Turman Kathleen Quinton and Javan ERC joing dington H and continues on a photography J Michael Mur production designer Derek R Hill editor Moo's ride and costume designer as alol would also return the second film finished production In Summer with the production of the third film being paused because of the Hollywood labor disputes in May casting calls for background actors had commenced while production was slated to begin later that month in St George util later it was reported that production initially commenced in before progress halted in part due to the RIT TRC tour strikes month following the completion of the previous installment Senor began filming a montage sequence that features scenes from chapter Senor stated that principal photography commenced on May explaining F production had initially been planned to commence on April before being MTO May in order to accommodate funding Horizon an American Saga chapter 2 is the first offer planned Western epics by Kevin CER only two of them have been shot and hand scheduled for release and the fate of the remaining entries seems uncertain in case that sounds like Zack Snider's ill-conceived Rebel Moon project the comparison is AP Cosner's over arklin fast supersedes anything that ends up on screen and at a languid hour's in length the first chapter is a major misfire set during the leadup to themer and Civil War Horizon attempts to recreate the feel an enormous scale of Classic Hollywood Western it performs a fitting visual impression in some regards but right from the start phthalo Stone star and Dances with Wolves director seems intent on both Reviving and refuting the genre attention that isn't so much reconciled or even wrestled with as it is simply recognized in dialogue while the images themselves remain nostalgic for cinematic aaspas the story is spread across disparate subplots unfolding far apart each with a colossal cast that does their level best to maintain interest as they never get any closer to meeting a brief but by no means comprehensive rundown of those plots and characters in Wyoming a peaceful makeshift town of white Christian families a settlement named Horizon sold to its residenc as a new promise is attacked by ruthless hasy TR analan Owen crel SE in a frigid Montana mining town the scheming size Brothers calb Jimmy Campbell Bower and Junior John beavers are on a mission to track down their F's mistress Ellen Jin and retrieve their baby half sibling it's screen appearance reveals a third story and a third set of characters in the form of a wagon train headed for Horizon and headed up by Pioneer Matthew van when Luke Wilson at High's point it starts to feel like this material was better suited for an hourlong TV drama the siege of horizon is's a blazing sequence with all the melodrama of Titanic and even some callbacks to its musical score though it doesn't lay enough emotional Foundation to fully click there's a viciousness to the way Cena films the town's native eers who indiscriminately Slaughter white children and while he attempts to eventually provide some level of Dimension to these events the images themselves are hard to shake as a fixture typical of the western generates a particularly retrograde depic especially disappointing to see in a post killers of the flower Moon world and when cenor eventually tries to subvert it his limited dramatic framing doesn't do Horizon any favors rather than a more complex Humanity offered to his native characters his solution is simply more screen time without the necessary Nuance this results only in more close-ups of the handful of a puha silently stoically disagree with Pon and of their peers whose blood thst despite attempts to explain the encroachment on their hunting grounds remains their primary trait all the while Cena maintains a wistfulness for westward expansion the settlers off Horizon are mostly duped into buying land to which they have no legal or cultural rights leading to the moveis bloody hostilities among the town survivors are Fran's kid Sienna Miller and her daughter Elizabeth Georgia mfil who are rescued and looked after by kindly members of the Union Army like first LT Trent Jered Sam Worthington and Sgt major reordan Michael Rooker jaffre reserves the role of Hero from the traditional Cowboy albe it in the most boring possible manner informing the people of Horizon and those of us in the audience of their predicament Jeff Art speaks from a modern perspective rights of the indigenous are more respectful today feel skun and rather than by racist policies and beliefs in Horizon the primary victim of encroachment on Native lands is fragile white innocence as embodied by the Romanticism with which Senor captures Francis and Elizabeth in attempting to correct the myths perpetuated by classic questions Horizon creates one of its own tonning Manifest Destiny into a big old manifest oopsy it's perhaps the most regressive of its half formed apology for the genre and for American historize movie is blinkered to the point of aesthetically reinforcing the racism it tries to correct but that's not its biggest flaw that would be the boring and banal storytelling it's a particularly talkative Western despite of odd shootout here or there and the occasional landscape shot reminiscent of How the West Was One courtesy of cinematographer J Michael miroo also shot Costner's more successfully revisionist Western Open Range its conversations often go in Cirus gesturing towards the Civil War and Apache settler skirmishes in scenes that go on far too long without revealing new bits of information or character and they barely glance at the white supremacist Notions at the heart of both conflicts worse yet the film has the gal to not even feature an actual conclusion to any of its stories or even the less desirable option of a cliff will we ever be R this new one movies inste no closer to crossing paths at ends with a literal trailer for what's to come teasing a darker second chapter that looks far more intriguing than anything in the preceding film's Horizon plays in the process like a massive screw to anyone who has the T to spend hours being lulled to sleep by Costner's noxious cinematic Nostalgia it's a movie that hearkens back to a bon past and that's where it ought to have been left the first over possible four Western epics Kevin Cosner's Horizon and American Sagat chapter 1 is a throwback that tries and fails to reckon with the genre's ugly history by the time the film in sits three story lines are nowhere close to intersecting hack one of them doesn't even get started until the hour mark with scenes that linger well past their welcome and a muddled perspective on the past told through boring verbos film making the project ey as practically Dead on Arrival Kevin Cosner's new Western epic may have gotten a minute standing evation at cans but once critics got back from festive Al screenings to their hotel rooms they posted reviews for Horizon in American Saga chapter that were far less enthusiastic Horizon is the first film and writer director star Cosner's massive four picture gamble that he famos led one of his homes to help Finance spending million out of pocket for the dollar million budget head film chapter is ours and is largely focused on setting the stage introducing a sprawling Ensemble of characters with the promise of more dramatic events to come in the remaining films there aona not a large number of reviews for the Post Civil War Western tal so far but some of the early critiques are pretty harsh the most common complaint is the film doesn't feel like Cinema so much a satrio of back-to-back episodes of a new TV series and one that's rather jumbled at that as the film jumps between four Central storylines some are even comparing it to Francis Ford capus megalopoli another decades in the making directorial passion project project that has draw W and critical fire at the festival lewood reporter called it a clumsy SLO it plays like a limited series overhauled as a movie but more like a hasty rough cut than a release ready for any format this first part of a corded off films is littered with inessential scenes and characters that go nowhere taking far too long to connect its mesop plot threads any of these plot lines might have sustained an hour of compelling television but they don't ad upt to much in this awkwardly stitched quilt which rarely provides the space for anyone's experiences to resonate AER in a form fitting role will be a reass during presence he was never an actor with the broadest range but always saping even when he arrives late as he does here and remains on the glume eyed Vanity Fair CED more like water world than Dances with Wolves able of cliche plots rendered in washed out color and washed out performances Horizon May rival megalopolis as the biggest American bondle at this year's cans perhaps all story lines will cogently even movingly converge in chapter but there's little reason to have faith this first four a sets a table that seems beyond saving by the end at least Horizon accomplish one swaggering feet it makes one Wonder little two rman enar at the dullest Cinematic vanity project of the century and roote Horizon shot handsomely with a capital H by J Michael murro with the aspect ratio