Remember The Postman? It was Kevin Costner's post-apocalyptic film where he delivers mail (and hope) in a ravaged America. I did watch it way back in 1997 when it came out on VHS but don't remember much about it. I do remember thinking that it was pretty good until he became the postman. Considering the film is called The Postman, I'm guessing it wasn't very good (and it won Worst Actor, Worst Director, and Worst Film at the 1998 Razzie Awards). But it was definitely bold. It was a 3 hour film about a guy delivering mail. You'd either have to be super rich or a big movie star to get something with that tag line greenlit. And Kevin Costner was, back in the 90's, anyway, a big movie star. Field of Dreams, Dances With Wolves, JFK, The Bodyguard, Bull Durham, The Untouchables, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The guy was, like, king of Blockbuster Video. They probably had a special section for his movies. But he wasn't just an actor. He famously went and directed and starred in Dances With Wolves and won the Oscar for Best Director (it also won the Oscar for Best Film). He went on to direct The Postman and Outer Range (a movie I didn't even know existed...what is it?). And while Waterworld seemed to be the apotheosis of box office gossip and an albatross around his neck way back when, he seemed to be doing pretty fine last year when he was making a cool $1.3 million per episode to star in the Yellowstone TV show that, at one point, was the highest rated show on cable.
Considering he could have just been an actor in Hollywood doing yearly movies for the rest of his life, but he chose to try directing movies that, let's face it, would probably never get made, he is, in a sense, a pretty bold dude. Granted, what's he going to lose if a movie like The Postman fails (it did)? His third house? His 7th car?
Which brings us to his latest bold maneuver, Horizon: An American Saga. Costner was pretty much forgotten in the 2000's and 2010's until he decided to do what every has-been actor does these days: try TV, since it's peak TV and Netflix rules and all of that, the movies are dead, etc. And Yellowstone was such a massive hit and made him so much money and he was, gulp, relevant again, he decided to dust off an old idea he had because he could actually make it. And, yeah, trying directing for the first time by making a 3 hour Pocohantas rip-off is pretty bold. Then following that up the second time directing with a 3 hour post-apocalyptic mailman movie is probably pushing it. But Horizon seems like Elon Musk trying to live on Mars in his lifetime nutjob realm. Costner's bold idea for Horizon was to make four movies, each one continuing to make up a 12 hour epic (presumably, as the first film is 3 hours). He would co-write, direct, and star in them all. And Chapter 1 would be released in theaters in June 2024 and Chapter 2 would be released in August 2024. This would happen while he's currently filming Chapter 3.
So how'd it all go? If you haven't read one of the various Hollywood online gossip/news sites in the last three months, not good. And considering Costner won a Razzie for Worst Actor multiple time in the 90's, it's safe to say that a lot of people really love hating on him for whatever reason. If you don't remember, Waterworld was mocked as being "Kevin's Gate" and "Fishtar" after the huge box office bombs Heaven's Gate and Ishtar. Before Waterworld even came out, all that anyone in the Hollywood press talked about was the ballooning budget, what a disaster, everything is on fire, the world is ending, it'll never break even. This seriously seemed to go on for years until the movie finally came out, was fairly entertaining, was the 9th highest grossing movie of 1995, and did, eventually, become profitable thanks to Blockbuster and TV rights and all of that. But for whatever reason, anyone writing about Hollywood fucking loves to mock, tease, deflate, tear down, and ream on Kevin Costner and his film budgets and box office receipts. Horizon has become the new Waterworld. And, unlike that film, Horizon seems to not become profitable. At least, not until Musk wakes up in his bed on Mars one day. And that's never happening.
The budget for Horizon: An American Saga- Chapter 1 (what a mouthful) was supposedly $100 million. The big story is that Costner had to self-finance a lot of it, supposedly even having to lease land he owned in Malibu to do it. He did get New Line to put it in theaters, although, after Chapter 1 failed at the box office (it made $11 million in it's opening weekend and $27 million total domestic and $31 million total worldwide as of today, when it's already on demand on TV for $20), New Line decided not to release Chapter 2 in August, instead deciding to do something with it later on.
So the box office of Horizon is a failure. Everyone burn him at the stake! What I actually care about, and I think what movies like Heaven's Gate or, more recently, Killers of a Flower Moon, ultimately achieved, is that it doesn't really matter if, in the end, a good or even great film is a box office failure. The art could, eventually, rise up like a phoenix from the ashes of the naysayers and box office pundits and gossip rag hounds.
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is, unfortunately, not that movie. Now, granted, maybe after I watch all four films and see the entire tale it may, possibly, probably not, though, be something more. But as a film, this first chapter is just okay, kind of boring, though it does have some great scenery and a few watchable sequences, namely the Indian attack on the Horizon settlement. The big problem is that, since this is a 3 hour film that's going to be continued into 3 more, presumably 3 hour films, there's a bunch of characters and storylines that don't really go anywhere yet. And the places they do go aren't exactly compelling. I will say that they got a few good actors that stand out. I could watch Sienna Miller and Dickinson's Ella Hunt stand around doing nothing and I'd be entertained. And it's always great seeing Luke Wilson. Kevin Costner on the other hand is awkwardly creepy in this considering he co-wrote and directed it and is playing a dude that ends up traveling with a pretty, blonde prostitute that's probably 30 years younger than him and willingly has sex with him for no money.
The story has a few various threads that can pretty much be summed up by Old West cliches. There's the town in the middle of nowhere that's attacked by Indians. There's the wagon train heading out west. There's the cowboy in a mining town with a whore house. There's gunfights. There's horse riding. I mean...if you love cowboys and Indians, this is your wheelhouse, and while Costner does have a knack for creating Westerns that feel like old-school Westerns, this is not some great masterwork or even something you'll be entertained by throughout. It feels too silly, too shallow, too off, like something is missing, that edge, that drama, that energy.
Kevin Costner quit the highest rated cable TV show that he was making $1.3 million an episode to star in to make Horizon. Yellowstone was him being a cowboy, in a modern Western, and he was a fucking star. And back then, the Western Dances with Wolves won him Oscars, fame, he was more than a movie star, he was suddenly an auteur. But maybe, eventually, the Western that brought him to the highest highs will also be the end of him. Maybe Horizon will finally be the death of the career of Kevin Costner. **
