Warner Bros.
It’s been 550 days since a new episode of “Yellowstone” aired, which seems absurd for one of television’s most popular shows. But the drama that’s unfolded since then has been as fraught as the Dutton family dynamics, leading to the ouster of showrunner Kevin Costner. His departure was surrounded by a whirlwind of accusations that largely boil down to Costner demanding less time on set and “Yellowstone” mastermind Taylor Sheridan not wanting to play along, leading to a schism and Costner’s farewell.
Why was Costner so willing to scale back his commitments to “Yellowstone”? Because he had a wildly ambitious vision for a four-part Western epic called “Horizon,” which he would co-write, direct, star in — and partially finance. After a mixed premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the first film has been shown nationwide. But will “Yellowstone” fans, hungry for more Costner Westerns, be satisfied with this three-plus-hour epic?
Primordial
Unfortunately, the first of these films is not only a commercial flop: it is a complete narrative failure, from start to finish, an incredible loss of understanding of what interests audiences. Given all the sacrifices Costner made to bring his vision to the big screen, it is disconcerting that the final product is so bland, devoid of the spark that Sheridan can bring to “Yellowstone” and its spinoffs every week.
Lest you think this is a disingenuous argument, I wanted nothing more than to be swept away by Horizon. Arriving at the first Thursday preview screening at my local theater in Queens, New York, there were eight other people scattered throughout the vast auditorium. They must all have been fans of Costner, Yellowstone, or Westerns in general, given the mixed reviews and the head-spinning running time. Still, the audience filed out one by one, leaving me the only adventurer left for the final cut of the film, “Coming up in Part 2.”
During the final hour of “Horizon,” a man sitting several rows behind me came down the steps of the darkened theater, knocked over his half-full bucket of popcorn, and reached out to pick it up, only to be interrupted by an audible fart. At that point, he abandoned the bucket and hurried out the door. If only “Horizon” could match that level of compact, wit-filled storytelling, featuring a memorable character facing difficult odds.
Perhaps if Costner had stuck to the following core principles that Sheridan built into the DNA of “Yellowstone,” “Horizon” wouldn’t have failed.
An appropriate scope of narration
At its core, “Yellowstone” is a simple soap opera: The Dutton family owns the largest ranch in Montana and is constantly trying to keep their property out of the hands of greedy outsiders, even as they fight among themselves for control. It’s simple and effective, but “Horizon” — hoping The movie seems to want to tell the story of every person who headed west after the Civil War in search of fame and fortune. The result is far too many introduced characters, and it’s hard to get attached to anyone when you’re constantly moving around, meeting new people. Some stories are interesting, some aren’t, and yet everyone gives long speeches about the new frontier. The stories then intertwine, creating an endless expanse. As my colleague Owen Gleiberman noted in a review of the film, this pacing might work in a TV series, but for a movie to have so much homework to do without covering the good stuff is a fatal flaw. After all, Costner doesn’t even appear for ONE HOUR in his own epic!
The Ebb and Flow of Great Acting
For an actor as naturalistic as Costner, his direction of actors is disconcerting in “Horizon.” A constellation of great leads and character actors—Jamie Campbell Bower! Jena Malone! Jeff Fahey! Luke Wilson!—come in and out, seemingly tasked with choosing an accent and a cadence and sticking to it. Despite the national melting pot, the scenes recall the regional performances of “Our Town,” where everyone is simply trying to steal the spotlight from everyone else, dialect be damned. Meanwhile, the leads of “Yellowstone” have quickly mastered the perfect interplay between them, bouncing off friends, lovers, enemies and family members with ease and acid tongues.
Create a world that feels inhabited
Aside from the gorgeous natural settings, the artifice of “Horizon” doesn’t allow for a moment of lived authenticity. The clothes look new and unworn, despite the hard lives of all the characters — maybe they just buy off-the-rack? The eyebrows, teeth and styling seem oddly modern, as if this project isn’t worth the players getting a haircut. And Costner wears the most ridiculous big blue hat you’ve ever seen on the field. At the same time, part of the appeal of “Yellowstone” is that it seems to be a glimpse into the very real (if very wealthy) lives of those who run enormous ranches, as was confirmed when I interviewed a ranch matriarch, who confirmed that the look was true to life.
Bring the drama!
Aside from its overbearing soundtrack, Horizon is as lifeless as the chaos of a rolling tree. Sure, a few people die and there are shootouts, but those moments are few and far between, interspersed with countless character introductions. The bullets also don’t cut the audience too deeply, because despite their incessant chatter, we don’t know much about the travelers beyond their most restorative aspirations for going West: money, a chance at a new beginning, the search for love, and so on. At the same time, in both his films and his TV shows, Sheridan is a master of tension and release, and he knows that getting under the skin of a character in peril is the result of economical writing and high stakes—two elements that are missing here.
Ultimately, it’s disconcerting to be presented with a passion project that seems so devoid of any real passion. With a CinemaScore of B-, it seems like Costner is having a hard time convincing audiences to get back on board for Part 2, let alone raise the funds to finish Part 3 and get Part 4 off the ground.
Perhaps he should talk to the Dutton family to see if they would use some of their fortune to invest in the arts.