and Camera placement of a high budget test series whichs episodic structure that Cena may have been trying to out Taylor Sheridan Taylor Sheridan the Yellowstone showrunner he's rumored to have drama with as the show supposedly readies for return Sans Cena Cosner's V glorious efforts in crafting a sincere Western Opus he poured much of his own money into accomable mainly for what he's put on the line here but Horizon makes even that other dll million plus vanity projected K Francis for Cara's megalopolis look like a work of uninhibited genius by comparison the guardian after three saddle sore hours Kevin Cosner's handsome looking but toally listless new Weston doesn't get much done in the way of satisfying storytelling admittedly this is supposed to be just the first of a multipart saga for which coo is director co-writer star but it somehow doesn't establish anything exciting for its various unresolved storylines and doesn't leave us suspensefully hanging for anything else screen Dilly said the film moves between Fascination and frustration beautifully shot with a d command of period detail and a ster emble cast Cosner's Civil War set epic offers an old-fashioned celebration off the Pioneer spirit and a clutch of storylines that never quite have time to engage before the film moves audiences in the mood for a lush old-fashioned Utah shot saddle will probably not be disappointed though they will almost certainly skew to an older demographic but even an audience who may have enjoyed Cosner's pensive montab at ballet open range risk being alienated by Horizons bracingly abrupt pivots between its various stories variety wrote that it feels like the seedbed for a miniseries much of what happens is wispy and not very forceful film doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to aim in a clear direction caner as an actor doesn't show until an hour in and when he do playing Trad when a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of the film lacks what you realiz after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorified TV series made with more expensively gritty production vers it's the setup TV series a real problem is the script by Sena and John B which is shapeless it doesn't weave it these stories together it Stacks them next to each other like a series of Kos Roger Robert gave it two stars out of five while the first film in the possible Horizon series does well in setting up future pictures continuing momentum cner gained before he left Yellowstone this single film is a chore to sit through it rarely give us viewers what they want seeing Senor on the Open Range it gives us few memorable characters outside of Cosner I can't remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes it feels like a debilitating mistake to bank on possible future films to land the entire concept Horizon keeps far too many off the best bits far out of reach the telegraph called it Grandad Cinema in ag good way part of the pleasure of horizon is the sheer magisterial sweep of feing with mountains and butts and maces like these who need CG but it's texture our lives in small telling details we often learn about character from their approaches to work be it honest manual lover or otherwise perhaps its full Grandeur won't be apparent until these Tales are completed in part but there's more than enough gr here to be getting on with aing in the m morus board fatkin Film Festival a hour Western directed by Kevin cenor sounded like it might be just the tie seeet for a perfect night of counter programming a grandly scaled slice of neoc classical Hollywood that after all describes the other two Western Costner has directed Dances with Wolves and open range as well ashy's quirky sci-fi pseudo Weston the postman there's no question that Horizon and American Saga chapter Costner's fourth outing as a director gives off some of that traditional flavor the movie set in in territories thatb from Wyoming to Kansas has stately Mesa backdrops that look like they'd fit right into Monument Valley it's got a rousing 's musical score by John debney that lays on the old west mentality even when dire things are happening and a good portion of the movie is built around the violence stups between settlers and Indigenous tribes of theme that takes it back to the age when American westerns wear flagrantly racist which isn't true of horizon though though wh and it comes to dealing with Native issues the film is not without its problems vintage horse oper trappings aside one of the moous aspects of the classic Western is its pleasingly Mythic rounded storytelling on that score th Horizon is not the movie A lot of people may be expecting instead of unfurling Austin Saga in a solid powerful Arc scena serves up hours of anecdotas cross cutting among groups of characters dropping in on situations that are dropped just as quickly taking ascary overview of life on the Range and asking the audience in many cases toage together the backstory of what they're seen there's a hallowed place in cinema for multi-car dramas but Horizon simply put doesn't feel like a movie it feels like the seeded for a Min serious much of what happens is wispy and not very forceful the film doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to aim in a clear direction cauer as an actor doesn't show up until an hour in and when he does playing a Gruff horse trader who's more than a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of thel lacks what you realize after after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorify DTV series made with more expensively gritty production value as it's the setup for a TV series it's the early stuff we need to know before the drama totally kicks in and that feels like a major disappointment as a standalone film which it isn't but let's pretend for a moment Horizon is by turns convoluted ambitious intriguing and Meandering but it's never quite moving it's too busy laying down narrative tracks and hammering out the minui of situations that don't feel like Fair leading anywhere special scener to his credit wants to nudge the Western away from a white hat black hat mythology that's now outdated he wants Shades of Gray and characters we can't pigeon hly as heroes or villains though there are a few of those but too often the action feels hurried both overstaged and undescriptive one of the key locals is the settlement of horizon advertised on hand bills a place that's not quite a place yet because when people show up to settle there they tend to get killed d by the local Apache we see an Apache R Horizon in American Saga chapter 2 is a four-part American Western film co-written with John B and produced by directed by an starring Kevin Cena the film co-stars an ensemble cast consisting of Sienna M Sam Worthington Javy ribsy Gina Malona by Le Michael Rooker Dana Huston Luke Wilson Isabelle fman Jeff fah will patent a tanker means Owen KATU Ella hunt Jamie Campbell Bower and Thomas Haden Church chapter premiered at the th kins Film Festival on May and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on June th while chapter will be released on August both by Warner Bros pictures chapter started shooting in May chapter is in development chapter received mixed reviews from critics Kevin Cena first commission at Orizon as a single film in and later approached Walt Disney picturess with the project after the release of his film open range it was announced in January that Cosner was set to direct and produce the film a passion project for him in addition TOS starring it began casting in February in April Warner Bros pictures and new line Sima joined the production to distribute in a June interview scener St he plans to make four movies out of the and was looking over speaking roles in August Sienna Miller Sam Worthington Jamie Campbell Bower Luke Wilson Thomas Haden Church Gina Malone Alejandro edat tanam me and Michael forast in the film of hunt Jeff F and Tom Payne would be amongst numerous casting announcements made throughout September and October Will Patton owing crew and Danny Huston were added to the cast filming of at least the first installment began on August th in southern Utah concluding in November filming of the second installment began by May before concluding in the summer of that year in a May interview scener expressed hope to have it the first film released by fall in October it was announced the film would release in two parts with chapter releasing on June and chapter on August later that month it was announced that K International the recently L launched International sales arm of K Media Group would handle International sales on the film at the American Film Market in April it was announced that the first part of the film would Premiere out of competition at the K Film Festival on May on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes percent of critics reviews are positive with an average average rating of out of Metacritic witches is awaited average assigned the film a score of out of based on critics indicating mixed or average reviews Bill jabber of vulture gave AR reservedly positive review of chapter likening its incomplete nature to the film Dune part one and stating fati's stately Pace never feels boring so it doesn't feel