Kevin Costner’s new film Horizon: An American Saga Part I came out June 28, and many critics don’t seem to be happy about it. Some found it boring. Rotten Tomatoes is filled with “top critics” who say things like: “The three-hour epic is dull, frustrating and sleep-inducing” and “The film feels both overwrought and undercooked.” In an age of simple plots, CGI, and constantly shifting camera angles this is somewhat understandable. The current state of all media, whether music, streaming, or the theater, reflects our vanishing patience.
Still, more seemed to be concerned about the content in Horizon. It’s “confused about history,” an “old-fashioned western,” and somehow absolves us of “benefit[ting] from genocide.” These social justice-motivated takes were predictable. The Daily Beast ran a review entitled: “Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’ Is a Misogynistic, Racist, Retrograde Mess.” The author argued that portraying white settlers as victims in one scene while men and women conformed to gender stereotypes was a bridge too far. A review for The New York Times stated: “The parallelism suggests that both the settlers and Native Americans have blood on their hands, a reductive take, at best, which lets everyone off the hook.”
A Note on Content
I would like to argue just the opposite. Horizon includes many of the missing elements we need to restore American identity, pride, and morals. I say this while acknowledging the film includes modern shortcomings that never were approved during John Wayne’s time. There is a scene where for a brief second the audience is exposed to a portion of a woman’s bare breast. This is not meant to serve a sensual purpose so much as expose the immorality of two peeping Tom’s who have a run-in with the wagon master over it. Still, this is not something Christians want to be surprised by. There are also a handful of casual references to God or Jesus despite the otherwise lack of profanity. It is obvious that violence is what earned Horizon its “R” rating. Yet, the violence was not over the top. We see men struck with bullets and arrows but no graphic depictions of scalping or throwing up blood like fans of the military genre are used to seeing. Because of these elements, I cannot recommend the film for everyone, but I can recommend what I believe it is trying to do.
Uncommon Boundaries
Horizon upholds some important boundaries that are rarely seen in modern films, including Westerns. The West is not a morally bankrupt backdrop painted red by some selfish anti-hero in a Darwinian struggle for resources or power. This survival of the fittest view of nature characterized much of the genre from Spaghetti Westerns to Quentin Tarantino. Instead, what we see in Horizon is a story with a moral center. The main characters (who follow three different storylines across different parts of the West) are united by a shared interest and even optimism for a place called “Horizon” in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley.
The original surveyors for the town were killed by Apache. A missionary later came and refounded it only for it to be destroyed a few years later in another raid. Even while most of the settlers are dead and their town burned, the remaining ones want to stay and rebuild. Posters advertising the town as an up-and-coming place for settlers inspire more to come. The town is personified in Sienna Miller’s character Frances Kittredge and her daughter, Diamond, played by Isabelle Fuhrman. They suffer the profound loss of their family yet choose not to grow bitter or seek revenge. Instead, they showcase the kind of resourcefulness, kindness, and stubborn innocence that makes Horizon the place that it is. The musical score is magnificent and it signals angelic tones that transcend the hardship of the West in scenes involving Frances and Isabelle.
Chaos and Order
The West is not simply a cruel place. It is a beautiful place, and one can almost feel the transcendent purpose of providence directing each character’s story on the road that will lead them to Horizon. This first boundary I am speaking of is not good and evil, though those qualities also come out during character development. It is chaos and order. Horizon represents things as they should be even in a fallen world. Families enjoy dancing together. Farmers expect rain to grow their crops. Parents protect children. Men protect women. Common sense and bravery rule the day. The depiction of the Kittredge family in the first half hour of the film shows a father’s love, a son’s admiration for him, and a mother’s grief after an Apache raid. These are stirring. One cannot watch them without feeling that they channel the spirit that made America what it is.
Good and Evil
The second boundary of course is good and evil. The traditional Western was known for sharply distinguishing between the two and Horizon is no different. Yet, the depictions of good and evil people are anything but cliche. Hayes Ellison, played by Kevin Costner, has a mysterious gun-fighting past but is clearly the “good guy” as opposed to Caleb Sykes, played by Jamie Campbell Bower. Ellison is willing to sacrifice himself to defend a prostitute he does not know and takes on the responsibility of providing for her and a child with no promise of reward, sexual or otherwise. First Lt. Trent Gephardt, played by Sam Worthington, is also a “good guy.” His stiff and pragmatic approach to life is balanced by an honor code as if he were the perfect quintessentially American mix of Puritan and Cavalier all in one person. Many other main characters are also depicted as either good or bad, but they are never flat. They may have complex interests and accompanying weaknesses but they are not threatened by the moral ambiguity common in today’s Hollywood.
Civilization and Barbarism
There is also a separation between civilization and barbarism. This actually cuts across racial and social lines because characters like tribal elder Tuayeseh, portrayed by Gregory Cruz, represent the best of indigenous living while the Tracker, played by Jeff Fahey, represents the worst of white settlers. It is obvious that the best conditions for human existence are not men or women alone on the frontier, but men, women, and children together channeling their energy into making a life for themselves.
Men and Women
This depiction flows into a separation between the roles of men and women. For example, in one scene an English lady named Juliette Chesney, played by Ella Hunt, pejoratively refers to young ladies as young men. The wagon master, Matthew Van Weyden, played by Luke Wilson, offers the father of the young ladies to talk to Chesney about this insult. One of the daughters says “Don’t worry Daddy. She knows we’re girls.” Such confusion is seen for the insult it is.
Because of these boundaries (order/chaos, good/evil, civilization/barbarism, and men/women) it is no wonder the critics in Hollywood oppose Horizon. They likely wish the traditional Western, along with our other uniquely American legends, were cast asunder to make way for modern living. Cowboys are antiquated. That is unless you can deconstruct them by making them homosexuals or retelling the story in such a way that white men are always dirty, scheming, and evil while women are the ones who truly conquered the West.
Echos of Providence
For Christians, it is worth remembering that while life may not always make sense, there is Providence. While good and evil may seem ambiguous at times, they are not. While immorality may dominate our institutions there is still civilization to be found in our homes. While some say gender is fluid, it never will be. We know this because it is part of the world God created, and it is part of the world Kevin Costner is trying to depict on the big screen.
Our ancestors suffered in a world where resources were easily destroyed on daring voyages and death often came at early ages. In our world of instability, broken families, and political upheaval maybe there is something to learn from those who hoped in Providence even if it’s only their echoes we can detect in a place called Horizon.
