It’s about an hour into Kevin Costner ’s western Horizon: An American Saga when Kevin Costner shows up. He plays Hayes Ellison, a horse trader who arrives in a small town in the Wyoming territory, dictates an awkward letter home, and then promptly winds up in a fight with a man he’s never met, the result of which steers his life in an unexpected direction. Not long after we meet Hayes, the film cuts away to introduce us to another major character, Luke Wilson’s Matthew Van Weyden, the inexperienced leader of a wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail, anxiously trying to keep his rolling community from falling apart in the West Kansas heat.
By the time the three-hour film approaches its end, we half-expect to belatedly meet yet more major characters. Horizon is a gorgeous, sprawling, and at times moving blast of old-fashioned storytelling — but for now, it’s half a movie. Maybe even one-quarter of a movie: Addressing the audience at his Cannes premiere, after receiving an extended standing ovation, a clearly emotional Costner yelled, “There’s three more!” Part Two, we know, has already been shot and will be released this fall.
Parts Three and Four, it seems, will only be made if audiences come out for Parts One and Two. Was Costner’s bellow one of triumph or an apology? Maybe a bit of both. Horizon feels like the opening chapters of a grand novel patiently rolling into place, carefully delineating characters and offering telltale glimpses into their lives.
It’s.