like it should have been shorter but it also doesn't really work in its own and it feels impossible to judge this film because in some weird way it doesn't feel like anything has really happened yet in June Senor stated he plans to make four Horizon films in total shot backtack in November sener confirmed that the first film had been completed and that second had been greenlet set to be filmed in Spring production for the second film was comen by April with Glenn Turman Kathleen quinland and Javy Joy ning Cena Miller Worthington hunt padon Wilson fulman and Haden Church you continue on from the first film director of Photography J Michael Mur production designer Derek R Hill editor Miko's ride and costume design L Al would also return the second film finished production In Summer with the production of the third film being paused because of the Hollywood labor disputes and may casting calls for background actors had commenced while production was slated to begin later that month in St George util lator it was reported that production initially commenced in before progress halted in part due to the rtrc tour strikes month following the completion of the previous installment Senor began filming a manta G sequence at that features scenes from chapter Cena stated that principal photography commented on May explaining that production had initially been planned tents on April before being moved to matth in order to accommodate funding Horizon and American Saga is the first of four planned Western epics bik of and Cosner only two of them had been shot and scheduled for release and the fate of the remaining entries seems uncertain in case that sounds like Zack Snider's ill-conceived Rebel Moon project the comparison is apt Cosner's overarching plan far supersedes anything that ends up on screen and at a languid hours in length the first chapter is a major misfire set during the leadup to the American Civil War Horizon attempts to recreate the feel and enormous scale of Classic Hollywood westerns it performs a fitting visual impression in some regards but right from the start the Yellowstone star and dancers with Wolves director seems intent in both Reviving and refuting the genre attenion that isn't so much reconciled or even wrestled with as it is simply recognized in dialogue while the images themselves remain nostalgic for simatic era past the story is spread across disparate subplots unfolding far apart each with a colossal cast that does their level best to maintain interest as they never get any closer to meeting a brief but by no means comprehensive rundown of those plots and characters in Wyoming a peaceful makeshift town of wher Christian families a settlement named Horizon sold to its residents as a new promised land is attacked by a ruthless apash tribe and their fanatical young leader pan Owen crew elsewhere in afid Montana mining town the scheming size Brothers Caleb Jimmy Campbell bow and Junior John beavers are on a mission to track down their fathers mistress Ellen Gina Malone and retrieve Fair baby half sibling it's here where kasner Ma cases on screen appear appearance in our intoo the movie as lone gunman Hayes Ellison likee Clockwork the hour mark reveals a third story and a third set of characters in the in the form of a wagon train headed for Horizon and headed up by Pioneer Matthew van when Luke Wilson at this point it starts to feel like thigh's material was better suited for an hourlong TV drama the siege of horizon is a blazing sequence with all the melodrama of Titanic and even some callbacks to its musical score though it doesn't lay enough emotional Foundation to fully click there's a viciousness to the way cenar films the town's native attackers who indiscriminately Slaughter white children and while he attempts to eventually provide some level off Dimension to these events the images themselves are hard to shake as a fixture typical of the western generates a particularly retrograde depiction especially disappointing to see in a post killers of the flower Moon world end when Senor eventually tries to subvert it his limited dramatic framing doesn't do Horizon any favors rather than a more complex Humanity offered to Native characters his solution is simpler more screen time without the necessary Nuance this results only in more close-ups of the handful of Apache who silently stoically disagree with PA and of their peers whose bloodthirst despite attempts to explain the encroachment on their hunting grounds remains their primary trait all the while CA maintains a wistfulness for Westwood expansion the settlers of horizon are mostly duped into buying land to which they have no legal or cultural rights leading to the movie's bloody hostilities among the town Survivor s Francis kid Sena Miller and her daughter Elizabeth georia mfil who ARA rescued and looked after by kindly members of the Union Army like first LT Trent J Sam Worthington and Sgt major reordan Michael Rooker jir usurps the role of Hero from the traditional Cowboy albeit in the most bring possible manner informing the people of Horizon and those of us in thodi of their predicament Jeff Art speaks from a modern perspective about the rights of the indigenous a more respectful term today but one that feels encroachment on Native lands is fragile white innocence as emboss Romanticism with which senior CIS tempting to correct the myths perpetuated by classquest erns Horizon creates one of its own turning Manifest Destiny into a big all manifest oopsy it's perhaps the most regressive of its half-formed apologia for the genre and for American hisy movie is blinker to the point of aesthetically reinforcing the racism in it tries to correct but that's not its biggest flaw that would be the boring and banal storytelling it's a particularly talkative Western despite of odd shootout here or there and the occasional landscape shot reminiscent of How the West Was One courtesy off cinematographer J Michael Miro mro also shot Cosner's more successfully revisionist Western open range its conversations often go in cirous gesturing towards the Civil War and Apache settler skirmishes in scenes that go on far too long without revealing new bits of information or character and they barely glance at the white supremacist Notions at the heart of both conflicts worse yet the film has the goal to not even feature an actual conclusion to any of its stories or avend less desirable option of a cliffhanger will we ever be rid of this new part one movie Scourge instead with its characters no closer to crossing paths it ends with a literal will for whats toot in a darker second chapter that looks faring than anything in the preceding film Horizon plays in the process like hesive screw you to anyone who has the tardy to spend hours being lulled tosleep by Cosner's noxious cinematic Nostalgia it's a movie that hearkens back to fast and that's where it left a Cil 4 Western epics Kevin Cosner's Horizon and American Saga chapter 2 chapter is a throwback that tries and fails to reckon with the genre's ugly history by the time the film ends its three story line are nowhere close to intersecting heck one of them doesn't even get started until the hour mark with scenes that linger well past their welcoming and a muddled perspective on the past told through boring verbos filmm the project is practically Dead on Arrival Kevin Cosner's new Western epic may have gotten a minute standing ovation at can but once critics got back from Festival screenings to their hotel rooms they posted reviews for Horizon an American Saga chapter that were far less enthusiastic Horizon is the first film and writer director star Costner's massive four picture gamble that he famously leveraged one of his towel Finance spending dollar million out of pocket for the dollar million budgeted film chapter is three-hour and is largely focused on setting the stage introducing a sprawling Ensemble of characters with a promise of more dramatic events to come in the remaining films there are not a large number of reviews for the Post Civil War Western tal so far but some of the critiques are pretty the most common complaints is that Filson so much as a trio of back-to-back episodes of a new TV serus and one that's rather jumbled at that as the film jumps between four Central story line some are even comparing it Tois fores anding passion Pro that has drawn the or any format this first part of a quartet of films is lited with inessential scenes and characters that go nowhere taking far too long toconnect its messy plot threads any of these plot lines might have sustained an hour of compelling television but F don't add up to much in this awkwardly stitched quilt which rarely provides the space for anyone's experiences tonate cenor in a form fitting role will be a reassuring presence he was never an actor with the broadest range but always appealing even when he arrives late as he does here and remains in the glum side Vanity Fair called it more like water world than Dances with Wolves a jumble of cliche plots rendered in washed out color and washed out performances Horizon May rival megalopolis as the biggest American boond doll at this year's cans perhaps all the story lines will cogently even movingly converge in chapter but there's