This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
California, here I come.
Plot Overview
“Horizon” takes place during
the four years of the Civil War, 1861–1865. An unscrupulous
Mr. Pickering (Giovanni Ribisi) has sold plots of “Premium
Virgin Land” sight unseen in the San Pedro Valley to establish the
new town of Horizon. It's set smack dab on an Apache river crossing,
twenty-six miles south of the army's protectorate. The local Chief
Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) has had a dream warning him not to mess
with this tip of the spear of white-eye migrants, but younger heads
prevail.
Refugee widow Frances Kittredge
(Sienna Miller) & her teenage daughter Elizabeth (Georgia
MacPhail) leave the decimated village under the aegis of Union
Cavalry officer Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington.) Some of his men
get called east to the unabated conflict of the states—and to
active pay. Meanwhile, in a mining camp in Wyoming, a woman's
abusive husband catches up with her, but the nanny lights out with
their two-year-old son, she having taken up with a sympathetic
saddle tramp, sometimes tracker. In Kansas a wagon train is heading
for Horizon, crewed with a hardy bunch & one greenhorn couple
unaccustomed to western rigors.
Ideology
We catch one of the faithful reading
from her Bible, (Psalm 23:1) “The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
(Psalm 23:2) “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” Sex worker cum nanny Marigold (Abbey Lee) is guided to a safe rest area by her rescuer Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner.)
(Psalm 23:3) “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” The nanny's little charge with a Bible name Samson is given to the welcoming Chinese to be cared for.
(Psalm 23:4) “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” The Kittredge mother & daughter escape from the Indians through a (dead end) tunnel, in which the mother has to bludgeon a hole in the ceiling with a rifle butt, and then they breathe through the barrels of the shotgun sticking out.
(Psalm 23:5) “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” The wagon master Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson) has them circle the wagons under the gaze of a couple curious Indians on the bluff. A dainty lady uses a generous share of the drinking water to bathe in.
(Psalm 23:6) “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” The (Chapter One) movie ends with a pastiche of challenges: grist, we suppose, for sequel(s) to come.
Production Values
“” (2024) was directed by Kevin Costner. It was written by Jon Baird, Kevin Costner and Mark Kasdan. It stars Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller and Sam Worthington. Also casted were Danny Huston, Michael Rooker, Michael Angarano, Tatanka Means, Jamie Campbell Bower, Luke Wilson, Will Patton, Isabelle Fuhrman and Thomas Haden Church. Worthington, Wilson, and the female leads do great in their parts. The thankless roles of pioneer mother and dutiful wife take a long time to show fruition, so to keep the females interesting, they were portrayed as bossy and assertive. There have always been uppity women, but here we find them most everywhere we look.
MPA rated it R for violence, some nudity and sexuality.
The movie's cinematography was splendid with some great
shots of open landscape. The action sequences were very good and emotive.
The movie was well paced, the characters compelling. The red men seemed
like the real deal in their native culture. Rather than bang, bang,
you're dead, “Horizon” invested effort to make the violence
look real, comparable to this bit from author Richard Beard:
[A]s a research
assistant, she's in the business of making films real.
She mostly researches violence. She learns the trajectories of spent
bullet cas[ings] or how to torch a locked Cadillac or the best way to
conceal offensive weapons. She finds out how it's done in real life, and
then hands over the information for a film to be made from it. (246)
Kudos to the researchers. They did a good job. The film's runtime of 3 hours didn't seem to drag.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Christian religion played a big part in the settling of the American continent and then again in the dispute leading to the Civil War. This film acknowledges the former with the reading of a psalm and the latter by a blanket torn to give the troops buttons for talismans as they head off to battle.
It was Noah's youngest son Ham who neglected to cover his passed-out old man from the cold mountain air, which led to his being saddled with servitude to his respectful two older brothers, passed on to their generations far over the horizon. This movie does not get into that—other movies have done it some,—rather, we see an Indian chief at odds with his son over his precipitous action that will bring an endless stream of white-eye settlers down on them, “The People,” as they come over the horizon.
This movie is good for action and drama but minimizes the role of Christian faith while maximizing political correctness. It is what it is. I enjoyed it, but I like all kinds of movies.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769, 1873. Software.
Beard, Richard. Damascus. Copyright © Richard Beard 1998. London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1998. Print.
Drunken Noah scene depicted in a Civil War vintage woodcut, made after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794–1872) from his archive, published in 1877, and more recently by iStock.com/Getty Images. Used under license.
bibles.n7nz.org