I found this on IMdB, but there is a quote from an interview with Kevin Costner for the Cigar Aficionado Magazine which was done by a guy called David Giammarco back in November/December 2000 where Costner said:
“Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed but win out in the end because they’ve stayed true to their ideals and beliefs and commitments.”
In the same interview with David Giammarco, Costner also had this to say:
“Everyone feels like they could have done things differently in life. But I’m happy about the things I’ve done. Not always happy about the results, but happy about the decisions, because I made them myself. And I think that’s an important way to go through life.”
I feel those quotes from that interview, particularly the first one, perfectly encapsulates why Kevin Costner is an actor and filmmaker who has endured and prevailed over the years. Even when he experienced a lot of commercial and critical failures in his long career. It also perfectly encapsulates why his films and performances are so beloved and admired by filmgoers, filmmakers and critics. Regardless of what you may think of him as an actor and his abilities in that area, Kevin Costner is a charismatically charming actor with movie star qualities. He has all those everyday American qualities that every liberal and good-natured person in the world wishes to be. The righteous hero of their own story. You can imagine everyone wants to be like Kevin Costner and take on the bad guys and stand up for what’s right. And on the other side of that social/political spectrum, you got a bunch of people who want to be like Clint Eastwood.
I can imagine when Costner was born, he came out of his mother’s womb looking like he was going to take on the world and everyone could see that this boy was going to be a star. He was going to be somebody and not just a contender. Actor and co-star Scott Glenn, during the making of their western Silverado, could see it too and he referred to Kevin Costner as ‘Movie Star’ and anytime he came across Costner on set he would go ‘Hey Movie Star.’ Kevin Costner has got leading man written all over his face and is the poster boy for rugged, fearless and dependable protagonists. Much like John Wayne… just without all the inherent racism. A positive and heroic reflection of white American masculinity. This is my opinion I will add, but I think it’s why so many of his performances and films, (mainly in the early stages of his career in the late 1980s and 1990s) were so popular with audiences was because of those valiant characteristics. Performances in films like Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, The Untouchables, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, JFK (a top favourite of mine), The Bodyguard, A Perfect World, Thirteen Days and I guess you could say Waterworld: aka Mad Max on the high seas. Win or lose, live or die, victorious or defeat, the characters that Costner played always never gave up or contradicted their principles. They stayed true to who they are and never wavered. When looking at much of the films Kevin Costner has starred in, it makes sense why this living embodiment of good and kind American ideals was cast as Jonathan ‘Pa’ Kent in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. A film that most people on the internet like to remind everyone else that is the blueprint for every superhero or big blockbuster film ever made in its wake or before it. And I want to take this time in this piece and say I disagree with that. The films that really are the blueprint for the modern superhero film are not Zack Snyder’s DCEU films. They are:
Richard Donner’s Superman with Christopher Reeve.
Tim Burton’s Batman with Michael Keaton.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire.
Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy with Christian Bale.
&
Jon Favreau’s Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr.
And if I was to add another film into that list:
Stephen Norrington’s Blade with Wesley Snipes.
But I digress… back to Kevin Costner and why I am rambling on about him.
In recent years, Kevin Costner has starred on the TV show Yellowstone before his slightly controversial exit. That show was created by filmmaker Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Sicario, Wind River) who pretty much is a modern cowboy himself and the Marlboro Man come to life. Now that Costner is not going to be in much of the show’s final season, he can get to work making his self-financed passion project, the western: Horizon: An American Saga. A big western epic split into what was two chapters is now four chapters. The first two are coming out soon (I’ve already got my tickets for Chapter 1), and Costner is already at work filming the other two chapters, after Horizon’s Cannes Film Festival screening. It seems sad that big Oscar winning filmmakers like Kevin Costner and Francis Ford Coppola must resort to financing their own passion projects when studios won’t even take a risk on it. But I like that in this world, they found a way to get those films made. Because of the near release of Horizon: An American Saga, I decided to re-watch and look back at the westerns Kevin Costner made either as an actor, director or producer. Conveniently enough, he acted, directed and produced pretty much all the westerns he is featured in. Like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Henry Fonda, Gene Hackman, James Stewart and Gary Cooper, Kevin Costner was an actor tailor made for the Western genre. He was the kind of hero the Western genre needed in a time when the genre was pretty much buried.