little reason to have faith this first for us sets a table that seems beyond saving by the end at least the rizon accomplishes is one staggering feat it makes one wonder if we were maybe a little too hard on the postman in called it the dullas Cinematic vanity project of the century and Rh Horizon is shot handsomely with a capital H by J Michael Muro with the aspect ratio and Camera placement of a high budget television series which along with the movie's clumsy episodic structure leads you to believe that Ceno may have been trying to out tailor sh shed and Taylor sherid in the Yellowstone showrunner he's rumored to have drama with as the show supposedly readies for return Sans cner Costner's vain glorious efforts in crafting a sincere Western Opus he poured much of his own money into our commendable mainly for what he's put on the line here but Horizon makes even that other dollar million plus vanity project at can Francis Ford Copa megalopolis looked like a work of uninhibited genius by comparison the guardian after three saddle sore hours Kevin cner shom looking but oddly listless new Western doesn't get much done in the way of satis fing stor ridling admittedly this is supposed to be just the first of a multiart saga for which sener is direct too writer and star but it somehow doesn't establish anything exciting for its various unresolved story lines and doesn't leave us suspensefully hanging for anything else screen Dilly said the film moves between Fascination and frustration beautifully shocked with a d command of period detail and a staran symble cast CMOS Civil War set epic offers an old-fashioned celebration off the Pioneer spirit and a clutch of story lines that never quite have time to engage age before the film moves on aian is in the mood for a lush old-fashioned Utah shot saddle Saga will probably not be disappointed though they will almost certainly skewed to an older demographic but but even an audience who may have enjoyed Cosner's pensy Montana bullet ballet open range risk being alienated by Horizon bracingly abrupt pivots between its various stories variety wrote that it feels like the seedbed for a miniseries much of what happens is wispy and not re forceful the film doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to aim in a clear Direction scer as an actor doesn't show up until and when hedo is playing a Gruff horse trader who's more than a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of the film lacks what you realize after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorified TV serious made with more expensively gritty production values it's the setup for a TV series the real problem is the script be Cena and John B which is shapeless it doesn't weave these stories to for it Stacks them next to each other like a series of Cabo's Roger Ecom gave it two stars out of five while the first film in the possible Horizon series does well in setting up future pictures continuing the momentum cner gained before he left Yellowstone this single film is a chore to sit through it rarely gives viewers what they want see in scener on the Open Range it gives us few memorable characters outside of Cosner I can't remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes it feels like a debilitating mistake to bank ossible future films to land the entire concept Horizon keeps far too many of the best bits far out of reach the telegraph called it Grand that Cinema in agard way part of the pleasure of horizon is the sheer magisterial sweep of the thing with mountains and buts and M these who need CG but it's in we often learn about characters from their approaches to work at honest manual labor or otherwise perhaps its full Grandeur won't be apparent until these Tales are completed in part two that there's more than enough friend you here too be getting on with arriving in the middle of the art smus board that's the Ken's Film Festival hour Western directed by Kevin Cena sounded like it might be just the ticket for a perfect night of counterprogramming at grandl scale slice of neoclassical Hollywood but after all describes the other two Western Cena has directed Dances with Wolves and open range as well as his quirky sci-fi pseudo Weston the postman there's no question that Horizon an American Saga chapter Cosner's fourth outing as a director gives off some off- fat traditional flavor the movie set in in territor is that sprawl from weing to Kansas has stately Mesa backdrops that look like they'd fit right into Mon Valley it's got a rousing z musical score by John debney that lays on the old west sentimentality EV when dire things are happening and a good portion of the movie is built around the violence that erupts between sers and Indigenous tribes of theme that takes it back to the age when American Western were flagrantly racist which isn't true of horizon though when it comes to dealing with Native issues the film is not without its problems vintage horse off for a trappings aside one of the most cherished aspects of the classic Western is its pleasingly mythed storytelling on that score though Horizon is not the movie a lot off people may be expecting instead of unfurling a western Saga in a solid powerful Ark Cosner serves up our off anecdotes cross cutting among groups of characters dropping in on situations that are dropped just as quickly taking a skittery overview of life on the Range and and asking the audience in manic cases to stitch together the backstory of what they're seeing there's a hallowood place in cinema for multi-car dramas but Horizon simply put doesn't feel like amov it feels like the seated for a miniseries much of what happens is wispan not very forceful the film doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to him in a clear dire John Cena as an actor doesn't show up until an hour and end when he does playing a Gruff horse trader who's more than a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of THL lacks what you realized after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorified TV series made with more expensively gritty production value assets the setup for a TV series it's the early stuff we need to know before the drama totally kicks in and that feels like a major disappointment as a standalone film which it isn't but let's pretend for a moment Horizon is by turns convoluted ambitious intriguing and Meandering but it's never quite moving it's too busy laying down narrative tracks and hammering out the Min of situations that don't feel like they're reling anywhere special scena to his credit wants to nudge the Western away from a white hat black hat mythology that's now outdated he wants Shades of Gray and characters we can't pigeon holy as heroes or villains though there are a few of those but too often the action feels hurried both overstaged and undescriptive one of the key locals is the settlement of horizon advertise on hand bills a place that's not quite a place yet because when people show up to settle there they tend to get killed by local Apache we see an Apache raid that ends up an apocalyptic fire and experience it from inside the home of Francis krid Sienna Miller and her daughter Elizabeth Georgia infill the two of whom hide in a hole under the living room which is so airtight that they have to poke a rifle out of the ground and use the gun barrel as a breathing tube that's a vivid detail and then Francis loses her husband and son but it's jarring to take this all in before we've even had a sense of who this family is the native characters are the attackers but we see several extended scenes from their point of view they are never theat the simple enemy that said there are two speeches in the movie One by anaph war chief Gregory Cruz and one by OS Cavalry officer Danny Huston that addressed the fundamental issue of the indigenous tribes trying to stop what they call the Whitey settlers wav invaded their land and both speeches weirdly make the same point that even if native people are Justified and even if they keep trying to fight the settlers that do to lose the settlers will keep coming history from the na this it seems an awfully definitive Vision to her LD and Anda doesn't seem unsympathetic to his native characters it's not clear as of now how much they'll take on a life of their own the film hopscotches to a ramshackled town where maragold are byly a perky prostitute in blonde ringlets is caring for the illegitimate son of Lucy junim Malone who has abandoned her family after trying to kill the man who made her pregnant his two adult sons their names are junior John beavers and Caleb Jamie Campbell Bower though you can just call them mean and meaner go looking for her but it's to their misfortunate that maral the boy's caretaker how did she become his caretaker that's one offeral scenes that seem to be on The Cutting Room floor meets Hayes Ellison Cosner who with his mustache and hat and laconic Manor and Colt is the closest we're going to get to Gary Cooper Cosner makes him a man a few words and his face off against the taunting Caleb is a nice bit of staging what a real shootout probably looked like Hayes and marold look like they're destined to become a couple and then at a certain point it seems like the are a couple fine but did we miss