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Such a self indulgent vanity project. Disappointed in a project that goes nowhere…
This felt like it should have been isolated individual short stories. I just ended up not caring for anyone living or dying due the focus switching and time jumps.
Also... I can't be the only one annoyed with how the women were wearing makeup and had their eyebrows done like it was 2024. What the f.
I wouldn't say that “Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1” is fundamentally a badly made movie, but as a movie in itself, it's quite a disaster. The plot is completely unfocused; even after two hours, completely new major characters are still being introduced. Meanwhile, the narrative jumps back and forth seemingly at random, and no plot thread is even remotely resolved. The whole thing finally culminates in the outrageous decision to cut seamlessly into a montage of the second film at the end.
It may well be that "Horizon," should it ever be completed, will be an epic western saga. But if you choose the medium of film, you should also stick to basic rules, such as a certain structure. The editing is also quite bad, so that time jumps are sometimes completely incomprehensible, and you regularly have the feeling that you have missed something.
The first chapter is at least visually appealing, but it could have been stronger. The cast, meanwhile, is excellent, but if there is sometimes more than an hour between some characters' scenes, then the actors can't get anything out of it.
Overall, “Chapter 1” of the Horizon saga is quite a disappointment. There may be a good movie hidden somewhere in all this Western mishmash, but I haven't managed to find it.
F the critics. It wasn't perfect, but personally, I enjoyed it. Looking forward to more chapters.
Kevin Costner certainly can make westerns.
This first part feels like a long exposition for all the characters, with some good action in between. It would fit more to be a one season mini tv show, but I guess this way is okay too.
I'd watch anything with Kevin Costner anyway. He's one of the real men left in Hollywood and we ought to appreciate it.
Give it a chance. Epic in scope. Great storytelling without dialogue. Good vistas. Excellent costumes. Superb acting. Not sure why others didn't like. If you like America, history and quality cinematic visuals just give it a chance. I watched on Max. Looking forward to more. I support Costner and his art.
Bad with no direction, jumps around with no guidance of where it's at or where it's going. Then ends without closing any plots. I now see why the future movies were stopped.
In my opinion it was a good Western. It doesn't live directly on the background of the characters it is more a story that is told how white settlers stole the west from the native Americans. How promises about fertile land were made and it was stolen from the owners. The brutality and hard life in these days is shown in a way and let's you think about how it must have been living in these days and how privileged most of us are today. Those were tough days and that is it what the movie shows really good. So definitely worth a watch. But please do not expect a great story and a detailed character development. The movie is more like an interesting history lesson and it shows you how the people lived and what they struggled with. I can't wait to watch the other chapters.
This movie was so boring and uninteresting.
So many bad reviews, but why?
Aparently, most haven't a clue what a true Western is. Kevin Costner has out done himself! Very, very well done! I'll give this 5 stars, two thumbs up!
Beautifully made western epic that is a little too free in some of its storytelling. The main problem with this is that it shoukd have been a series - cut it in half or thirds and you’d have a full season of western goodness that could have given Hell On Wheels a run for its money ( no, not better than Deadwood.)
Hope the other chaoters are still released cause apparently ”noone” watched this.
Also: don’t watch the last 8 to 10 minutes right after the skalp thing. It’s basically a "next week on Horizon” spoiler fest without the warning.
It's good but not spectacular. The story would be better suited to a number of 90 minute episodes over a season instead of jamming so much into a 3-hour movie x 4 movies.
Visually its stunning. Acting is very good... but overall I just can't give it more than a 6.5/10.
It's way better than something like House Of The Dragon which stives to be epic but isn't.
It was really weird at the end of the movie how it suddenly went form this story into a preview of episode 2 with no break and then the closing credits.
"We'll muddle through while they decide things back home. And when they do, when that war ends—because it will end, whether with one nation or two—they'll all start looking west again, sir. And then these open spaces you mentioned—well, sir, they'll all close up in the blink of an eye."
Just saw "Princess Mononoke* for the first time the other day and there's a surprising amount of parallels here. No person or group is purely good or evil. The real enemy is anger and hate. Can we learn to coexist?
Ending montage was bizarre.
Good movie, the story is amazing. First hour is a little bit all over the place. Once you get to know the characters this isn’t the case anymore, well executed story telling. Amazing western, Costner delivers again!!
Can’t wait for chapter 2, if the movie even comes out… after disappointing ticket sales. Can’t wait for chapter 3 and 4, if they can ever make them…
To all multi millionaires and billionaires, please fund these movies!!!!!!