Silverado – 1985 (Director Lawrence Kasdan):
By the time the 1980s rolled around, audiences had moved on from the Western. Science fiction, action and horror films were what audiences were flocking to see. It was the time of the blockbuster. The Western went through a revisionist period with directors like Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone taking it places that John Ford often tread on. But audiences and critics were not vibing with them when we got to the 1970s. Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and Michael Cimino’s disastrous flop Heaven’s Gate seemed like the nail in the coffin for the genre. Even John Wayne’s final film he starred in The Shootist was not a hit either. Much like filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, most film fans didn’t want to see their boyhood hero die on the big screen, from either lung cancer or a bullet. In the 1980s, Pale Rider directed and starring Clint Eastwood was a modest hit. Audiences however were there for The Man With No Name himself, even if he wasn’t wearing his famous poncho. The other notable Western from the 1980s was Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado. Lawrence Kasdan had already cut his teeth in Hollywood as a screenwriter and with much success I might add. He was the writer behind everyone’s favourite childhood film. Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and for later generations he was the writer on The Force Awakens and Solo: A Star Wars Story. And let’s not forget everyone’s favourite guilty pleasure that happens to also star Kevin Costner: The Bodyguard. As a writer and director, he had a successful run too with films like The Big Chill (another top favourite of mine) and Body Heat, which is basically an 80s remake of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity but with more sweat, nudity and Ted Danson filling in for Edward G. Robinson. His adaptation of Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher is also memorable, but maybe not the best film in his resume. Now in Silverado, Kevin Costner was a supporting player in Lawrence Kasdan’s third feature film as a director. I feel he was cast in this as a way for Kasdan to apologise for cutting him out of The Big Chill. Silverado is in no ways an iconic western that saves the genre, but it is a film that is made with love and care for the genre. Lawrence Kasdan’s direction and script, that he co-wrote with his brother Mark Kasdan, shows that he loves and is a fan of the genre. He’s bringing back a more romanticised look at the Western genre, which we hadn’t seen since during the Technicolor days of the 1940s and the 1950s. The element of Silverado that works is that it has a fun accessibility to it, it is a classic American morality tale of good versus evil. White hats against black hats. Lawrence Kasdan made a Western that was comprehensible and entertaining. It’s a good fun time, even if it isn’t entirely perfect.
Scott Glenn, who is also tailor made for Westerns as he that traditional cowboy look, stars as Emmett who has been around and is a skilled gunfighter. After taking care of some hired guns sent to kill him at his shack in the desert, he comes across Kevin Kline’s Paden who has been robbed of his horse, hat and possessions. Once all that has been re-attained and we get a sense of Paden’s backstory through the arrival of Cobb played by the late great Brian Dennehy, they set off to another town called Turley to pick up Emmett’s brother Jake played by pre-movie star Kevin Costner himself. He is doing his best Billy The Kid impression in this film, he walked so Emilio Estevez could run playing Billy The Kid in Young Guns and Young Guns 2. Along the way they befriend sharpshooter Mal played by Danny Glove after an incident with a British Sheriff called John Langston played by John Cleese. The first line of dialogue Cleese has is a reference to a character from Monty Python. After the escapades in Turley, the core four then head to the town of Silverado. They make quite the team, and they are in Silverado for various reasons. Upon arrival they notice that things are not quite right. This movie builds up to an enjoyable and quick Western style showdown in its finale where the good guys, of course, triumph. Silverado like a lot of easy going and accessible Westerns does not challenge the audience or have anything meaningful to say about America or the genre itself, but it is still a rollicking good time and is immensely fun. America had made its way through a turbulent time in the 1960s and 1970s. So, Silverado in many ways reflected the 1980s and how good some were having. It propelled Kevin Costner to superstardom and most likely gave him the idea that he looked damn good on a horse dressed as a cowboy. It would be about 5 years before audiences saw him again in a Western. And in this film he would not just star in it, he would direct and produce it. Dances With Wolves helped breathe life into the Western genre during the later part of the 20th Century.
Dances With Wolves – 1990 (Director Kevin Costner):
Dances With Wolves maybe is one of the most well acclaimed of Kevin Costner’s filmography and is a spectacularly made film, but its legacy is a complicated one. Along with Clint Eastwood and the amazing Unforgiven, Kevin Costner helped revitalise the genre of the Western. As a result, the film Dance With Wolves was awarded massive box office success and 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Kevin Costner. Another moment of Oscar Night glory taken away from Martin Scorsese yet again who maybe should have won for Goodfellas that year. As much as I like Dances With Wolves, there are scenes and moments that are extraordinary and moving, there are still some glaring flaws this film has.