something there are also scenes set on I covered wagon trail that Center on the Proctors and E English couple who've joined the WW movement with every way almost charmingly entitled attitude they they don't realize that they have to work too fat other settlers are not their servants but Matthew van when the leader of the Wagon train sets them straight As played by Luke Wilson who is very good shaking off any semblance of his usual irony meanwhile Francis and her daughter wind up being taken care of at his army encampment where first lieutenant Trent Jeff AR Sam withington attracts France's attention by being both handsome and too gentlemanly for his own good a few off these characters are interesting none of them our memorable Horizon is nanome do those Senor tries and mostly succeeds at setting aside Western kishes about what towns really looked like and how frontier life worked their out problem is the script by CER and John B which is shapeless it doesn't weave these stories together it Stacks them next to each other like a series of Cabos yet I think the idea is that the design of it all will come into Focus as we see Horizon and American Saga chapter 2 chapter later this year and then at some point chapter which is now scheduled and maybe if all goes according to plan more chapters I seriously hope not I'm not or how much juice there is to squeeze out of these characters but even if there is some I don't want to see mve is turn into television just every Western the studio ER came in or and so most of the revisionist westerns and some of those were complicated there's a reason for that it's all the time they needed over years ago directors Henry hathway John F and George Marsh joined forces to tell the story of America's P taking it Tracy John way Gregory P Henri felmer and many many more in a canvas that seemingly stretch it further than the country itself at story is one of white perseverance to conquer the land the people already inhabiting it and each other It suffers from its Grand scale competing Visions s regressive politics and yet there is a mistake to the very audacity off attempting it for actor Kevin CA the the film must surely have been at the Forefront of his mind while making his ambitious directorial return Horizon and American Saga chapter hour work at attempting to rewrite past wrongs while suffering from the same glut that Afflicted the film at most recalls Horizon isn't trying to subvert the Western relying on many well-worn tropes it's also a slow build of intersecting strees that take so long to get going that Sena doesn't even appear on screen until an hour and instead the first third off Horizon is merely a long Preamble a structural decision indicative of a film grinding and failing to prove itself as a standalone feature the sizzle reel that ends chapter in fact featuring alur of clips and characters for future movies does well to tease the kind of high film we could get but don't necessarily here rather into in San Pedro Valley a famous surveying a plot of land by a creek is gruesomely murdered by Apache Warriors who are none too happy to find white Outsiders on their AR and these deaths however do little to deter more from coming to the point of settling in a town guarded by armed citizens at nightfall during a Town dance The apach Warriors return the grizzly vicious Massacre backgrounded by rumbling flames and deafening screams is frankly edited and bluntly imposed to the point that it feels as normalized as breathing a few off the town's folks surviv some decide to hunt down their attackers in a bid for Revenge others like Lizzie Georgian and Her Mother Francis Sienna Miller leave with the Union Army led by LT Trent Jeff Art Sam Worthington to their L of safety of a fort even with the cataclysmic scenes of death the firster does little to endear these characters they bespoke people whose connections aren't Ed immediately clear and only become vaguely obvious toward the picture's conclusion before long were whisked away to the Wyoming territory and introduced to some brand new characters cner finally appears as Shay Ellison a horse trader among many other skills he befriends local worker maragold a crey Ab who is hunted by a band of gunmen because of a secretes hiding the series gains a minor pulse once scener featuring a Gruff low voice screen but even when he d a Loa the filmmaker and writer he co-wrote the script with John beard knows how tall of a to SK he has introducing all of his main players consequently the power of His presence is left limited to the film's the final arent Trist in the final hour is the high point it involves a wagon train making its way with an unlikely cast of characters through the Montana tur territory Luke Wilson the head of fing group is the strongest actor in this cast too he is more than a shadow of a western archetype in viewing Matthew van when with a groundedness that the series sorely lacks because as much as cosna tries to play an even hand attempting to give the indigenous and settler perspective equal attention it doesn't wholly work yes we meet the family of the Apache Warriors but their screen time time pales in comparison to the bar bir a white counterparts it also doesn't help that the white women characters are for the most part so clean and luminary a speck of dust on them despite their grungy surroundings that they appear Angelic on screen the score ially telling it's a gorgeous big triumphant old Hollywood score whose most sympathetic notes are reserved fourth film's white character scener does at least include a diverse cast nodding toward the presence of black people and Chinese immigrants in the history of the West tracing across the vast sumple photographed landscape by PJ Michael Muro while Horizon teases a kind off conspiracy theory a mysterious publisher is printing and sending pamphlets promising a land of milk of Honey fatties only occupied by death I can't help but continue to think about the film in relation to How the West Was One thatat Western ultimately couldn't overcome me the weight of the era it was created in or genre conventions like forced feeble rss's Horizon is arriving in a more enlightened time especially considering the release of Martin score's killer of the flower Moon and other indigenous made works such as reservation dogs wild Indian the body remembers when the world broken open beans and more that presents put even greater pressure on Costner and so far he hasn't completely overcome being the director of dancing with wolves that filmmaker For Better or For Worse still exists here in every corner of this epic picture while the first film in the possible Horizon series does well in setting up future pictures continuing the momentum cner gained before he left Yellowstone this single film is a chore to sit through it rarely gives viewers what they want seeing scener on the Open Range it gives us few memorable characters outside of Ceno I can't remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes it feels like a debilitating mistake to bank on possible future films to land the entire concept Horizon keeps far too many of the best bits far Out Of Reach good luck to you and all who play along toy roads with you if the first chapter of Kevin Costner's Horizon an American Saga compels you to seek out the forthcoming second one this Civil War era Old West expansion epic is a dollar million vanity project that finds the actor filmmaker in familiar terrain and with goal to cast himself as an apparently Swoon inducing cowboy in a world where all the women are either Bal Busters prostitutes or profoundly stupid and the men has seeds are Great American Heroes told across four interwoven tales in and around the territories that became Wyoming Montana and Kansas Horizon gets its title from a fictional Pioneer settlement in the s that stomped out an Apache tribo battling to get back their land but their padded on inclusion at all feels more like a committee driven gun to the Head corrective rather than an organic necessity of the story Cosner is far more Ed in the pre plights of the white settlers and ultimately in himself then the cultures they eraser is fully in traditionalist mode here painting a quote unquote sweeping American Saga that feels like like Ang spensive miniseries coer es to feature form chapter even ends with a kind of and on next week's episode Montage anticipating moments from the second installment ending on the face ofield just tell you Javan ribsy Cosner and John B schematic and digressive ES scen play from a story created with Mark cast and jumps from the settlers to unionists though the Civil War is more far off backdrop than Factor here and occasionally the First Nation spreading itself too thin across a sprawling cast the film begins in San Pedro Valley where the beginnings of a white settlement are discovered by indigenous Brothers pan Owen kasu and taclan tankmans it surveyors later found dead with an ominous warning from the Native Horizon then flings us to Montana territory where woman of the woods Lucy Gina Malone shoots a man dead in Fetch and runs off with his small blond-haired CH child Mrs Sykes dad the Dead Man's mother dispatches her son's Caleb Jamie Campell Bower engine your job beavers to retrieve the