I liked it. Bring on Chapter Two! Or, as it's been suggested, convert the remaining installments into a TV series.
Should be called horizon: An American Genocide. How the West was won and lost is just another entertainment movie about genocide of native lands and people. The story is one we all watch live on our news today except the weapons are more efficient.
Contemporary American cinema have learnt little. The characters, acting, cinematography, music and storyline are just another weak repetition of this era. The portrayal of their colonising psyche and brutality of their manifest destiny is weak to say the least. This movie is just another Kevin Costner self indulgence.
I have no clue what this movie is about. Zero interation with the characters. Not my kind of movie
As with all Costner western passion projects, this is much better than others let on. People talk about the rotation of characters in the beginning and how their story wasn't built up, but the first third of the movie is just that, building up the characters and setting in the past for the present that occurs in the movie and for that I thought it was captivating.
Costner knows how to capture the American west. While I think 3 hours was a bit long for this movie, it was very well done and very fair to all sides - knowing that the truth of the west sits somewhere between American history and Indian history.
He does a fantastic job of depicting what life was for the earliest settlers of the west and that even once things are established, there's no guarantee of a total disaster. It was a hard life and it's really shown well in this movie.
If you like westerns or are passionate about the American west (as I am, living in the heart of it) then you'll probably like this movie. It's a good western and it's a good history of the west. A bit long? Sure, and you do feel that a few times, but in the end it's worthwhile as the acting is extremely good, but it does drag here and there.
A rigorous and handsome drama, finely hewn by Costner and his cast, this is an absorbing ride into the Old West.
fantastic movie, not sure why people moaning about it. yea it's long but it's a good old western loved it all
Not a bad movie. It just that I was not emotionally attached to any of the characters because there are too many stories to follow. If you love westerns like me, it was good. If you are just looking for a good movie, but not a western fan this is not it.
I walked out after 45 min. Horrible movie.
6 different characters, terrible shot selection, horrible acting. A real shame because I had high expectations for this. I guess that was my first mistake.
I will, however, always remember this movie, as I got a text from my friend as I was walking out that Trump had been shot at his rally in Butler PA.
And so, i was glued to Twitter and probably wouldn't have paid attention to this movie even if I'd liked it. Core memory.
I'm half way though this 3 hour long movie. It's a big budget movie for sure. The costumes, sets, special effects, casting and cinematography are all great. What's not so great is the writing. For the past one and a half hours, they've been flooding the story with one character after another without taking the time to develop any of them. I understand that here will be 4 more parts/movies in this saga. Which means this is a massive time commitment for viewers. Give us something to hold on to. Just one likeable character developed during the first hour would have been enough.
I also can't help comparing the story telling to that of Taylor Sheridan. That guy can write a good Western. This ain't Yellowstone, or anything from that franchise. The only cross-over seems to be Kevin Costner. :rolling_eyes:
Honestly i was surprised at how enjoyable this was, i kind of regret not watching this in cinemas cause i really want to see this saga be finished. For a 3 hour movie it didn't drag at all and its just a good old-fashioned western without any of the shoehorned politics you usually might see in the questionable quality cinema of the 2020s
I have no idea why Kevin Costner was so desperate to make this, I feel like I've watched all of these wild west stories many times before...
I can't think of a single character that I care about so far, just random people doing random stuff.
Yep such a waste of time and so hard to know which story your watching.
Like an empty-handed elephant at the circus: huge and impressive but doesn't bring anything new.
I'm surprised this is getting such bad reviews.
It looks amazing (cinematography, sets, costumes). It feels very real. The acting was great.
There are a ton of interesting and very distinct characters.
The action scenes were great and had a few surprises. The story was a bit meandering without really a main line, but it almost feels like a bunch of small portraits of parts of the west, strung together in a way that kept the pace up. It felt an hour less than it actually was.
It alternated between very serious issues and much more lighthearted elements quickly and smoothly.
Overall had a great time. It was ambitious (and apparently divisive)
Good job Kevin Costner 8/10 !
Kevin Costner returns to the genre in which he has long held legendary status, and it seemed he had exhausted the topic, but it turns out he still has much to say... because this is just the first three-hour part of four.
