The Western genre is not what it once was. There was a time when Westerns were like superhero movies. There were 40 of them in theaters per year, and most of them were bad. Today, Westerns have moved at least in part over to TV, and the ones that remain in theaters don’t command the audience they once did.
Netflix actually has a pretty excellent selection of Westerns, though, and there’s one in particular you should definitely check out this February. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 was not the rollicking box office success that its star and director Kevin Costner may have hoped. The movie follows a group of disparate characters all moving towards the foundation of a shared town. The catch, though, is that this is just part one of a multi-part saga, and as a result, it cuts things off before the end of the story. All that being said, here are three reasons you should check it out now that it’s on Netflix.
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Costner can be an excellent director
Kevin Costner’s movies are not uniformly excellent, but Horizon is shot like an old-fashioned Western, with plenty of sweeping vistas and beautiful landscapes. More importantly, Costner understands which scenes to keep and which to cut in his three-hour epic.
Each of the myriad characters at the story’s center feels fully fleshed out by the time their chunk of the narrative has run its course. The story may not be over, but Costner leaves you wanting more.
It’s achingly sincere
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Horizon is that it’s not a revisionist Western. Instead, Costner has aspired to make the kind of Western he might have seen in theaters growing up. It’s a movie that has all but disappeared from theaters.
These people are real characters. Simultaneously, there are good guys and bad guys. The movie itself has plenty of sweeping romance for the Old West, even as it tries to expand the scope of whose stories set in this period can actually be about.
Its three hours breeze by
You might be daunted to hear that Horizon is three hours long and doesn’t even tell a complete story. What helps the movie’s run time fly by is that it feels like watching six interwoven stories. There are some set pieces in a newly developing town.
There are scenes with refugees of a Native American attack, while other travelers head West for the very first time. Their stories largely don’t intersect with one another, yet each of them is compelling enough on its own to keep you involved. Costner seems to understand how best to weave them together to make it feel like something bigger.
Stream Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 on Netflix.