child back at Horizon pan and Tass HIM lead aention of the homestead or settlement in a sequence thrilling enough to make you almost wish there were more violent set pieces that fall within the pl St mestic dramas that do after Hiding Out Below floorboards of her family's pillage Jack Francis Sienna Miller emerges with her daughter to a raiding party sent by Union to survey the damage and Destroy any Native Americans getting in the way of their Manifest Destiny they include first LT Trend Jeff Art Sam Worthington whom the now widowed from Kish is a school girl crush on emerging swiftly and unscathed from her grief atone Point she hides behind a tree to avoid Jeff Arc fixing her hair and all but checking her makeup before staging and impromptu runin poor Sienna Miller gets nothing to work with other than a few ready to wear Shaws and chunky belt strolling into the movie is cenor himself as Hayes Ellison a lone wolf who somehow catches the eye of prostitute maragold by Lee when not turning tricks Marill Ching herself into Slatterly Beast ass tends to the kid Lucy stole Lucy also goes by Ellen now and is married to the kind me Walter child's Michael anger things don't end well for him once trigger happy Caleb shows up to reclaim the child but Caleb is screw it on hey a tacern marksman and the prevailing moral center of the movie steps into these wor characters so much as the of a of their story lines moving a sift being pulled by horses across the entire span of the American West their air their story lines un leaving out full carish for the SC ran play so scattered that the wise get more Tangled as it enfolds it it's all a haze as Horizon lurches toward not a conclusion and noin its halfway point as Cosner wants to film two more parts in addition to the finished two the most risible of theil's many strands is hay relationship let's call it with maragold who looks at him with inexplicable dyed interest but doesn't have a clue how disinterested in sexy as a tone Point she listlessly rides him as Haze Fades into a super the child asleep next to them and this is not the first time today maragold has in that tent in front of the kid elsewhere the Cavalry sent to post Massacre Horizon that includes Jeff Art is headed up by Colonel hton he's played by Danny Huston The Great Character actor Ever capable of elevating literally any P roject he's in except for this one hot and exists as the mulloth piece of the film's thin stance toward the indigenous explaining to the Raiders why the Apache ought to be sest off in the first place even Ker's best picture winning Dances with Wolves made more than three decades SEO offered a more rounded portrayal of Native Americans than what's afforded here and that other hour epic was also more about Cena he'll admit this than anything else the natives are at first cartoonishly villainized in that opening Ambush however well staged and expensive looking it is only for the movie to slowly start to unpack how the attack is a response to the taking of ancestral ands another strand of horizon introduces a why am I here Luke wil sona's Wagon Train leader Matthew van when shepher his troop through harsh conditions and supply shortages among his cavalcade our hairbrained British couple Juliet ellah hunt and Hugh tomay Juliet makes herself the target of some puant youths when she takes a sensuous sponge bath Al Fresco basical is stopping short of jerking it right then and there in another of the film's objectifying snip pets of Homespun women and Snippets only their Horizon is shot handsomely with a capital H by J Michael Muro with the aspect ratio and Camera placement of a high budget television series which along with the movies clumsy episodic structure leads you to believe that Cena may have been trying to out tailor sharid and tayor in the Yellowstone showrunner he's rumored to have drama with as the show supposedly readies for return Sans Ceno cna's vain glorious efforts and crafting a sincere Western Opus he poured much of his own money into accomable mainly for what he's put on the line here but Horizon makes event that other million plus vanity project at K's Francis Ford kappus megalopolis look like a work of uninhibited genius by comparison early reviews for the first chapter of Kevin Cosner's long gestating passion project Horizon and American Saga chapter 2 have skewed sharply negative which doesn't bode well for the continuation of the traditional Western epic Horizon's interconnected stre will be split into four parts and is an ambitious Chronicle of the American expansion into the West before during and after the Civil War it features a sprawling GED characters who Traverse the teu doing and mon unfortunately for the Academy Award winner Horizon debuted to one of the worst Rotten Tomatoes scores of Cosner's career given how much of his own money Senor has sunk into he project the four-part Epic represents an incredible Gamble and poor early reviews won't help boy chapter's Box Office Outlook while the first two chapters are already filmed and will be released back toback the production of the plan third and fth chapters likely hinges on the success of the first two Horizon marks the fourth time that Cosner has been in the director's chair and so far there are several common reasons why critics haven't embraced Horizon in American Saga while it's not unusual for large scale stories to be split into multip lities critics have taken issue with the runtime for Horizon an American Sagat chapter per Cosner's own assessment the entirety of the grand Horizon and American Saga narrative will unfold over the course of hours of runtime and withd only four chapters each movie will need to average around hours that holds true for Horizon an American Saga chapter 2 chapter which clocked in with minutes of runtime unfortunately critics seem to agree that it feels even long in a show as Barber of the BBC referred to the film as an hour slog in his review further noting that the movie was full of stultifyingly slow dialogue sini's thoughts were shared with many of the early reviewers as the near unanimous sentiment is that the level of Engagement in the film simply doesn't align with the Colossal runtime with as many story lines and characters as there air in Horizon it seems seems likely that just over hours may even be on the lower side for runtime almost across the board early reviewers of horizon an American Saga chapter criticize the movie for not seeing any actual resolution for them miny characters and stories that are introduced again it's not uncommon for stories to be told over the course of multiple movies but the general understanding is that each movie provides a satisfying Standalone structure and plot that appears not to be the case for Cosner's epic as critics were displeased by the fact that the movie doesn't seem to have an interest in doing much more than acting as April Aug for the remaining chapters credit where credit is due Kevin C's made what is essentially a hour prologue into something that is occasionally moderately entertaining however just as often Horizon an American Saga chapter 2 chapter woefully wanders sey Which Way some bits can be intriguing and isolation both lightly complicating and reving in the Mythos of classic Western though the result as a whole is simply far too scattered to hold together for every moment where ya get a brief visual reference to something like the searches the rest proves to be much more of a non-descript slog just when you think you're getting to know something about a collection of characters let alone one will shift away to another setting and place to begin the process Senor himself doesn't show up until about an hour in and his introduction isn't the last the film throws in a lot is going on all at on but little of it coheres into anything substantive let alone actually memorable or meaningful much of this is understandable as this is the first of multiple film scener is planning to a make but an opening film should still be able to somewhat stand on on its own for all the criticism that was given to recent films like Dune part one or Spider-Man across spiderverse for telling only half of their story those look like fully told Masterworks compared to this it feels like we're watching an overly long episode of a television pilot which is funny as Ceno reported couldn't return to the series Yellowstone as he was working on this project there is very little thematically or narat velconic in characters making it feel like more of an anthology that's been half-hazard stitched together this may be merely the start of a bold new future for epic westerns but there is still still a long way to go before that can become aity after this start it's hard to tell whether it will make it there this will not be remembered as a new danis with wolves or even oange for Ceno those films were successful because off the basics as they created well-written characters and carved out a unique place in the genre this proves IND discernible from any Bargain Bin Weston its frequently derivative completely unmemorable and with an utter Lac aony new ideas set in the film is all about providing initial snapshots of for smattering of characters all either trying to make a go of it out west or briefly