“Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” is the first installment in a four-part film series of American westerns written, directed and produced by Kevin Costner. Premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Costner’s passion project piqued interest when it received a 10-minute standing ovation.

15 Years and Five Stories

Starting with the promise of abundance on this new land advertised as “Horizon,” a man and his family try to build a settlement, only to be killed by a group of Apache men. A few years later, another group tries to settle on the land. Believing to have been successful, they spend the night celebrating to be then woken up by a violent ambush of Apache.

A widowed Frances Kittredge and her daughter, Elizabeth, seek shelter and protection at a nearby Union camp and form relationships with the Army boys.

Russell, a child whose whole family died in the ambush, finds himself wanting to seek out revenge against the Apache and joins a scalp-hunter group to go after the man who killed his family.

Pionsenay, the Apache man who led the ambush, finds himself confronting his tribal chief. Disagreeing with his chief’s peace-centered perspective, the man leaves with his group to continue defending their land violently.

On the other side of the Midwest, a woman named Lucy is seen shooting a man named James Sykes and fleeing with her baby. She believes she is safe living in a new territory under a new name and with a new man until the Sykes family comes knocking on her door. The baby, having been left under the care of a girl named Marigold, is taken to safety when she flees town with a man she has just met, Costner’s Hayes Ellison.

Years later another group of settlers are seen caravanning across the Midwest, hoping to stake their claim on Horizon.

Focused On Sending a Message

The film doesn’t use conversations to explain and move the story, instead saving most of the dialogue for moments of discussion, thus allowing the audience to reflect on the messages and themes throughout the movie.

The film discusses the question “What kind of person are you going to be?” in a traditional sense. The male characters consistently experience situations that test their character and force them to handle it in a way that decides who they’re going to be.

This theme is especially prominent in Russell’s storyline, a child who is still learning about the world. Throughout the movie, viewers can see him being influenced by those around him, yet questioning which voice to listen to. It all comes together in a moment of reflection during a violent encounter between the scalp-hunters and the Apache at the end of the movie, where viewers can see the moment in his eyes when he realizes you can’t fight fire with fire.

However, that doesn’t mean the female characters are weak or their storylines are one-dimensional. Lucy is notably one of the most interesting characters to watch, and her story is arguably the most intriguing.

An Interesting Concept That Doesn’t Quite Take

The film’s intriguing idea of introducing multiple stories combats the general boredom of the Western genre. It’s a story audiences are already familiar with, so less time is spent fully trying to explain the narrative and is instead spent solely focusing on moments.

However, the constant skipping around may lead to confusion, and the development of so many plotlines makes for a lengthy three-hour run time that may have been better suited for a TV series.

Unfortunately, the project didn’t gather quite as much interest at the box office, with it being recently announced that “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2” has been pulled from its theatrical release originally scheduled for Aug. 16.

[email protected]

@u_mponce