Get along, little 3.5 dawgies.
BQB here with a review of this old west epic.
The good? Thanks to the success of Yellowstone, the old west epic is back and Kevin Costner is striking while the iron is hot. This is the first of several planned movies that take place before, during and after the Civil War.
Style wise, it is beautiful with lots of great scenery and landscapes. At times, you feel like you’re in the Old West yourself. There’s attention to detail and authenticity. There’s no Netflixian cramming of uber woke lesbians fighting the patriarchy in the old west here.
The bad? It’s long. Heck, I went to my local theater at 6, thinking I’d be out the door by 8 and to my surprise, I didn’t get out until ten. Keep in mind there were previews and so on but at any rate, this sucker is a three hour plus commitment.
Costner is the main draw, featured prominently in all the trailers and marketing, yet he doesn’t enter the film until an hour in. This pissed me off at first until I realized how damn long the thing is and eventually, he was in it long enough that I didn’t feel bamboozled.
There are several competing plot strains and at times, it is difficult to keep them all straight. They all seem to center around Horizon, a town that a crooked real estate swindler sold shares to without telling the buyers that its smack dab in the middle of Apache territory and boy howdy, are the Apache ever pissed. The beginning features a rather gruesome Apache attack on a town full of settlers. From there, the narrative diverges into a number of points. There’s a mother (Sienna Miller) and daughter who survive the attack and are taken in by soldiers at a nearby fort overseen by Sam Worthington and Michael Rooker.
Meanwhile, there’s a difference of opinion amongst the Apache as to how to handle the settlers. The youngsters are pissed and see that their ability to hunt and trade has been destroyed. They want to push the settlers out, through violence if necessary. But the old gray hairs know the cost of violence is a pricey one and they advise suing for peace.
Double meanwhile, Costner’s wandering horse trader, Hayes Ellison, gets involuntarily mixed up in a dispute between a former prostitute who shot a john and his sons who want revenge. Hayes and the prostitute’s BFF Marigold (Abbey Lee) go on the run to protect the lady of the evening’s infant son.
Triple meanwhile, a wagon train heads for Horizon led by an ornery captain played by Luke Wilson. Snooty Brits under his care clash with the rough and tough pioneer folk.
Quadruple meanwhile, while some of the survivors of the Horizon massacre seek peace, others fan the flames of war by hiring a band of mercenaries led by Jeff Fahey (Jeff Freaking Fahey I haven’t seen him in a movie in years!) to retaliate against the Apache.
I sympathize with the question asked by many a reviewer of this film. Where the hell are all these storylines going and when or will they ever converge? I have no idea and the problem is at times, as you watch it, just when you settle in on one story line, you get pushed into another one. This could have just as easily been one movie about an Apache raid on a settler town and the ensuing fallout as Apache and settlers diverge on whether to go deeper into a bloodier, protracted war or to let cooler heads prevail and choose peace.
It could have just as easily been a movie about a horse trader who sticks up for a prostitute in danger and suddenly finds himself on the run with a baby and a hooah in tow and a bunch of villains chasing after him.
It could have just as easily been a movie about a wagon train.
My assumption is that all these people will eventually go to or away from Horizon. Horizon starts out as a real estate swindle but becomes the epitome of the American dream – pioneers seeking land and fighting for it against all odds.
In today’s political climate, I’m surprised this movie was made. It’s bold that it celebrates the pioneers and their spirit, putting on full display the deadly challenges of life in the old west. Pretty much any other movie made by a streaming service would go out of its way to make the pioneers look like villains.
To the film’s credit, it shows both sides, and while it starts out showing the Apache as violent, we later see the struggles and displacement that led to them to choose violence.
So the overall question: should you watch it? If the old west is your bag, then yes. I’m not sure I’d advise a trip the cinema. Although the scenery and vistas are pretty awesome and at times it feels like you’re riding around the desert with the cowboys (and if that’s your bag then by all means, buy a movie ticket) but otherwise, I think this would have worked better as 3-4 episodes of a series than a movie and if you wait for it to be on streaming, then you can pause it and watch it at your leisure.
Costner is promising more installments and all I can say is I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ll definitely watch them but so far the reviews and box office results aren’t stellar and that might mean future sequels aren’t certain. But hey, if you like Westerns, then support this project any way you can and let’s hope there’s more.
Speaking of unfinished projects, it bums me out that Costner and the Yellowstone showrunners haven’t patched their differences up yet, leaving that show in limbo and I’m now doubting if we’ll ever see a resolution to the last season’s cliffhanger. I would have liked to see Costner focus on that before starting an ambitious project like this.
One more note. At times, I’m not sure who this movie is for. Sometimes it has overtones of a glorified Hallmark movie, the kind my parents would have loved, you know, nice people behaving well in olden times. But then just when you get used to that, boom! Blam! Arrrgh! Shooting! Stabbing! Fire! Death! Murder! Gore! Swearing! And yes, even sex! The movie definitely earns its R rating, which a bum like me is fine with, but I feel like its primary audience is Grandma and Grandpa who may not be happy with that.
STATUS: Shelf worthy.
Bookshelf Battle 