the indigenous people or R of this is something that represents one of the central conflicts with fights between the two groups occurring throughout it is also where senar seems to be attempting not to fall into tropes at least initially he and co-writer John be try to explore the interiority ofsome of the indigenous characters as well as the differences in perspective they have on their Collective future unfortunately while this too could be set up for something more thoughtful in the next films this soon Fades entirely into the background instead we see the world through the eyes of a couple of key characters there is Francis play B Sienna Miller who is trying to make a new life with her daughter after her husband and son were killed just as cheff forms a new connection with first LT Trent Jeff Arc played by Sam Worthington while the American Civil War looms elsewhere The Loner Hayes Ellison cins up stumbling into AAL conflict that will send him on the run with Moraga played by with yet maybe to Nowhere there are a whole lot more people in the ensemble cast such as will Paton of the great sci-fi western series outer range ow is reduced to essentially just popping up for only a handful of moments as part of a TR main tracks the F taking a where they it's a bizer concluding Montage that feels like one of the longest next time on segments ever made as difficult as none of them seem to be going anywhere this could certainly change in the future but as it stands now this first film feels like IIs going nowhere fast there are quick shootouts and plenty of horse riding for those who are looking for that in their Western however what it's all aiming or riding towards feels much more inconsequential the longer it goes goes on everything moves along at a relatively Speedy clip but competent assembling does not a compelling film make on the review aggregator web Cotten Tomatoes percent of critics reviews are positive with an averagerating amount of Metacritic which uses a weighted average assigned the film a score of AD of based on critics indicating mixed or abage reviews Bill jabia vulture gave a reservedly positive review of chapter likening its incomplete nature to the film Dune part one and stating thatit's stately Pace never feels boring so it doesn't feel like it should have been shorter but it also doesn't really work in its own and it feels impossible to judge this film because in some weird way it doesn't feel like anything has really happened yet in June Senor stated he plans to make for back to back in November Cosner confirmed that the first film had been completed and thought the second had been greenlet set to be filmed in Spring production for the second film comen by apris with Glenn Turman Kathleen quintant and Javan C Jing SE M dington hunt patch [Music] and a photography J Michael Mur production designer Derek R Hill editor Moo's ride and costume designist alol would also return the second film finished production In Summer with the production of the third film being paused because of the Hollywood labor disputes in May casting calls for background actors had commenced while production was slated to begin later that month in St George util it was reported that production initially commenced in before progress halted in part due to the r TRC tour strikes month following the completion of the previous installment Senor began filming a montage sequence that features scenes from chapter Senor stated that principal photography commenced on May explaining that production had initially been planned to commence on April before being MTO May in order to accommodate funding Horizon an American Saga chapter 2 is the first offer planned Western epics by Kevin CER only two of them have been shot and scheduled for release and the fate of the remaining entry seems uncertain in case that sounds like Zack Snider's ill-conceived Rebel Moon project the comparison is apt Cosner's overarching fast supersedes anything that ends up on screen and at a languid hour's in length the first chapter is a major misfire set during the leadup to themer and Civil War Horizon attempts to recreate the feel an enormous scale of Classic Hollywood Western it performs a fitting visual impression in some regards but right from the start phthalo Stone star and Dances with Wolves director seems intent on both Reviving and refuting the genre attention that isn't so much reconciled or even wrestled with as it is simply recognized in dialogue while the images themselves remain nostalgic for cinematic raspas the story is spread across disparate subplots unfolding far apart each with a colossal cast that does their level best to maintain interest as they never get any closer to meeting a brief but by no means comprehensive rundown of those plots and characters in wiing a peaceful makeshift town of white Christian families a settlement named Horizon sold to its residenc as a new promis is attacked by ruthless Apache TR and pan ow and crel SE in a frigid Montana mining town the scheming Brothers CB Jimmy Campbell Bower and Junior John beavers are on a mission to track down their F's mistress Ellen ginas and retrieve their baby half sibling into scen appearance as reveals a third story and a third set of characters in the form of a wagon train headed for Horizon and headed up by Pioneer Matthew van when Luke Wilson at High's point it starts to feel like this material was better suited for an hourong TV drama the siege of horizon a blazing sequence with all the melodrama of Titanic and even some callbacks to its musical score though it dosn't lay enough emotional Foundation to fully click there's a viciousness to the way seen our films the town's native eers who indiscriminately Slaughter white children and while he attempts to eventually provide some level often mention to these events the images themselves are hard to shake as a fixture typical of the western generates a particularly retrograde depiction especially disappointing to see in a post killers of the flower Moon world and when Cena eventually tries is subverted his limited dramatic framing doesn't do Horizon any favors rather than a more complex Humanity offered to his native characters his solution is simply more screen time without the necessary Nuance this results only in more close-ups of the handful of a puha silently stoically disagree with Pon and of their peers whose bloodless despite attempts to explain the encroachment on their hunting grounds remains their primary trait all the while CA maintains a wistfulness for westward expansion the settlers off Horizon are mostly duped into buying land to which they have no legal or cultural rights leading to the mous bloody hostilities among the town survivors are Francis kid Sienna Miller and her daughter Elizabeth Georgia mfil who are rescued and looked after by kindly members of the Union Army like first LT Trent Jer Sam Worthington and Sgt major reordan Michael Rooker jaffre zurs the role of Hero from the traditional Cowboy albeit in the most boring possible manner informing the people of Horizon and those of us in the audience of their predicament Jeff Art speaks from a modern perspective rights of the indigenous a more respectful today feels gunning rather than by rist policies and beliefs in Horizon the primary victim of encroachment on Native lands is fragile white innocence as embodied by the Romanticism with which cir captures Francis and Elizabeth in attempting to correct the myths perpetuated by classic questions Horizon creates one of its own turning Manifest Destiny into a big old manifest oopsy it's perhaps the most regressive of its half formed apology for the genre and for American hyi movie is blinkered to the point of aesthetically reinforcing the racism it tries to correct but that's not its biggest flaw that would be the boring and binal storytelling it's a particularly talkative Western despite of odd shootout here or there and the occasional landscape shot reminiscent of How the West Was One courtesy of cinematographer J Michael mroo also shot Costner's more successful irev visionist Western Open Range its conversations often go in Cirus gesturing towards the Civil War and Apache settler skirmishes in scenes that go on far too long without revealing new bits of information or character and they barely glance at the white supremacist Notions at the heart of both conflicts worse yet the film has the gal to not even feature an actual conclusion to any of its stories or even the less desirable option of a cliff we ever be this new one movie instead no closer to crossing paths at ends with a literal trailer for what's to come teasing a darker second chapter that looks far more intriguing than anything in the preceding film's Horizon plays in the process like a massive screw you to anyone who has the tardy to spend hours being lulled to sleep by Costner's noxious cinematic Nostalgia it's it's a movie that Harkens back to a bygone past and that's where it ought to have been left the first OFA possible four Western epics Kevin Cosner's Horizon and American Sagat chapter 1 is a throwback that tries and fails to reckon with the genre's ugly history by the time the filmman sits three story lines are nowhere close to intersecting hack one of them doesn't even