Horizon: An American Saga Part I (2024) * * *

Directed by: Kevin Costner

Starring:  Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Luke Wilson, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Danny Huston, Abbey Lee, Tom Proctor, Georgia MacPhail

Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga is expected to be a four-part epic series about the settlement of the Old West.   The first week box-office receipts aren't boosting confidence of the series' financial viability, but the series is off to a promising start.  Horizon is epic in scope by telling stories of taming the west where settlers have to fend off ferocious Native Americans who don't want settlers taking over their land.  Towns are destroyed before they've had a chance to get off the ground in San Pedro Valley, while in Wyoming and Montana, the settlers made more headway.  Then, there is a wagon train led by Matthew van Weyden (Wilson), who understands the dangers of even getting to the destination.

The San Pedro Valley settlement is attacked and set fire to by the local tribes, with the U.S. Army Calvary arriving soon after the attacks and assisting the survivors.   One of which is Frances Kittredge (Miller), who lost a husband in the battle.   She finds herself falling for Lt. Trent Gephart (Worthington), who tries to perform his duties while concealing his attraction to Frances.   In Wyoming, trader Hayes Ellison (Costner) finds himself unwittingly helping a prostitute (Lee) on the run from killers looking for revenge for the attempted murder of an abusive man in Montana by her mother Ellen (Malone).  Ellison is a man passing through a small mining town, but he also epitomizes decency and humanity by helping Marigold, the hooker who is now the guardian of a young boy.

Costner's Horizon is a labor of love which may be intended as a companion piece to his Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves (1990).  He loves the West and all of its aspects.  Horizon, as stated by Costner in a recent Howard Stern interview, is about the struggle of settlers to even create towns which would become cities and civilize an untamed land with indigenous people who fear having their land stolen.  The characters are people trying to make their way in uncharted territory both physically and emotionally.  In Frances' case, she suffered not only family losses, but had to be uprooted and living elsewhere without any guarantees that attacks won't happen again.

Costner also stated that in Westerns on TV and in movies, the towns were already up and running, with the action taking place there.   Horizon gives us a unique perspective of how those towns came to be.  The movie runs three hours, and naturally could've been tighter in some spots, but it makes us care enough to see what's next.