Before The Last Samurai and Avatar, there was Dances With Wolves. After being commended for his attempted suicide which helped the Yankees win a small and possibly insignificant battle during the Civil War, Kevin Costner’s Lieutenant John T. Dunbar is awarded a position in whatever place he wishes. He wishes to go to the frontier and see it before it is destroyed. While enjoying his Robinson Crusoe and Henry David Thoreau moment of solitude at his ramshackle of a fort in the middle of nowhere, Dunbar comes across and makes friends with the local Sioux tribe. The positive representation of the Native Americans is one of the film’s main highlights and strengths. In this film we have indigenous actors like Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant, Wes Studi, Floyd Westerman, Tantoo Cardinal, Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, Michael Spears and Jimmy Herman playing members of the Sioux and Pawnee tribes. While none of the actors were native Lakota speakers except for one actor, it was refreshing and rewarding to see a film where a Native American character wasn’t played by a white actor in red face. That was usually the case in Westerns before. Wes Studi years later went on to play Geronimo in Walter Hill’s 1995 Western about the Apache War Chief. The first Native American to play Geronimo and even then, he was relegated to a supporting role in his own film.
On what was his first big film that he had to and needed to direct, Kevin Costner does extremely great and fine work behind the camera. His performance as Dunbar is so-so, but he does well. The supporting cast do a lot of heavy lifting at times. Overall, he’s fine in the film. It’s his directorial eye that is the main thing he excels at when making Dances With Wolves. He reminds us why the Western genre was so popular to begin with back in the days of classic Hollywood. He brings back that sense of wonder and spectacle into the genre that was missing for a decade or so. Watching the film and knowing the history of the genre, he for sure brings it back in a big and operatic way. There is some amazing cinematography, with the Buffalo hunt sequence being a main highlight. Australian cinematographer Dean Semler does for the plains of South Dakota for what John Ford & his film crew did for Monument Valley on the border of Utah and Arizona. You couple the amazing images that Costner and he creates (images that are reminiscent of paintings made by Frederic Remington) with that of John Barry’s score, and you got yourself a classic Western of old. We can commend Kevin Costner’s work on this film as he gives a much more positive representation of Native Americans than it has ever been before in these films. That’s a really great thing I like to repeat again and stress. However… the criticisms of Dances With Wolves being a white saviour film are valid and true. There is no denying that when watching this film and when watching other similar films like for instance The Last Samurai and Avatar. Despite it being a glorious & well-made film, and it truly is, I understand the complicated feelings one can have with this film. Especially from Native American actors, activists and individuals. For example, the late & great Russell Means (who was an actor from films like The Last Of The Mohicans and who also was Oglala Lakota activist for the rights of American Indians and all oppressed First Nation Americans) called it Lawrence of the Plains. There is a slight patronising quality to Dunbar that a few could argue when discussing this film. For instance, when the tribe Dunbar has indoctrinated himself into are threatened by a rival Pawnee tribe, he decides that they need guns which are at his post. During the Pawnee attack at the camp, Dunbar says to Stone Calf (Jimmy Herman) ‘Shoot the Gun!’ after Stone Calf uses it like it’s a club or axe. I imagine in real life the Sioux were able to protect themselves against rival tribes like the Pawnee with bow and arrows, tomahawks and spears without the help of conveniently placed guns at a fort run by a well-meaning white man. They are victorious because of this. After being captured by the villainous and disgraceful white men of the United States Cavalry, Dunbar decides to leave the tribe to protect them from the army that he says is now hunting him. Though noble in a misguided kind of way, Dunbar could not save the Sioux from the Wounded Knee massacre. This happened on December 29th 1890, where nearly 300 hundred Lakota tribe members (men, women and children), were shot and killed by the United States army. But hey, they’re still here despite living on reservations in South Dakota. Their lands stolen by white Americans.
Still despite these flaws, I think Dances With Wolves is a commendable piece of filmmaking & probably Costner’s finest work behind the camera along with the 2003 film Open Range. You can probably see why he was awarded Best Picture at the Oscars. He is one of those filmmakers who just understands the Western genre & how it’s supposed to look & feel. He understands the importance and vitality that these American mythic stories of the old west have on people. These influential and important frontier tales and the individuals and real life figures that inhabited these stories. The next Western Kevin Costner will make some four years later, again collaborating with Lawrence Kasdan, will sadly not have the same success as Dances With Wolves.
