MADRID (EFE).—At 69 years old and with a long career of successes —and failures— behind him, Kevin Costner risked everything for a big dream: to tell his version of the conquest of the West in “Horizon,” a gigantic four-part project, the first of which was released in theaters.
To pay for the first two installments, the actor mortgaged his four houses, as he explained at the presentation of his project at the last Cannes Film Festival, where he said with amusement that if this goes wrong, his seven children will be left homeless and will have to find a way to make a living.
At that time he did not want to reveal the amount invested, but in a recent interview with the American magazine GQ he acknowledged that he spent 38 million dollars, which is all he has. For a total of 100 million, which is the budget for the production of the first two parts. They are the two that are already finished and will premiere this summer. The first was yesterday, Friday, and the second is scheduled for mid-August.
“Horizon: An American Saga” marks Costner’s return to directing twenty years after “Open Range” (2003) and he does so with a story that he had been thinking about since 1988, but for which he had a hard time finding financing and decided to become a producer.
He was so obsessed with the main character, whom he plays, that he decided to give his name – Hayes – to one of his sons, who at the age of 15 debuted as an actor in his father’s film with a small role.
The first part of “Horizonte” tells, in three hours, several stories that take place at the end of the 19th century in various parts of the western United States, which intersect.
Almost three hours of footage that seems like the pilot of a television series that gradually introduces the characters: a woman (Sienna Miller) and her daughter who lose her husband and son in an Apache attack; another woman (Jenna Malone) who tries to kill the father of her child and in which case a cowboy (Costner) or a soldier (Sam Worthinton) who helps the new settlers is involved.
These are just some of the stories in this film with a historical fresco spirit, in which Costner expressly sought to give it the flavour and colour of classic westerns.
A film that for the actor and director is “exactly what I wanted” it to be, but which received very negative reviews since its premiere in Cannes.
The BBC calls it a “long, incoherent disaster,” while Variety calls it “a television miniseries” and Vanity Fair believes it is “more like ‘Waterworld’ —his most resounding failure— than like “Dances with Wolves” —his success—.
With “Dances with Wolves, 1990,” Costner made his big directorial debut and won no less than seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
It was also a Western film, although with an epic yet simple character that this “Horizon” suffers from, which gets lost in the details, which adds confusion to a story that is already complicated by the number of narratives and characters. that intersect.
Something sought by Costner, who wanted to show in this “American saga” details that are not usually contemplated in Western cinema, such as the dirt in which the people who sought their future in those inhospitable lands lived, or the prominence of women. , usually in the background in this type of films.
