An American Saga Chapter 2 Review – 6 hours in & Costner’s West still seems like TV [Venice]

I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand Kevin Costner Horizon project. I’m not really one to judge whether it makes business sense to make a multi-part western saga for theatrical release in 2024; As a critic, my stake is not in the world of profits and losses. When Costner used all his talent to put a project like this on the big screen, I should be able to applaud him, purely out of my love for the cinematic experience. Instead, after seeing Horizon: Chapter 2I’m still scratching my head and wondering why it wasn’t a TV.

If you’ve seen the first movie, Chapter 2 is more of the same. Horizon‘s cast is sprawling, bouncing between slightly different groups of characters as their stories chug along. All are (or conceivably will be) connected by Horizon, a border town in the Arizona Territory that, in truth, has yet to actually exist. Pamphlets advertising it are found all over the US, encouraging many to chase the dream it promises. Along the way, they encounter varying degrees of hardship and violence.

Horizon tries to balance the personal and the representative

And leave the movies nothing but engines for history

In an attempt to capture a complete snapshot of this period in American expansion, the letters represent different types familiar to us from history and the popular imagination. Domestics, wagon trains, fiery families, Civil War soldiers, a whore with a heart of gold, a youthful hero, etc. The film also aims for more nuance in its depictions of Native Americans than its genre predecessors, emphasizing tribal distinctions and the two-way nature of violence. Costner tries to keep the prejudices of HorizonThe characters differ from the perspective of the movie itself.

Whether you believe he succeeded depends on how you feel about the somewhat romantic lens through which everything is filmed. Chapter 2 Continued the desire of the first film to separate the larger movements of history from the individuals caught up in them. Everyone, regardless of race, is affected by the evils inherent in western expansion without being guilty of them. The cruelty and slaughter they do is on them, but even then, not everyone goes into violence willingly, or for no reason. This way, every person in any part of the story can be worthy of Horizons admiration.

until now, Six hours in, I’ve found no great insight into this period of American lifeIn the personal and historical spheres. The primary function of Costner’s film is to depict, not to explore or explore. Some choice lines represent broad themes that perhaps speak to the basic qualities he is trying to capture (Chapter 2s focus is on the nature of suffering), but these are flourishing. Horizon Just wants to tell her story, which it trusts to be interesting in and of itself.

Horizon would benefit from being a TV series

After two movies, Costner’s vision was not cinematic enough

I am against that with this undertaking, to a large extent. I think the stories are not UNInteresting – I enjoyed watching both films. But I don’t think they are well served by the multi-film format. Some criticisms of Chapter 1 Comparing it to the introductory episodes of a miniseries, a sentiment I shared, and I’d hoped Chapter 2 would get in gear. When it felt exactly the same, I realized describing each film as an episode is not quite accurate. Episodes are discrete, carved pieces that build into a larger whole. These are more like narrative chunks, chopped and crossed almost arbitrarily.

Horizon would benefit from the form of longform storytelling that television allows; A little sculpting wouldn’t take away from the expansion. Especially since, visually, Costner’s films are not particularly cinematic. The landscape is beautiful, and lovely to look at on a big screen, but he doesn’t go out of his way to make pictures that make full use of the scope that is available to him. Considering the history of Westerners, this is disappointing.

finally, Horizon: Chapter 2 Offers a diverting experience to those who want to be immersed in the genre. But it suffers from its lack of focus. Being halfway between film and television gives it the weaknesses of both and strengths of neither; Trying to separate the real from the mythical gives us characters that mostly feel too representative to relate to as individuals, and too individual to make compelling representatives. Just like that, I was stuck between engaged and abandoned. If Horizon 3 It’s finished, I’ll probably watch it. If it isn’t, I probably won’t miss it.

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2 Premiere at the Venice Film Festival out of competition. The film is 190 minutes long and has not yet been rated. After being pulled from its original theatrical release date on August 16, plans for US it. Distribution have yet to be confirmed.