Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 Review: Kevin Costner’s Western Epic Is Off To A Magnetic Start

For almost 40 years, Kevin Costner has been holding onto the dream of making Horizon: An American Saga. Initially imagined as a single film titled Sidewinder, the vision grew into a sprawling, four chapter epic that looks set to bring the western back to theaters in a big way. Horizon: Chapter 1’s debut introduces Costner's long-held dream with a magnetic start thanks to an epic story that confirms his powers as a master craftsman of cinema.

Establishing various stories that are set to unfold over the course of four chapters, Horizon: An American Saga starts things off with a strong foundation. A talented ensemble is peppered throughout Costner’s lush epic that’s set to span 15 years, including the entirety of the American Civil War – a time when the country was at war with itself and westward expansion was displacing people indigenous to the nation. Both fronts are represented in a multifaceted narrative. 

A broad, sweeping story that’s only getting started, Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 takes its time laying out the groundwork for what’s to come. At the same time, the pacing of this first quarter of the story uses both spectacle and introspection to its advantage, never flagging for a moment.

Kevin Costner’s long-in-the-making western passion project kicks off with a bang.

Make no mistake, Horizon: An American Saga is playing a long game. With no prior source material to stand on except for the influences of American frontier history, this is a tale designed to unfold over time with each chapter. Kicking off such an epic is a tall order, as there needs to be a balance between preparing for the future while also making sure the here and now is compelling enough to leave us all wanting more. 

Horizon’s first installment is a rousing start, as it manages to thread the needle with those expectations. You can sense the wheels are turning for the saga at large, but Costner’s script, co-written with writer Jon Baird, is also a magnificent stand-alone that doesn’t feel unsatisfying or half finished.

It all comes back to the pacing of this story, which is built to really keep the energy moving throughout a roughly three-hour running time. As if to prove just how exciting the ride ahead will be, Horizon: An American Saga deploys a set piece in its first act that contains the scope and intensity of what most movies would use as a closing number. But as moviegoers are about to witness, this wagon trail has plenty of road ahead.

A sprawling epic, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 never loses sight of the present, or the future.

By employing such delights at the right time, Kevin Costner show a strong hand as a writer and director. The strategy allows the audience to immediately be drawn into the action, while also being allowed to form theories on where characters like Sienna Miller’s Frances Kitteridge and Sam Worthington’s First Lt. Trent Gephardt are going in the long run. 

With plenty of star power on display throughout Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, and even more teased in the ending montage promoting Chapter 2, the wider picture isn’t exactly the clearest at the moment. Some who are paying particular attention to the marketing might be surprised that Costner himself actually doesn’t appear in the film for a significant amount of time. However, that’s where it’s important to inform viewers to keep one key detail in mind when going in: this is only the first quarter of a much larger saga.

That leads to one of the minor drawbacks that come with Horizon’s massive scope as well as its originality: Think of it as Kevin Costner’s version of Lord of the Rings, except we have no clue how Aragorn’s story is going to pan out. It's set to be a long journey, and without a clear map of what's ahead, the stories and people showcased throughout Chapter 1 do get a bit muddled, making investment a challenge.

The audience is never honed in on one component of the story for too long, which makes getting to know the cast a bit more challenging than in a standard narrative. It doesn’t sink the overall ambitions of Kevin Costner’s Horizon, but rather is something that audiences need to keep in consideration. Managing expectations should prove to be important when introducing viewers to this epic.

Horizon: An American Saga recalls the glory days of the western with lush, wide open imagery, and a musical score that ties the grandeur together. 

With Horizon: An American Saga, Kevin Costner employs traditional, old school filmmaking and it's a triumph from top to bottom – giving fans of the western genre something classically beautiful aesthetically, but also modern and forward thinking in its narrative. The resulting mix is something that sells the whole vision.

In a cast that fully embodies the adjective “all-star,” there’s a stocked range of performances that commit to Horizon’s purpose. With figures like Jamie Campbell Bower’s sinister Caleb Sykes and Owen Crow Shoe’s increasingly wary Pionsenay, villains and heroes alike try to find their place in the world. And as our characters move forward on their respective paths, the performances should get people excited about potential collisions between certain players. 

Kevin Costner reunites with his Open Range director of photography J. Michael Muro, and the vision of this saga is a treasure to observe. The stereotypical wide open spaces of the Wild West are gorgeous and ominous, helping us recognize the hardships and the gravitas of where everyone is heading.

It’s elements like that and composer John Debney’s rousing score that further bind the finished product in a top tier artistic package. The musical accompaniment of any good picture knows when to kick in and when to hang back; Debney exhibits a perfect touch as early as the previously mentioned first act set piece, which provides a vision of sight and sound that fires on all cylinders. 

Without knowing the line between confidence and coercion, a less steady hand could have seen this absolute epic crumble under its own weight as it sets up a substantial future. Kevin Costner and his collaborators know not to fall into that trap with Horizon: An American Saga’s first chapter. It naturally entices the audience into wanting more. By the time the tease for Chapter 2 arrived at the end, I was grinning ear to ear with excitement.

So far, Horizon: An American Saga presents itself as an all-out cinematic experience that tells a story so classically cinematic, it's hard not to admire the results while waiting to see what's next.