Horizon: An American Saga- Chapter 1 is a film that was co-written, produced, and directed by Kevin Costner, who also plays one of the main characters. I went into the theater not realizing that it was the first part in a four part saga. Once I learned this, my confusion was gone and I was able to fully appreciate Horizon for what it is.
This film is very ambitious but does a great job at following multiple different storylines. It shows the Westward expansion of North America from a variety of different perspectives. In it, we follow those settlers who believe they have founded their homes and those still on the wagon train headed toward a future home. We also get to follow the perspective of the First Nations, whose land is in the process of possibly being settled by some of the characters whose stories we are following. All groups of characters include, men, women and children, of varying statuses in life. The storylines are all incredibly interesting, and the emotional beats are very strong. I cared about many of the characters and wanted to see where all of them end up.
However…I won’t get to see where all of these characters end up for a while. Chapter 2’s release has unfortunately been delayed in order to allow a wider audience more time to enjoy Chapter 1. If you are like me, you’ll be entertained by the clever montage toward the end of the film. Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter 1 made me think of another film with a long run time and large cast of interesting characters: Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse, whose cliffhanger ending definitely came as a surprise to many audiences. We invest all this time into these characters only for the film to essentially tell us to come back for part two so you can see where our heroes end up. For now, we don’t know when we’ll be seeing the next part of either of these films.
We at Filmmaker Mixer’s REVIEWS ON TAP hope to give the film Horizon “a bit of cloth” with this review. Find out what that means by watching the movie; it is very much so worth your time. The cinematography is gorgeous, the score is amazing, the performances are terrific. The cast and crew are massive, with quite a few recognizable faces among them. The film has a big budget and Costner funded a large portion of that budget with his own money. The passion that went into making Horizon is very evident from start to finish.
While Kevin Costner has NOT been a guest of the podcast, our producer did reach out to his team and they were courteous enough to respond. We appreciated their polite decline and still opted to write this review. Here’s why… I enjoyed this movie a lot and I think you will too! Please show Horizon some love and watch it in all its cinematic glory on the big screen or enjoy it in the privacy of your own home.
-Madelyn, Filmmaker Mixer Correspondent