Signs seemingly posted everywhere summon the downtrodden and the dreamers to Horizon, a utopia out West offering the best land imaginable.
And so whites head West, into a frontier where heartache and hardship awaits many of those dreamers. To a land native Americans already consider their home.
Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and her young daughter Elizabeth (Georgia MacPhail) have already learned that lesson.
They’re among the handful of survivors of an Indian raid on a white settlement created on land hunted by the White Mountain Apache.
Frances’ husband and son didn’t survive. So she and her daughter now live at a fort where Lt. Trent Gephart is among the commanders fretting what future friction between whites and Indians will bring.
Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner) finds himself heading in the direction of Horizon as well, less out of a search for utopia than a quest for survival.
During a stop at a mining camp to sell horses, his head is turned for a flirty and fetching whore named Marigold (Abbey Lee).
His subsequent visit to her cabin leads to an encounter with one of the Sykes brothers, who happens to be heading in the same direction with the intent of snatching the young boy under Marigold’s temporary care.
The Sykes brother winds up dead. Hayes winds up on the run with Marigold and the baby in tow, knowing the other Sykes brothers will be on their trail.
Newcomers are heading toward Horizon as well, including a wagon train under the guidance of Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson).
He frets because the wagons have just entered Indian territory, and not everyone making the journey seems to understand the perils ahead.
Back in the land of the White Mountain Apache, the arrival of the whites have caused a split in the tribe.
Pionsenay led the raid on the whites and continues to vow death to those who infringe on the tribe’s lands.
His brother Taklishim pays closer attention to their father’s warning: That violence toward the whites will bring danger to the mountains the Apache call home.
Kevin Coster as Hayes Ellison, a wanderer who finds himself protecting a woman and young child in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Abbey Lee as Marigold, the prostitute who catches a glimpse of Hayes Ellison’s pouch of gold and decides to get to know him better in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Review:
If you’re a fan of Westerns, head to the theater right now to see this film. It’s been a long time since a Western this grand and this well acted has landed on the big screen.
If you’re not a lover of Westerns, know this: While “Horizon” is very well done, it also plays like the first part of a TV mini-series.
At the end of the first three-hour installment, plot lines have not been resolved. Heck, some have barely gotten started.
But, hey, this viewer, for one, can’t wait to head back to the theater in mid-August for part two.
That doesn’t mean everything works here. The clash between Costner’s character and a Sykes brother seems needlessly wordy and drawn out.
A ploy to “steal” furniture from the home of Mrs. Riordan was meant to provide comic relief, but seems silly in hindsight.
The good news is that lot more works than doesn’t. And as director, Costner serves up some truly moving scenes, including when young Elizabeth Kittredge has to identify the bodies of her father and brother because her mother is too traumatized to do so.
And Abbey Lee is an absolute delight as Marigold, the pretty whore determined to get noticed by Costner’s character the second she eyes his little pouch of gold.
Viewers might be surprised to discover that Costner really isn’t “the star” of this film. He’s one member of an ensemble cast. In fact, his character doesn’t appear until an hour into part one.
His son Hayes shows up much sooner. He plays Frances’ son, a youngster who decides to fight with his father rather than hide when the Apache attack the settlement his family envisioned as their horizon.
Sam Worthington as Lt. Trent Gephart, the officer who tries to warn against settling in Apache country in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Michael Rooker as Sgt. Maj. Thomas Riordan, taking an interest in Elizabeth Kittredge because she reminds him of a daughter he and his wife lost in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1
Directed by:
Kevin Costner
Cast:
Kevin Costner … Hayes Ellison
Abbey Lee … Marigold
Jena Malone … Ellen Harvey
Jamie Campbell Bower …. Caleb Sykes
Jon Beavers … Junior Sykes
Sienna Miller … Frances Kittredge
Georgia MacPhail … Elizabeth Kittredge
Sam Worthington … Lt. Trent Gephart
Danny Huston … Col. Albert Houghton
Michael Rooker … Sgt. Maj. Thomas Riordan
Tim Guinee … James Kittredge
Hayes Costner … Nathaniel Kittredge
Owen Crow Shoe … Pionsenay
Tatanka Means …. Taklishim
Luke Wilson … Matthew Van Weyden
Tom Payne … Hugh Proctor
Ella Hunt … Juliette Chesney
Will Patten … Owen Kittredge
Isabelle Fuhrman … Diamond Kittredge
Hallie Purser … Evie Kittredge
Naomi Winders … Martha Kittredge
Douglas Smith … Sig
Roger Ivens … Birke
Scott Hayes … Elias Janney
Ettienne Kellici … Russell Ganz
Jeff Fahey … Apache tracker / scalphunter
Runtime: 180 min.
Sienna Miller as Frances Kittredge, a woman who finds herself widowed and living at a fort following an Apache raid Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Georgia MacPhail as Elizabeth Kittredge, terrified as Apache attack the cabin where she lives in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Memorable lines:
Lt. Trent Gephart: “You the first settlement?”
Massacre survivor: “No sir.” He indicates three graves on a hill. “I take it they were.”
Lt. Gephart, glancing toward the graves: “Who’s that?”
Survivor: “I don’t know. Got here too late to ask.”
Lt. Gephart: “So that’s what you found when you got here — those graves? … And you wouldn’t take that as some kind of sign?”
Second survivor: “Sure we did. We decided to build on this side of the river.”
Lt. Gephart: “How’s that workin’ out for ya?”
Marigold, warning Hayes Ellison about the noise and the whores at the place he’s staying, whores who will demand ‘consideration’: “Hey, if you’d like something quiet, there’s a nice cabin up there. Top of that trail. That’s mine.”
Hayes Ellison: “And I guess you don’t ask for a consideration, do you?”
Marigold: “Well, you wouldn’t have to. You might be moved to. But I wouldn’t ask.”
Jamie Campbell Bower as Caleb Sykes, searching for his father’s mistress and the child she bore in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Jena Malone as Ellen Harvey, determined to protect her young son and keep him out of the hands of the Sykes family in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Col. Albert Houghton to Lt. Gephart: “Your Apache, he thinks if he can salt the earth with enough of our dead, he’ll stop those wagons coming … The newcomers will see the graves and it won’t make the least difference. All they see is this.” He looks at the poster advertising Horizon. “The graves are just the unlucky, with a poor bastard under it. That’s what a man will tell himself, tell his wife and they’ll tell their children. That if you’re tough enough, smart enough and mean enough, all this will be their’s someday. That’s how they’ll reason in the face of fear.”
Juliette Chesney, after she and her beau have been scolded for holding up the wagon train and not helping with the work: “You think you’ve just given us a fine bit of education, don’t you?”
Wagon train captain Matthew Van Weyden: “I did try, ma’am. We’ll see if it takes.”
Wagon train member: “What you want to do?”
Matthew Van Weyden: “‘Bout that (Indian) scout up there, you mean?”
Wagon train member: “Well, now there’s two.”
Van Weyden: “Lovely.”
Scalphunter, when a young Apache spots the whites while the hunting party of warriors is still in hearing distance: “This looks damn unhealthy.”
Luke Wilson as Matthew Van Weyden, named captain of the wagon train entering Indian territory in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Will Patten as Owen Kittredge, heading west in the wagon train with his three daughters in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
Danny Huston as Col. Albert Houghton, commander of the cavalry barracks nearest the conflict between whites and the Apache in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
The advertisement promising a utopia on the Western frontier in Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter 1 (2024)
