Kevin Costner has been carrying this film with him for years. For the first two parts of Horizon: An American Sagaa tetralogy, if all goes well, the actor, director and producer has even mortgaged a plot of land on which he wanted to build his last house. Interview with a great of cinema…
The man of He dances with wolves (1990) has become synonymous with westerns and cowboys, despite its participation in classics such as The Incorruptibles (1987), Field of Dreams (1989), JFK (1991) or again The bodyguard (1992); productions such as Wyatt Earp (1994), The Wild West (2003), Hatfields & McCoys (2012) et Yellowstone (2018), of which he is executive producer, have solidified this reputation. The heir to John Wayne, the actor with the outdated image risks everything with this Horizonthe second chapter of which will be in theaters on August 16… and the last two in the months that follow, if the box office is there.
Ovation… and not a penny
He decided to camp Horizon: An American Saga in the Civil War. A fervent Republican, Kevin Costner measures the divisions shaking the United States in this election year. Interviewed last February with other journalists, he explained to us that he wanted “the public to project themselves into the film, for the spectators to be absorbed by this adventure. We all know what happens when the lights go out and I hope this film stays with them long after they watch it.”
The epic follows, for a little over a decade, a certain number of these settlersdriven to the west of the continent by the promise of a better life – the pursuit of the famous American dream. The pioneers as well as the military will find themselves in conflict with the Native American tribes who inhabit these places unexplored by the whites. The cast is impressive and, in addition to Kevin Costner in the role of Hayes Ellison, we find Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Jamie Campbell Bower and Thomas Haden Church, to name a few.
Presented in official competition at the last Cannes Film Festival, Horizon: An American Saga is, for its creator, “a reflection on barbarism”. And even though festival-goers gave an 11-minute standing ovation, Kevin Costner couldn’t secure additional funding. “They didn’t give me a dollar… I could have used a good amount,” he confided, disappointed, to Jimmy Fallon during his appearance on the late night show while he started filming the last two parts.
The Call of the West
“At a certain point in my career, I felt like everyone was copying my films, whether it was Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves or Wyatt Earp and I had the desire to make a western,” the man who started working on it told us. Horizon in… 1989!
«Horizon is a title that I found by default. On the other hand, I realized that it was relevant. Everyone is looking for something today, whether in human relationships or in relation to what is happening in the world. We are looking for space, fresh air. And this march across the continent which took place 200 years ago is no different, it corresponds to the same need.
“I don’t think a classic can fall into disuse,” he added, emphasizing the timelessness of his subject. The man never gets discouraged. When he was denied funding for the first two parts by every lender he approached, he mortgaged one of his plots of land and began to imagine “two more sequels.” Because the heart of Kevin Costner’s thinking revolves around what historians call “manifest destiny,” that is, the divine mission of expansion to the West and then around the world.
“It was by looking at the graves that lined the road to the West that the pioneers continued to advance in the hope of having a better life. The Native Americans were crushed by this movement, they had absolutely no chance,” he stressed.
Photo RICHARD FOREMAN
“Whatever way we decide to look at the Civil War – the number of victims, the trigger, the questions we still haven’t resolved – it is a marker in the history of our country. This is what closed the West in the blink of an eye. As soon as the war was over, eyes shifted to the West, to the detriment of those who lived and flourished there for millennia. It’s something that still haunts me today. I can’t tell if I’m ashamed or embarrassed.”
“I want to try to show what happened. The conquest of the West was a huge injustice. But that does not minimize the courage my ancestors had to go there. My film shows the clash of two cultures,” he said.
Chronicle of a predicted flop?
Kevin Costner makes no secret of it, Horizon “is the film I want to see,” he stressed to American journalists. “I make films to make people interested. I want to give them a different point of view, and maybe that’s why I have trouble getting my films financed.”
COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURE
But, from the first screenings, critics deplored the lack of script direction, coherence and the length of 2 hours 51 minutes.
