The second part of Kevin Costner’sHorizon: An American Sagawill get its wide release this year, as the actor-director continues his attempt to emulate a Western epic starring John Wayne.Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1received middling reviews and made a substantial loss at the box office, proving that it’s easier said than done aspiring to one of the boldest productions that legendary director John Ford was ever involved in. Costner has previously explained that Ford’s 1962 projectHow the West Was Wonhas an enormous influence on hisHorizonsaga.
How the West Was Wonassembled one of thebest ensemble acting casts in Hollywood historyfor a sprawling 164-minute epic, divided into five chapters, about the expansion of the United States into the west of North America. John Ford was only one of three directors tasked with directing this monumental movie, alongside Henry Hathaway and George Marshall, while the all-time great actors who feature onscreen are too many to mention. Similarly,Kevin Costner has divided his workHorizon: An American Sagainto four separate movies,also called chapters, and has cast a plethora of A-listers in the project.
How The West Was Won Was A Huge Influence On Kevin Costner
At the 2021 Western Heritage Awards,Kevin Costner eulogizedHow the West Was Won, beautifully articulating the full extent of the movie’s impact on him when he first watched it as a child. “It was like God spoke to me and the scales came off my eyes,” he explained. “I never left my seat, refusing to leave even at intermission.” (viaThe Oklahoman)
From that spellbound eight-year-old, Costner grew into one of the foremost filmmakers of the Western genre still working today. Hisbiggest movieDances with Wolvesand TV seriesYellowstoneare considered to be among the genre’s modern greats.
When watching Costner’s Westerns, it’s hard not to agree with him that the elegant style and slow-burning grandeur ofHow the West Was Wonhave been fundamental to his filmmaking.
As he observed during his Western Heritage Awards speech, these works take their time to tell a story almost as expansive as their panoramic backdrops, just like the classic cinematic Westerns of Ford and Wayne used to do. Costner jokingly blamedHow the West Was Wonfor the lengthy running times of his films, remarking, “If you think my own pictures run long, then you can blame it on that day,” in reference to the first time he saw the movie.
The Failure Of This Epic 1960 John Wayne Western Mirrors Kevin Costner’s Horizon Saga After Part 1’s Box Office Flop
John Wayne’s passion project was a mega budget Western epic, with the film mirroring Kevin Costner’s quest to make his Horizon saga a reality.
This joke alone indicatesthe weight of importance that the director gives toHow the West Wonfor its formative impact on him as a filmmaker. When watching Costner’s Westerns, whether it’s his 1994 biographicalmovie about Wyatt Earpor his 2003 revisionist genre filmOpen Range, it’s hard not to agree with him that the elegant style and slow-burning grandeur ofHow the West Was Wonhave been fundamental to his filmmaking.
How The West Was Won Is An All-Time Great Western Civil War Epic
The Movie Spans Five Chapters Of American History With An Ensemble Cast Of Acting Greats
The 1962 Western that so inspired Costner gives itself no easy task for a movie lasting little more than two and a half hours. Across its five chapters,How the West Was Wonhas to weave its way through the journeys out to the North and the Midwest made by citizens of the early United States, before plunging into the heat of the Civil War, moving all the way to the Pacific via the first trans-American railroad, and finishes with an outlaw gunfight.The movie does it all with a single New York family at its heart, while juggling the egos of around two-dozen Hollywood acting greats.
10 Classic Westerns That Would Win Best Picture If They Were Nominated In 2025
Though plenty of Western movies haven’t stood the test of time, these films have retained their status as great Oscar-nominated movies.
As well as John Wayne, the biggest names featured in the film are probably James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Carroll Baker, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb. LeadingBreakfast at Tiffany’s castmember George Peppard almost steals the show in the movie’s third chapter, during which the Duke makes his appearance as Civil War Unionist general William Tecumseh Sherman.
How the West Was Wonis superbly shot with gloriously vibrant sets and costumes. At the same time, it never strays from its job of depicting a people’s history of the American frontier spirit, and no part of the movie overstays its welcome.
Horizon Is Clearly Aiming To Be Like How The West Was Won
Costner’s Series Borrows Elements From The Movie’s Structure, Theme And Plot
The premise for Kevin Costner’sHorizon: An American Sagais clearly based onHow the West Was Won, given the structural and thematic similarities between the two movies, and Costner’s effusive account of the 1962 movie’s profound effect on him. Like the John Wayne Western epic, Costner’s saga is set in the mid-19th century, andits plot interweaves the American Civil War with the westward expansion of the United States.
Horizon: An American Saga’s Timeline Explained
If you’re confused by Kevin Costner’s latest movie, we’ve outlined the Horizon: An American Saga timeline, including details on future installments.
Not only isHorizondivided into chapters just likeHow the West Was Won, but its first chapter borrows directly from the plot of the John Ford epic. InHow the West Was Won, Richard Widmark’s character Mike King shows complete disregard for a treaty respecting Native American land rights in Arizona, with violent consequences. InHorizon – Chapter 1, Sam Worthington’s Trent Gephardt does more or less the same thing, in the same state, with the same result, sparking a war between settlers and local Apache tribes.
Can Kevin Costner’s Horizon Match How The West Was Won?
It’s Hard For Any Movie To Live Up To A Work Of Such Magnitude
It has to be said that Kevin Costner’sHorizonproject hasn’t got off to the best start for a sweeping Western epic movie series looking to emulate one of the genre’s greatest-ever achievements. Critics were split virtually 50-50 in theirreviews ofHorizon – Chapter 1and early reviews for the second Horizon movie are in the same ballpark.
“So far, six hours in, I’ve found no great insight into this period of American life, in either the personal or historical spheres."- Alex Harrison -ScreenRant’s review ofHorizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2
The biggest problem that Costner’s work suffers from is thatthere doesn’t seem to be much of a continuous narrative thread, grounded in the personal storiesof a handful of protagonists, running through the heart of its plot. The genius ofHow the West Was Wonis that it manages to span five different epochs of 19th century American history, introducing an array of supporting characters, while essentially following the journey of one family from start to finish.
Costner’s approach to characterization inHorizonhas been too scattergun so far, but it’s to be hoped that his work ties together some of the loose threads fromChapter 1later in the series. Even ifHorizon: An American Sagacan’t matchHow the West Was Won, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the series will turn out badly. Costner is comparing his work to one of the great Westerns at the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age, which would ultimately be a match for most movies ever made in the genre’s history.