Wyatt Earp – 1994 (Director Lawrence Kasdan):
The next Western Kevin Costner starred in was Wyatt Earp, Lawrence Kasdan’s epic biopic about the legendary lawman who has been played by a lot of actors. From Henry Fonda to Burt Lancaster to Kurt Russell, a lot of actors have played the man. Actor Michael Madsen (who played Wyatt’s brother Virgil Earp) had this to say about the film in an interview many years later in 2017:
“It’s long, it’s stupid and boring. It’s a giant close-up of Kevin for three fucking hours. The only reason I did it is ’cause I wanted to walk down that goddamn street to the OK Corral. If I knew that the movie was gonna be that fucking boring and stupid, I would have taken a fucking taxi cab.”
I assume he was a little salty at having to do this film instead of Pulp Fiction, but he did make way for John Travolta’s comeback in playing Vincent Vega. The brother of Madsen’s Reservoir Dogs character Vic Vega. Wyatt Earp is a western that sets out to tell the full story of the man Wyatt Earp and it feels like Lawrence Kasdan and Kevin Costner were really attempting to make the definitive Wyatt Earp film. A long and self-serious biopic. A film that was more accurate and very true to the famous lawman and fill in the parts Gunfight at the OK Corral, My Darling Clementine and Tombstone were missing and/or left out about the legendary old west figure. When watching the film and going about critiquing it, I feel that Wyatt Earp’s major flaw is that it confuses the infamous saying said at the end of John Ford’s classic film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance:
“This is the west sir. When The Legend Becomes Fact, print the legend.”
In some ways, I do side with Michael Madsen on his criticisms of this film. Wyatt Earp is a real factual history lesson and a by the numbers biopic that slogs along to really explain who Wyatt Earp is, with mixed results. And it makes one think, did we really need to sit through all that? Some of the actors in this, like Michael Madsen, aren’t giving all their energy and maybe that is the fault of the script and the direction from Kasdan. The film doesn’t do a good job of making us feel engaged to get to know Wyatt Earp and what made him who he was. At the end of the day, it really is the gunfights and his exploits that are more fun and engaging for audiences, rather than all those times when Earp was low from losing his first wife to Typhoid. At some points, this film forgets to have fun and realise it’s a western. Kevin Costner plays Wyatt Earp as a very cold and unlikeable person, and not like how Henry Fonda or Kurt Russell played him. Of course, they played him as an annoying self-righteous character but at least they humanised him. The whole film revolves around Costner as Earp and at times he is quite a boring protagonist to follow. Wyatt Earp in the later part of his life embellished much of his exploits to biographers. I’m sure some of the parts seen in the film, like for instance where he tries to be the boss of the family and be controlling, are the parts he probably wanted to leave out. At the end of the film, Wyatt Earp and his wife Josie are met upon a young man whose uncle Wyatt Earp saved from a lynching in Dodge City or Tombstone depending on who is telling the story. The final bits of dialogue between Earp and Josie are:
“Some people say it didn’t happen that way.”
“Never mind them Wyatt. It happened that way.”
Maybe the real-life story of Wyatt Earp and his brothers, the gunfight at the OK Corral, Dodge City and Tombstone wasn’t so exciting and maybe needed a little embellishing to get the public involved with the story. At three hours in length, Wyatt Earp is a film jam packed with mostly every aspect of Wyatt Earp’s life. It’s badly paced at times and seems like it could have been better suited for a miniseries instead. Aspects of the plot like the Earp Vendetta Ride are rushed and feel unresolved.
While the narrative is weak, at times unfocused and lacking oomph, the production values are great and give the film a much-needed boost. The cinematography by Owen Roizman is a major highlight, plus James Newton Howard’s sweeping, beautiful score and Ida Random’s production design. The sets and the costume work are amazing and make the fictionalised world of the film feel very lived in. Some of the cast performances are good like for example Dennis Quaid and Gene Hackman who should have been in the film more than he is. He plays Wyatt’s father. When watching Tombstone and Wyatt Earp and seeing Val Kilmer and Dennis Quaid play Doc Holliday, it appears that this the role an actor should play if a Wyatt Earp project came their way. Doc is the more fun and more interesting character to play in this story.
