“This genre will live forever if people take it seriously,” says writer-director Kevin Costner of Horizon, examining the American West and all the contradictions, which, at its core, is what the Western has always been trying to do — interrogate the myths upon which our country was founded. “This is not a last stab at keeping this genre alive,” he insists. “This genre will live forever if people take it seriously.”
Horizon: An American Saga is a film series that consists of four planned westerns directed, co-written, and produced by, as well as starring Kevin Costner, from a script he co-wrote with Jon Baird and based on an original story co-authored by Costner, Baird, and Mark Kasdan. The first two movies in the saga hit cinemas in 2024.
Costner not only stars in the film, but he also returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2003’s Open Range. He’s been dreaming up the project since 1988, which he based on his personal belief that its viewers should be inspired by the true history of America in the Old West.
“I don’t know if passion’s the right word,” he says of his dogged commitment to the films (though he may be selling himself short, considering that he named his son, Hayes, after the film’s main character before it ever got made). “I just don’t fall out of love with things I like. I am always looking for the next great movie.”
Hayes Costner in Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter 1
For him, the next great movie is often a Western. His first directorial effort, 1990’s Dances With Wolves, won Best Picture at the Oscars. But his fascination with the American West began long before that and has never flagged. “There’s real drama in how people crossed this country,” Costner muses. “There’s always this tendency to think it was a simpler time. It was infinitely more difficult. You were dealing with unknowns. You didn’t know where you were going. You had to arbitrate your own problems… When you were confronted with issues, you had to make up your mind very quickly in very tough situations. Sometimes, life and death situations. Try that on a daily basis and see if you don’t want to live with your computer and s—.
“If you search for stories,” he continues, “you find incredible drama and realize that it’s not a land in Disneyland. It’s not Frontierland. It was real stakes. And it was a 200 or 300-year struggle to cross this country.”
“He’s illiterate and works his way across the country,” Costner details. “I’d say college wasn’t for him. He’s just a man on a landscape, with all the possessions that he owns existing, on a horse. It’s a romantic view of things, but I respond to that notion of having responsibility only to yourself. I don’t have that, but I can look at it and go, ‘Wow, wouldn’t that be nice?'”
But lest you think the film is a white savior narrative about white men taming the Wild West, think again. Costner isn’t interested in telling the story of Manifest Destiny without shining a light on its darker side and those often left out of the story.
“I don’t want to be the person who’s setting the record straight or ‘Oh, here comes the history lesson.’ That’s not me,” he explains. “But women are dominant in my film. I want to highlight what their contributions were. Without women, the West dies. It never happens. This country doesn’t happen. They have a place in these stories.”
There’s also the film’s view of Manifest Destiny and the atrocities perpetrated in its name. “You can’t tell the story unless you bump into that,” notes Costner. “You can’t talk about anything without understanding who was here before us. Our national appetite ran over culture after culture, with a high level of genocide. The people that were here for thousands of years were suddenly an inconvenience in their own land, and we should never forget that. The conflict was unfair. It was one-sided. If it was a sporting event, somebody would’ve thrown the f—ing flag and said, ‘This is unacceptable,’ but we did it, and we did it across the whole country. I never am going to forget what our participation has been in settling America, and I’m not so embarrassed about it that I won’t talk about it.”
In its original form, Horizon was not a four-part epic. It was titled Sidewinder and was more of a two-hander between Costner’s character, Hayes, and another man. In contrast, Horizon follows a myriad of intersecting characters across 12 years. But make no mistake, Costner’s Hayes is still central to that narrative.
Regarding the film’s depiction of clashes between white settlers and Indigenous people, Costner said, “I’m ashamed of what happened — I don’t know that I’m ashamed or embarrassed — but I want to project what really happened,” he said. “There was a great injustice occurred in the West, but it doesn’t minimize the courage it took for my ancestors to cut loose and go there. And I recognized the resourcefulness it took and the bravery it took to leave and make this march across this country. It’s just a movie that shows the class of cultures. It’s our history. I love it. I can enjoy watching a movie like this if I feel like I can see myself in it, and I tried really hard for that to happen.”
Going a bit deeper on the subject of morality and the Old West — and being wading into some potentially controversial subject matter — Costner added, “I think it’s really a mistake to judge other people how they had to perform or act in another century. We kind of apply our own sensibilities where we live a life today where, when we’re offended, we have to get a lawyer or agent or publicity person — somebody to arbitrate our problems. Back then, you had to arbitrate your problems by yourself — which was terribly dramatic, especially if you’re dealing with a sociopath. You have to understand we were coming out of that terrible Civil War. And if anyone believes in post-traumatic stress, there was only about 30 million people in America at the time and that war went on for four years. We lost 56,000 men in Vietnam. We lost 600,000 in the Civil War. People came West, sometimes with a lot of hope, bringing their family, and others came West because they were damaged and were running away from something.”
Horizon explores the lure of the Old West and how it was won — and lost — through the blood, sweat and tears of many. Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.”
