The first part of Costner’s multi-chapter western is all set up, no structure. In Kevin Costner’s , the becomes both a calling card and a curse. Throughout the film, pamphlets advertising plots of land with the slogan “Horizon!” are discovered, read, and taken as gospel by characters who dream of starting anew in the great empty expanses of the west.
But those expanses are not so empty: they are fiercely guarded by the Indigenous American tribes who have lived there for centuries and are rightfully wary of the deluge of settlers coming into their sacred lands. So begins , the first chapter in what Costner hopes to be a that will renew the traditional sweeping . But the major problem with is that it also buys into that myth of the American West.
Costner imbues the film with a grandeur befitting western films of the ‘60s, lingering on sprawling vistas and magnificent silhouettes, while John Debney’s soaring orchestral score makes every moment feel achingly romantic. But every magnificent vista and each swooningly romantic moment can’t make up for the fact that is excruciatingly dull. Sienna Miller stars as Frances Kittredge, a widow of a horrific attack on a western settlement by Apache warriors.
Costner pulls out all the stops to make the most epic movie of the year, introducing a massive cast that gets slowly introduced over the course of the movie’s even more massive three-hour runtime. In an age where the old classics are being steadily forgotten in favor of.