get started until the hour marked with scenes that linger well past their welcome and a muddled perspective on the past told through boring verbos film making the project ey as practically Dead on Arrival Kevin Cosner's New West epic may have gotten a minute standing ovation at cans but once critics got back from festive Al greeings to their hotel rooms they posted reviews for Horizon and American Saga chapter that with far less enthusiastic Horizon is the first film and writer director star Cosner's massive four picture gamble that he famous LED one of his homes to help Finance spending million out of pocket for the dollar million budget head film chapter is ours and is largely focused on setting the stage introducing a sprawling Ensemble of characters with the promise of more dramatic events to come in the remaining films their or not a large number of reviews for the Post Civil War Western tal so far buts some of the early critiques are pretty harsh the most common complaint is the film doesn't feel like Cinema so much a satrio of back-to-back episodes of a new TV series and one that's rather jumbled at that as the film jumps between four Central storylines some are even comparing it to Francis Ford capus megalopoli another decades in the making directorial passion project that has draw W and critical fire at the festival lewood reporter called it a clumsy SLO it plays like a limited series overhauled as a movie but more like a hasty rough cut than a release ready for any format this first part of aorded off films is littered with inessential scenes and characters that go nowhere taking far too long to connect its mesop plot threads any of these plot lines might have sustained an hour of compelling television but they don't ad upt to much in this awkwardly stitched quilt which rarely provides the space for anyone's experiences to resonate AER in a form fitting role will be a reassuring presence he was never an actor with the broadest range but always saying even when he arrives late as he does here and remains on the glume Vanity Fair called it more like water world than Dances with Wolves able of cliche plots rendered in washed out color and washed out performances Horizon May rival megalopolis as the biggest American bondle at this year's cans perhaps all story lines will cogently even movingly converge in chapter but there's little reason to have faith this first four sets a table that seems beyond saving by the end at least Horizon accomplishes War staggering feet it makes one wonder if it's made little two rman inar at the dullest Cinematic vanity project of the century and wrote Horizon strot handsomely with a capital H by J Michael murro with the aspect ratio and Camera placement of a high budget test fion series whichs episodic structure that Cena may have been trying to out Taylor Sheridan Taylor Sheridan the Yellowstone showrunner he's rumored to have drama with as the show supposedly readies for return Sans Cena Costner's vain glorious efforts in crafting a sincere Western Opus he poured much of his own money into accomable mainly for what he's put on the line here but Horizon makes even that other dull million plus vanity projected can Francis for Cara megalopolis look like a work of uninhibited genius by comparison the guardian after three saddle sore hours Kevin Cosner's handsome looking butly listless new Western doesn't get much done in the way of satisfying storytelling admittedly this is supposed to be just the first of a multi-part saga for which coo is director co-writer and star but it somehow doesn't establish anything exciting for its various unresolved storylines and doesn't leave us suspensefully hang for anything else screen Dilly said the film moves between Fascination and frustration beautifully shot with a d command of period detail and a ster and symbol cast Cosner's Civil War set epic offers an old-fashioned celebration off the Pioneer spirit and a clutch of storylines that never quite have time to engage before the film moves on audiences in the mood for a lush old-fashioned Utah shot saddle will probably not be disappointed though they will almost certainly skew to an older demographic but even an audience who may have enjoyed Cosner's pensive montenet ballet open range risk being alienated by Horizon's bracingly abrupt pivots between its various stories variety wrote that it feels like the seedbed for a miniseries much of what happens is wispy and not very forceful film doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to aim in a clear direction caner as an actor doesn't show until an hour in and when he playing Traders when a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of the film lacks what you real is after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorified TV series made with more expensively gritty production V it's the setup for TV series a real problem is the script by Sena and John B which is shapeless it doesn't weave it these stories together it Stacks them next to each other like a series of Cabos Roger Robert gave it two stars out of five while the first film in the possible Horizon series does well and setting up future pictures continuing momentum cner gained before he left Yellowstone this single film is a chore to sit through it rarely give us viewers what they want seeing cener on the Open Range it gives us few memorable characters outside of Cosner I can't remember the name of a single figure without looking at my notes it feels like a debilitating mistake to bank on possible future films to land the entire concept Horizon keeps far too many off the best bits far out of reach the telegraph called it Grandad Cinema in ag good way part of the pleasure of horizon is the sheer magisterial sweep of thething with mountains and butts and maces like these who need CG but it's texture our lives in small telling details we often learn about characters from their approaches to work be it honest manual lover or otherwise perhaps its full Grandeur won't be apparent until these Tales are completed in part two but there's more than enough Grand here to be getting with aing in the morus board fatkin Film Festival a hour Western directed by Kevin cenor sounded like it might be just the tie seek C for a perfect night of counter programming a grandly scaled slice of neoclassical Hollywood that after all describes the other two Western Kostner has directed Dances with Wolves and open range as well ashy's quirky sci-fi pseudo Weston the postman there's no question that Horizon and American Saga chapter Costner's fourth outing as a director gives off some of that traditional flavor the movie set in in territories thatb from Wyoming to Kansas has stately Mesa backdrops that look like they'd fit right into Monument Valley it's got a rousing SS musical score by John debney that lays on the old west mentality even when Dia things are happening and a good portion of the movie is built around the violence that- ups between settlers and Indigenous tribes of theme that takes it back to the age when American westerns wear flagrantly racist which isn't true of horizon though though wh and it comes are dealing with Native issues the film is not without its problems vintage horse Opera trappings aside one of the moous aspects of the classic Western is its pleasingly Mythic rounded storytelling on that score Horizon is not the movie A lot of people may be expecting instead of unfurling Austin Saga in a solid powerful Arc scen serves up hours of anecdotas cross cutting among groups of characters dropping in on situations that are dropped just as quickly taking ascary overview of life on the Range and asking the audience in many cases toage together the backstory of what they're seen there's a hallowed place in cinema for multi-car dramas but horizont simply put doesn't feel like a movie it feels like the seeded for a minac serious much of what happens is wispy and not very forceful the film doesn't build an impact and it seldom seems to aim in a clear direction cner as an actor doesn't show up until an hour in and when he does playing a Gruff horse trader who's more than a horse trader one feels the grounding so much of thel Lex what you realize after a while is that Horizon isn't just a glorify DTV series made with more expensively gritty production value as it's the setup for a TV series it's the early stuff we need to know before the drama totally kicks in and that feels like a major disappointment as a standalone film which it isn't but let's pretend for a moment Horizon is by turns convoluted ambitious intriguing and Meandering but it's never quite moving it's too busy laying down narrative tracks and hammering out the minu of situations that don't feel like Fair leading anywhere special scer to his credit wants to nudge the Western away from a white hat black hat mythology that's now outdated he wants Shades of Gray and characters we can't pigeon hly as heroes or villains though there are a few of those but too often the action feels hurried both overstaged and undescriptive one of the key locals is the settlement of horizon advertised on hand bills a place that's not quite a place yet because when people show up to settle there they tend to get kill d by the local Apache we see an Apache ride