Kevin Costner’s epic traditional western series began with Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1But these Horizon Movie explains little, instead using its ending to transition into Chapter 2. Driven by a talented and star-studded cast of characters headlined by Costner himself, the four planned movies of Horizon: An American Saga Will explore the lives of multiple generations of settlers and indigenous people as they struggle to carve out lives in the American West before, during and after the Civil War. Chapter 1 Introduced most of the major players and locations.
Kevin Costner provided some insight on the ending of Chapter 1 And reinforces the idea that The saga will unfold steadily over all four movies. As a result, most of the long runtime of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is spent introducing the most important characters and storylines that will develop in the series. Although most of the main stories are treated as separate journeys, many threads of what will eventually cause the stories to intersect can be found in Chapter 1.
One movie leads right into the next
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Doesn’t provide much in the way of wrap-up, but instead dives right in A montage a few minutes long that includes footage of Chapter 2. Chapter 1 And Chapter 2 They were shot back to back. Chapter 2 was supposed to be released just a few weeks after Chapter 1So the movie closes with a massive tease of what’s to come. A few new characters are introduced in the footage, so it seems the setup isn’t quite done yet.
interesting, Chapter 3 Has already started filming. The box office prospects for Chapter 1 Was very bad. The film only made $31.4 million at the box office on a $50 million budget. With millions of Costner’s own money already sunk into the production of the first two chapters, it remains to be seen if the last two chapters of the story can even be completed, which probably Explains Costner’s insistence on teasing Chapter 2 at the end of Chapter 1.
What is Horizon?
A safe and prosperous destination in the West
The meaning of Horizon was more fully explored in Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 After being pointed out in the trailers. A plane continues to appear throughout the film in the hands of various (for now) disconnected characters, implying that knowledge of the city described in it is common. The pilot tries settlers with promises of A town where they can be prosperous, and more importantly, they can live safely. If there’s one point that Chapter 1 manages to make, it’s that American settlers on the frontier are anything but safe.
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The flyer being referenced or held by characters in multiple stories indicates that Horizon may be the main point at which these stories intersect. Whether they will find what they are looking for is another question, because the end of the movie reveals that the flyers were printed back in the East by Pickering (Giovanni Ribisi). It may be that the real horizon is the place surveyed at the beginning of Chapter 1; ThereforeThere is no horizon for the characters to find.
What happened to Frances and Elizabeth Kittredge
They have dealt with terror and loss
While it’s hard to label any character as the “main” character in a saga and a cast this expansive, Sienna Miller’s Frances Kittredge and her daughter Elizabeth (Georgia MacPhail) come awfully close because of their prevalence in the story that gets some of ​​​​​​​If not the most screen time. After losing her husband, son and most of their neighbors in an attack on their settlement, The two surviving Kittredges find their way to Camp Gallant and fall under the protection of Lt.
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Frances sparks a romance with the rowdy guy Faredt, while Elizabeth becomes a bit of a camp mascot, acting as a bright spot for the US. it. Army soldier. After the tragedy and loss these two experienced, Their life in the camp becomes one of the more positive stories in Chapter 1. However, when many of the young soldiers are called back east to fight in the ongoing Civil War, the safety of the camp becomes somewhat less certain. The movie ends with them still safe in the camp, but it seems it may be short-lived.
Why the Sykes family wants Ellen
Revenge fuels the family
Jena Malone’s Ellen Harvey (aka Lucy) bursts into the narrative by Shoot an unnamed man in his bed before riding off with her childleaving him badly injured but alive. Her story jumps forward at least a couple of years, as she now lives with a salesman (Michael Angarano) in what appears to be a trading outpost in the territory, with the cheeky prostitute Marigold (Abby Lee) under her roof. She and her partner are lured to what they think is a sale, only to be ambushed by the children of the man she shot, Caleb and Junior Sykes.
The two men seek revenge for the attempted murder of their father James SikesAnd although her specific motivation is not revealed, it is clear that he wronged her because she shot him. Caleb is sent to fetch her son for further revenge, where he unfortunately (for him) runs into Costner’s house Ellison, who kills him in a shootout. This turns the Sykes’ attention to finding Alison, and the movie ends with Allen in their custody and Junior and his companions on Alison’s trail.
Why Marigold left home
She leaves Hayes and Sam
Alison ran into Caleb Sykes on his way to visit Marigold, who was at Ellen’s house. As a result of the gun, he takes Marigold and Ellen’s son Sam away from the outpost and into the desert to escape the revenge of the Sykes family. Over time, he develops into a pseudo-father and husband, although Marigold is still dating other people. In one outpost where they hide from the Sykes family, One man offers/threatens to take her away with him when he leaves But just give her until the next day to decide what to do.
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Marigold takes him up on his offer, leaving Sam in the care of a Chinese family who had been friendly to him before, leaving Hayes with nothing more than a note. Marigold seems to be simply chasing the idea of ​​greater prospects for herselfAnd has no problem leaving Sam and Hayes to do it. It remains to be seen if she will reappear in Hayes’ story or the overarching story, but if her screen time in Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is any indication, it seems likely that she will.