Ambitious in its scope in how it tries to figure out its mythical figure and make him a complex and flawed character, Wyatt Earp is still watchable. In trying to make him a complex and humanistic person, they made him feel too one dimensional. Not a bad film, but perhaps a little too long and all over the place for some people’s liking. It’s still watchable and has its qualities, but not the strongest Western Kevin Costner has starred in. In some ways, worth a watch if you want to compare it to Tombstone with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.
Open Range – 2003 (Director Kevin Costner):
Like I said before, it was hard for Westerns to find success after the Golden Age of Hollywood and the Revisionist Period were done. There was nothing more to say. And any Western that got made would maybe be classed as a retread. But Kevin Costner proved with his 2003 Western there was still something to say and he also showed to other filmmakers there was still love for the Western genre. Back in 2003, the glory days of the Western genre was at an end after a slight revitalisation and resurgence during the 1990s. You can thank Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood for that as their Oscar wins for Dances With Wolves and Unforgiven breathed life back into the genre after the 1980s failed to do so.
Open Range, the third feature directed by Costner, seemed like an end but a celebration of the classic style of Western films being made in Hollywood. The kinds of westerns I grew up watching and idolising. Of course, the genre carried on into the 2010s, but not at the same calibre and style. Modern Neo-Westerns like No Country For Old Men and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada took over, before Ed Harris tried bringing the classic Western back with Appaloosa and a few years later Quentin Tarantino brought his own spin on the genre with Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. Open Range along with the classic Westerns of the Golden Age of Hollywood and the revisionist period go out with a bang. Actually, they go out with quite a few bangs.
Open Range also saw the end of one stage of Kevin Costner’s career, as his career in the 2000s slightly stalled. He was still working and got good reviews for his acting in films like The Upside of Anger and I thought he was enjoyable to watch in Rumour Has It starring alongside Jennifer Aniston, Shirley MacLaine and a pre-Hulk Mark Ruffalo. But nothing was quite a substantial success in the long run, though he got a bit of a comeback with projects like Yellowstone in the 2010s. Before his somewhat controversial and loud exit. If you haven’t seen Open Range, I highly recommend you check it out. You don’t have to be a fan of the Western genre to appreciate it. Kevin Costner directs it in a way that makes it accessible for all audiences. Open Range is an excellent western and showcases that love and respect Costner has for the genre. He gives it that wonder and spectacle that makes one want to travel to America and ‘Go West’. The film may take place in the United States of America, though the film’s production took place in Canada. Something Robert Duvall wasn’t too fond of and preferred to be Stateside. Costner reminds us he is always at his best when he is behind the camera making a Western, it’s a genre that he has the build and the characteristics for. Even if something like Wyatt Earp wasn’t a surefire winner, you can’t say that he is not made for this genre. He’s a cowboy in a Frederic Remington painting come to life. Dances With Wolves may have leaned slightly on the white saviour narrative while also being respectful and positive in its representation of the Sioux Nation. Here in Open Range, he does not go into that. Here he takes us into the dark violent plains of justice. The land of ‘A Man’s Gotta Do, What A Man’s Gotta Do.’ Which is basically code word for shooting lots of bad people. The ‘White Hats Vs Black Hats’ made a mini comeback in 2003.
Cattlemen run by Boss Spearman (played wonderfully by Robert Duvall who rightfully gets top billing in this), are plagued by men who work for a ruthless Irish immigrant rancher named Denton Baxter played with relish by a pre-Dumbledore Michael Gambon. He is not fond of cattlemen like Boss and Charley Waite (Kevin Costner) that he calls ‘Free-Grazers’, who bring their horses and cows into his territory and let them feed on his lands. He also has a hold of the town of Harmonville. For example, he has the local and violin playing enthusiast Marshal Poole (James Russo) in his pocket. When two of Boss’s men are attacked, Charley and Boss take matters into their own hands in the style of good old Western justice. One can call it that, and one can also call it revenge too. Charley has a dark and violent past. He did some bad things in the Civil War. He doesn’t say which side he was on, but we can easily figure out which side it was. The violence in him is aching to come back. Charley is worried what it will do to him and how it will affect his new relationship with Annette Benning’s character Sue Barlow, the brother of the town’s doctor. Charley is immediately infatuated with her. Boss and Charley are left to mostly stand-alone against Baxter and his men, even after beating up a few people, shooting up a saloon mirror and saving a small puppy from heavy rainfall. With the help of livery owner Percy (the great Michael Jeter in what was sadly one of his final roles) face down Baxter and his men. The shootout that follows is regarded as one of the best shootouts ever put to film.