The film is good, but... Firstly, it feels completely out of date. This is Costner from the '90s, but not from the beginning, at the level of "Dances with Wolves," more like the late '90s with "The Postman." That's the impression I had while watching Horizon. I remembered that sentimental style from that film, the tear-jerking and pathos in every other scene... I remembered watching that film with my dad, and here's the twist... we kinda liked that film :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: And as I sat in the theater watching Horizon, I was hit by nostalgia for those times and completely bought into how Costner tells this epic story. And the story is indeed epic. In the first part, we watch two stories that, at certain points, branch into additional plots, so we follow four or five stories in total. But two are dominant. In the first, we follow the fate of a woman and her daughter, who, after an Apache attack on the budding town of Horizon, come under the care of Union soldiers. Of course, at some point, we get a brief look from the Apache perspective.
In the second story, we see Costner's character, who accidentally gets into trouble and has to flee a town in Montana with a prostitute and a small child. Just explaining these two plots would take me three hours :wink: The best part is that after two hours (I checked my watch), a completely new plot with new characters suddenly begins. In this plot, we watch a caravan of pioneers crossing the wilderness towards Horizon. It's crazy, but he film watches very well. All the plots are interesting, and we want to know how the fates of these characters will unfold. It seems that all these plots will intertwine, with the central idea being the town of Horizon itself, showing how the Wild West was won through blood, sweat, and tears.
My biggest complaint is about the ending. I expected it to be cut off, without a proper conclusion. Instead, we get a montage of clips from the next part, which, in my opinion, reveals too much and somewhat spoils the atmosphere. I felt like the film ended with a trailer. I know they wanted to entice viewers, but it would have been more elegant to cut the story off and write "to be continued."
'Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1' surpassed my expectations!
A three-hour western, which is only the first of many connected entries? Yeah, that doesn't exactly set the pulses racing! Based on that, I was anticipating it to be a slow-moving set-up to future chapters. However, to my surprise this opening installment is a lot of fun. For a film of such a length, it absolutely flies by; this felt like a 2hr, max, movie to me.
My main praise for this film is directed at the pacing (evidently), the visuals and the score - the latter is particularly outstanding. I will say there are a fair few scenes that I felt could've been lit better, mainly across the opening chunk - not a big deal, though.
There are so many characters in this, some may say too many but honestly I enjoyed all the different people portrayed onscreen. Kevin Costner is very solid, though to be truthful he isn't really involved all that much in this chapter - at least to how much I was expecting to see of him. I wouldn't say there is a main standout from the cast, but I don't mean that negatively.
Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Abbey Lee, Jamie Campbell Bower and Michael Rooker are some of the notable performers, though it truly is an ensemble because I can't really separate any of them based on their performanes - which is actually a good thing. Mind you, as good as he is, Rooker's Irish accent is awful, I gotta say - rather distracting.
How annoying that we have to wait so long for the seque... oh, ''Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2'' drops next month! Bring it on!
...oh, and I (unintentionally) watched this on July 4th - how American of me. shudders
I liked it, many characters, although, don't get attached to it just in case, . Those lines of "didn't those 3 crosses serve as a warning?", "even if people die, the wagons will keep coming"
Here's the thing: with little to no backstory for any of these characters, it makes it extremely challenging to actually care about any of them. And if I can't care about them, I can't get invested in the outcome. I spent so much time trying to figure out who these people were and when these people were, that I couldn't keep track of what was going on. Which brings me to my next point: I appreciated knowing where we were, but would it have killed someone to tell me when each of these storylines were taking place? In addition to not being able to become invested in the characters, I also had no context most of the time as to when these story lines were happening in relation to one another, and whether they had any connection at all beyond the "Horizon" flyer that kept popping up. The abruptness of switching between the storylines was also jarring, which brings me full circle to not being knowing the characters, which meant half the time I couldn't figure out if we had circled back to a previously introduced storyline or were being thrust into another one for several minutes, and about the time I would start to figure out where we were in this storyline, we were suddenly in another. Frustrating, because I think there are actually some really good stories to be told here, if we could actually get to know who the heck these people are.
Shout by Johan SchaafsmaBlockedParent2024-10-11T10:48:56Z
Overall nice movie and a real western based on true colonization. But... I can relate tot the comments below. The storytelling is quite hard. You have to figure it out you're self.
So I see four storylines evolving: the one with Costner (got involved in a revenge of a family) and two stories after the burning of the horizon village: a mother and daughter seeking savety, father and son seeking revenge. A group of colonists seeking the Horizon territory.
So, with that laidout it's quite easy to follow. The four stories all have another angel to the colonization. I guess part 2 brings the stories together.
The end of part 1 is confusing.. is it a (realy...realy) fastforward.. or a glimpse of part 2?