Why Pionsenay left his tribe
The young warrior sought a different path
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Try to provide the perspective of the indigenous people who live and hunt on the very land that the American settlers are trying to claim for themselves. Owen Crow’s young warrior Shoe Pionsenay—who carries out the raid at the beginning of the film—gives a more militant perspective when he claims that His tribe of Apaches (and indigenous people everywhere) should protect their landsBecause they will be forced to fight with other tribes, whose territory they will be forced to leave if they leave.
He is at odds with Gregory Cruz’s Tuayeseh, an elder of Pionsenay’s Apache tribe, who argues that there is room for both, especially as their tribe can survive and thrive in the higher, more mountainous regions. This leads to Pionsenay taking like-minded warriors with him and Leaving the larger tribe to go on to make war on the settlers. Pionsenay will almost certainly be responsible for run-ins with other characters from the saga, and the trailers hint that Matthew Van Weyden’s Wagon Train could be next.
Where van Weyden drives the wagon train
He deals with unprepared settlers, the indigenous and the westerners themselves
Luke Wilson’s Matthew Van Weyden was elected to lead a wagon train on the famous Sante Fe Trail, and Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Click A look at some of the more trivial problems that come with the job. It is worth noting that Will Patton and Isabelle Fuhrman play Owen and Diamond Kittredge, and are related to Frances and Elizabeth (Owen is Frances’ brother-in-law). They come into conflict with Ella Hunt and Tom Paine’s British settlers who are woefully out of their depth and ignorant of wagon etiquette.
Van Weyden tries to navigate the wagon train to a safe area where they can settle in the American Southwest. unfortunately, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 shows that The wagon train already has indigenous scouts watching themAnd the trailers and teaser footage reveal that not all of the settlers who are part of the train will survive the journey. Van Weyden is knowledgeable and able to remain calm in the face of adversity, but he has not faced the most dangerous elements of the journey.
Why the raid survivors hunting indigenous people
Revenge and profit lead their journey
Some of the survivors of the attack from the beginning of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Join forces with several soldiers of fortune to form a posse in search of revenge for the deaths of their family and friends. They are repelled by Lt. Ford on their way out of Fort Gallant, knowing that the private soldiers will seek scalps from any indigenous people (including the indigenous Mexican people) for profit, and are not actually driven by revenge against one specific tribeExcept Etienne Kellici’s young man, Russell Ganz.
Their search leads them to intimidate an indigenous trader in a general store before attacking and scalping a group of innocent indigenous women and children as soon as they are sure the warriors are far enough away. Russell is hesitant to participate in any of itDespite the urging of his colleagues. Their malicious attack will certainly have repercussions in the future, perhaps for the remaining settlers and soldiers in Camp Gallant, which is in the area.
The Real Meaning of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
Hope for a better life inevitably breeds conflict
All the American settlers whose journeys are chronicled in Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 are driven primarily by hope for a better life. however, The hope that fuels their march westward breeds conflict With the indigenous people whose land they are trying to claim, and with each other. The price of freedom that people on both sides of the struggle for the American West in the period before, during and after the Civil War is steep, and resulted in death and despair for all.
Horizon: An American Saga is a return to the traditional Western themes of yesteryear.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 It doesn’t provide much resolution for any of his stories, but it does make one thing clear: Creating today’s America was no easy feat. It required the blood, sweat, and tears of thousands of intrepid settlers willing to risk everything for the prospect of something better. This is a return to the traditional Western themes of yesteryear, and will be explored in much greater depth over the next nine hours of Horizon: An American Saga If it ever comes to fruition.
How the end of Chapter 1 was received
Audiences and critics criticized the ending
generally, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 was not as critically lit as the online word-of-mouth and low box office take might have suggested. The film has an average 50% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a respectable 70% audience Popcornmeter score. however, What most people agree on is that the ending of the movie is not what they wanted to see. One audience review pointed out how the film never found its footing and then left everyone hanging:
“Presenting an upcoming preview of 2 without a segue is very confusing. I want to like the movie but I need more storylines first. Over 3 hours and I still need more information.”
A Reddit Thread also started, with fans clearly frustrated with the first movie’s lack of an ending. The OP wrote: “It was almost okay/good but what happened to the ending? It’s like they ran out of time, and the last 5-10 minutes just squeezed in what should have been in part 2?“One person responded and loved the movie, but they even admitted that the montage at the end was a mistake, writing that”The viewer is left discombobulated when the montage starts.“
Professional critics, such as Peter Travers of ABC News, Said Kevin Costner’s charisma carried the entire movie. However, he was not impressed with the ending, all the while comparing it to TV shows. “The film ends with a trailer for Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2, clichéd business as usual for most TV series to keep us hanging on, which it just barely does, thanks to the sweeping vistas captured by cinematographer J. Michael Muro.” One wonders if Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 Will end satisfying or if it will also present a trailer montage as a finale.