Kevin Costner's epic love letter of the old West to us all arrived recently on Netflix. Chapter 1 of "Horizon; an American Saga" didn't fare so well on the big screen. Pulled from theaters after a dismal box office month, the $100 million film took in only $35 million worldwide to date.
That's a shame because watching this passion play you can see the love he put into it. With three more chapters to come, I personally cannot wait.
Maybe that is because I grew up on the myths and the stories of the Old West. Being a baby boomer allowed me to not only watch all the great filmography, from "Stagecoach" to "The Searchers," from "My Darling Clementine" to "Broken Arrow," and from "The Wild Bunch" to "Blazing Saddles." Add to that the incredible amount of television shows starting with "Hopalong Cassidy," "The Rifleman," "Bonanza," and "Gunsmoke." And don't even give me grief about the term Indian of Cowboys and Indians, because I like many of my age, was a Boy Scout where we learned the reverence of the American Indian and many of their skills. While working at the Mohegan Sun Casino, I was fortunate enough to talk with the Chief, Charlie "Two Bears" Strickland who said most Mohegans and probably every other native American, embraces the term Indian. He reminded me that Columbus called the first he met, "una gente in Dios," the people of God.
It is with that background that I approached Costner's three-hour tour of a twelve-year spread from 1858 to 1870. To be absolutely fair, Costner showed both sides: the never-ending wagon train of settlers and the violated Indian tribes who never expected the "white eyes." It was a tough call for both arguments, especially when the upstart youthful Pionsenay, played by Owen Crowshoe, argues with the wise old elder, Chief Tuayeseh. Costner has the middle ground covered with Taklishim, Pionsenay's older brother. Played by Tatanka Means, son of AIM activist Russell Means, he shows the angst many of the tribe had.
But the never-ending printing press, constantly turning out the hucksters' "Land Sale" handbills encouraging the easterners to head west, was always in motion. Remember, there was cheap land as far as the eye could see as well as "gold in them thar hills." Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill was only a decade before the start of Horizon and Hayes Ellison, the Costner cowboy, uses gold dust as a commodity.
Still, the inevitable happened and slaughter by Pionensay's raiding party inspired retaliation by the Army as well as posses of "scalp hunters." The sheer malevolence of both sides made my hair stand on end. What's more, the incredible hardships of the time that all had to endure stood out. Pure survival, especially when the whites were enjoying the arts and music, seemed positively savage. The raid upon the dance hall tent party was extremely grim. But it was not only Indians. White men exacted heinous revenge on each other. It was the lawless West with only the Army garrisoned at the fictional Fort Gallant as some order.
The film follows several characters on their way to the mythical town of Horizon advertised in the handbills. Some travel from Montana, others from Wyoming and the rest in a wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail. Costner gives a broad brush to our westward expansion, some would say Manifest Destiny. It becomes a rather all-encompassing history lesson that puts the learner right into the action. The mining town where Hayes meets and duels with psychopath Caleb Sykes is a perfect example. Prostitution, gunfights, and all forms of mayhem are witnessed as Hayes moves through the little village. What struck me more than the violence and how cheap life was, was the open sewer that ran through town. The place must have stunk.
But no matter, the show is called Horizon, remember, and the vistas and landscapes become its own character. Shot mainly in Utah, the land forms all remind of one of Monument Valley with many of the Indian settlements up in the canyons made famous by "127 Hours" in Canyonlands National Park. Utah seems to have it all because they also replicated Montana and Wyoming's forests and mountain-scapes. Filmed in Apple Valley, Moab and Zion Park, the backdrop is constantly beautiful.
The writers, Jon Baird, Mark Kasdan and Costner, were keen to have the underlying motives for most of the Whites (and there were several heroic blacks,) as greed. Greed for the land they were out to acquire, greed for sole possession of the wide west with elimination of the "indigenous," and greed for the spoils of gold and other bounties the land might give up. Why else would a family put all their possessions in a Conestoga wagon and endure the hardships of the trail as well as the potential loss of life. Not me. I think I would stay in the safe confines of a New York City apartment with running water, fledgling electricity and even the new telephone.
With three more installments over the next year or two, I look forward to where Kevin Costner will take us.