Film and Media

"Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1", a return to the classic western for Kevin Costner

In cinemas the first part of the saga directed by the director of 'Dances with Wolves'. Also among the new releases is Michael Keaton's 'The Memory of the Assassin'.

5 July 2024

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Kevin Costner and western cinema: a love story. This could be the title of a book focusing on the filmography of the American director and actor, who has always been a great fan and creator of stories belonging to one of the founding genres in the history of stars and stripes cinema.

After becoming a celebrity in the 1980s (his acting films included the 1985 western 'Silverado'), Costner took the plunge by going behind the camera for 'Dances with Wolves' (1990), a film with which he won seven Oscars.

Seven years later, he returned to directing with the ill-fated post-apocalyptic 'The Man of the Day After', before turning again to westerns with his third feature film as director: 'Borderland - Open Range' (2003), a good product that has remained too underrated.

More than 20 years have passed and Costner has returned to directing with the most ambitious project of his career, 'Horizon: An American Saga', a four-part epic, the first of which arrived in our cinemas this week, following its presentation out of competition at the last Cannes Film Festival.

At the centre is the theme of the American expansion of the West, in the years leading up to and around the Civil War. White colonialism was asserting itself at the expense of the indigenous American populations, but what Costner is most interested in is exploring the charm of the Old West, taking us back in time to the history of a genre that has struggled in recent decades to regain the success it once had.

A heartfelt and nostalgic film

One not only feels the sweat and tears of the many characters on stage, but also the emotions and difficulties that Costner undoubtedly went through in writing (together with Jon Baird) and directing this story: 'Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1' is an incredibly risky operation and out of time, but also a heartfelt product that is undoubtedly capable of touching deep chords (see the sequence in which Costner appears on stage) during its approximately 180 minutes duration.

More than a few things creak in terms of dramaturgical tightness, due to a rather erratic rhythm, but overall it is nevertheless a film to be defended, powerful in its aesthetic choices and rich in narrative suggestions.

It speaks perhaps more to the heart than to the brain, 'Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1', and it is a pleasure to be drawn into a world that has rarely been seen reconstructed with such care in contemporary cinema.

Fans (and nostalgics) of western cinema absolutely cannot miss it.

The memory of the murderer

Among the new releases is another film directed by a famous Hollywood star like Michel Keaton.

Fifteen years after 'The Merry Gentleman', the American actor is back behind the camera with 'The Memory of the Assassin', a film in which he also stars.

Keaton plays the role of a professional hitman who is diagnosed with degenerative dementia. The rapidly evolving disease forces him to come to terms with the life he has led so far and find an alternative way to survive.

There is no shortage of twists and turns in this dramatic thriller with a curious subject matter, but the development of the story smacks too much of the familiar and the film becomes increasingly lost as the minutes pass.

The running time of almost two hours is excessive and the staged situations are too didactic and predictable to be as entertaining as the production would have liked. Keaton proves to be much more at ease in front of the camera than behind it: his direction is scholastic and lacking in sparkle, unable to help a script that was already in dire straits.

We will soon find Keaton again in Tim Burton's new film 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice', a sequel to the 1988 cult film, which will open this year's Venice Film Festival.