Kevin Costner is not a filmmaker who thinks small. His debut feature as director, “ Dances With Wolves ,” was a sweeping epic of the American frontier that overcame industry skepticism in 1990 to prove that the Western genre still had relevance for contemporary audiences — winning Costner a Best Director Oscar in the process. His next directorial effort, 1997’s “The Postman,” was an even bigger swing for the fences, a post-apocalyptic fable that applied Costner’s interest in Western iconography to science fiction, creating a one-of-a-kind adventure film as bold and idiosyncratic as anything released by a Hollywood studio that year.
Even a more modest production like “Open Range,” Costner’s 2003 Western about free range cowboys battling an evil rancher, sought to illuminate aspects of the old West elided by other movies, going deep into the intricate details of its characters’ work and personal lives and reconsidering the role of women in the West via a rich central performance by Annette Bening. Even by Costner’s standards, however, “ Horizon: An American Saga ” is an enormous undertaking. A projected four-part series of films that explores the evolution of the American West during the Civil War, it’s a wide-ranging ensemble piece that adopts a broad array of cultural perspectives and gives each of them careful consideration.
There are enough ideas and storylines in “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” to keep most directors busy for the.