Westerns can be hard to make these days cause all the good and thematically strong stories have been taken. You can make still them and people still do, but they are still hard to make and get right, even with the core audiences coming to see them. But Kevin Costner manages to have something to say with this film regarding its portrayal of violence. The violence and the shootouts in this film are visceral and brutal. It’s not Michael Mann’s Heat level of gunfire, but it comes close. The final shootout is fast and mean and shown in real time. At its conclusion, there is no satisfying victory where the town can finally breathe again in harmony and a Hoagy Carmichael type musician comes out picking their guitar. There is damage, there is death and there are wounded. There are psychological and physical consequences because of that violence and things will never be the same again for some people. Costner shows how a feud of this magnitude can spill out of control and affect other people caught in the crossfire and he touches on it quite well. He shows that this Western has something to say on that front. Even if violence is always the answer out here in this lawless world, it never leaves people feeling good.
The shootout in the 3rd act is cinematically spectacular. It’s shot on wide lenses to give the audience a clear look of the action, something I appreciate as I am not a fan of the close quarter tight shots that some modern action films have these days. Craig Storper the screenwriter wanted to make a movie about the evolution of violence. Charley is so scarred by his past during the Civil War and what he did, and he feels there is no going back from it. He understands and feels there is no place for him in Harmonville now that the Irish spectre of evil is vanquished. He’s not the man that Sue deserves. But by the end, he does come to realise he can put all that behind him and make something of himself and become a decent man. Before the film’s climax, he emotionally declares Charley declares his love for Sue and how he will do all that he can to be the man that she deserves. This was a scene that really did make me tear up, maybe I’m getting a little more sensitive in my 30s.
Open Range symbolises one thing in a subtle kind of way. Despite the fact the Old West was mostly built on and defined by violence and death, it shows that it can move on from that and America can be the land of promise it advertises itself to be. There is an optimistic feeling that violence, greed and corruption has no place out here anymore and anyone can build a life for themselves out on the frontier. Even if the land they are building a potential foundation on most likely once belonged to a Native American tribe. Like Lieutenant Dunbar says, you want to get to the frontier before it gets taken away or destroyed. In conclusion, Open Range is a spectacular effort from Costner that makes me excited to see his new multi-chaptered western epic Horizon: An American Saga even more.
Given the way a lot of big blockbusters and tentpole films have flopped or not raked in the millions we all thought they would, I am worried that Horizon may go the same direction. But I still think people will flock to see it, particularly the older generations who appreciate and love the old style of filmmaking. Films that take their time and respect their audiences. Films that aren’t big budget advertisements for other films. Films that have something meaningful to say that are entertaining and thought provoking without holding up big slogans showing what the message is. Films where you can feel the director’s style and handprints emanating from the cinema screen the moment the projector starts running and the lights go down. Films that aren’t factory produced like a Ford Motor car just to meet a set release date. A film where the filmmakers and crew take the time to make the best film possible. Horizon, much like Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, is and will be a big gamble for Kevin Costner. However, we can admire him for going out to make this type of film you just don’t see any more and get a cast of this calibre to make it. I can hope that enough people go see Horizon: An American Saga so that auteur filmmakers like Kevin Costner, Francis Ford Coppola and even Martin Scorsese can still make their films and get the money to do it until they just can’t do it anymore. They maybe are old, but there is still gas in their tanks. Even if the idiots running the major studios in Hollywood are focused on making other things. Or in David Zaslav’s case, cancelling them outright for cost cutting and tax purposes. As someone who has grown up loving the Western genre, I can feel myself getting excited to see a Western like this on the big screen. I can’t wait and it shows me that it’s still possible to make a Western in this climate. Kevin Costner maybe is not the greatest actor in the world and is a flawed person like the rest of us, but he has stuck to his artistic principles and made the film he is passionate about and wants himself and audiences to see. He shows up and coming, novice and amateur filmmakers that anything’s possible. And with a little grit and determination, plus a little bit of cash, you can make your movie. Even if things don’t work out and your film failed, you still made it and are happy that you decided to make it.
- Anders
Holmes Movies 