‘Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’: Is the Great Western Resurrecting? No way | Culture

They give an excessive importance and information to how mythological figures from the history of cinema like Francis Ford Coppola and another whose art does not reach that extreme, an always competent actor and director of a memorable western entitled Dancing with Wolveshave managed to finance their latest and risky projects. Coppola has made Megalopolis and Kevin Costner Horizon: An American Saga – chapter 1They repeatedly tell the story of how Coppola had to sell his fabulous vineyards to make it and how Costner mortgaged four mansions to make his dream come true.

They will think that their risky financial involvement will help the understanding and moved spectators to appreciate their financial effort and go to the box office. And you hope that the gamble has worked out well for them, that the quality accompanies their creations. Personally, I don’t care how they managed to produce it. I only stick to the final result of what I see and hear. I have not yet been able to see Coppola’s latest film. But I am witness to the first part of Costner’s four films, something that makes me drowsy and constantly fidget in my seat (and its three-hour running time seems endless to me), so my desire or my obligation to witness the next installments of the saga evaporates. Or they make me yawn in advance.

Costner, who narrated with humanity and beauty in Dancing with Wolves The coexistence of a very lost soldier with an Indian tribe returns in this western (which is not even crepuscular, that easy label that became fashionable to give poetic importance to a genre with as many masterpieces as predictable and cliché films) to the invasion of the white settlers in the ancestral lands of the Indians. The siege lasts about half an hour at the beginning. It is not impressive, but it is watchable. Just like that.

What you don’t imagine is the scattered amount of nonsense, of falsely naturalistic characters, of plots as expendable as they are poorly told, that will accumulate later. The Indians are disappearing and replaced by evil whites, some honest and rational. The script is nonsense with pretensions. Although the worst thing is the tiring rhythm of the images. What I see and what I hear makes me infinitely lazy. To hide the thematic void, Costner uses the resource of the worst films: the cloying music does not stop playing in almost every shot. As if the soundtrack could replace the feelings, create atmosphere, give life to the insufferable monotony of the story.

Costner produces, co-writes, directs and stars in it. In other words, his responsibility is absolute. As an actor he defends himself well, he always has. The rest is banal or downright useless. And you are assailed by doubt or certainty of whether Horizon: An American Saga It was initially conceived as a television series and later Costner decided to adapt it to the big screen. The production is strange. If it had been a series, I imagine he would have abandoned it after the first few episodes. Here I have to sit through the first part. With a bit of luck, I’ll be able to skip the rest. Although I hope, out of respect for Coppola and Costner, that neither the former loses his vineyards nor the latter his mansions.

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