The death of the Western has been greatly exaggerated.
“I just don’t fall out of love with things I like.
I am always looking for the next great movie.”
Kevin Costner in ‘Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1.'.Richard Foreman/Warner Bros.
Richard Foreman/Warner Bros.
For him, the next great movie is often a Western.
His first directorial effort, 1990’sDances With Wolves,won Best Picture at theOscars.
But his fascination with the American West began long before that and has never flagged.
‘Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1’.Warner Bros. Pictures
“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.
‘Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1’.Warner Bros. Pictures
You were dealing with unknowns.
You didn’t know where you were going.
You had to arbitrate your own problems…
Sometimes, life and death situations.
It was real stakes.
And it was a 200 or 300-year struggle to cross this country.”
In its original form,Horizonwas not a four-part epic.
It was titledSidewinderand was more of a two-hander between Costner’s character, Hayes, and another man.
In contrast,Horizonfollows a myriad of intersecting characters across 12 years.
But make no mistake, Costner’s Hayes is still central to that narrative.
Warner Bros. Pictures
“He’s illiterate and works his way across the country,” Costner details.
“I’d say college wasn’t for him.
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.
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 could’t tell the story unless you bump into that,” notes Costner.
“you’re able to’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 conflict was unfair.
[Moving west] was about hope.
It’s quite beautiful.
Because people had hope in America, that’s why so many people came.
“This is not a last stab at keeping this genre alive,” he insists.
“This genre will live forever if people take it seriously.”
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