Kevin Costner’s long-gestating frontier Western was originally conceived as a single film in 1988; from recent statements he has made, it appears to now be two, possibly three features – maybe even four if all goes well. On the evidence of Chapter One, a three-hour sprawl that premieres out of competition in Cannes and is due to be released in multiple territories on June 28, is still suffering from an identity crisis. Beautifully shot, with a deft command of period detail and a starry ensemble cast, Costner’s Civil-war set epic offers an old-fashioned celebration of the pioneer spirit – and a clutch of storylines that never quite have time to engage before the film moves on.
It’s curious that, almost 35 years on from – a revisionist Western that still feels radical in the way it reframed the genre’s moral and narrative point of view to Native American peoples – Costner has turned traditionalist in . That’s in the nature of the well-researched story, co-written by Costner and newcomer Jon Baird, which centres on the enormous challenges facing early settlers in the American West, who were trying to make a life in an untamed land which didn’t belong to them. But you choose your stories, and the single, underdeveloped narrative thread that is dedicated to a First Nation community here feels like a corrective, rather than a commitment.
Audiences in the mood for a lush, old-fashioned Utah-shot saddle saga will probably not be disappointed, though they will almo.