Review | Chapter 1 of Costner’s ‘Horizon’ saga is all setup, not enough action

Hold on there a minute, pardner.

“Horizon etc. etc. Chapter 1” is a 181-minute act of throat-clearing, as director/co-writer/star Costner introduces multiple characters in multiple locations without much in the way of tying them together. Presumably, that will come later, but it’s asking a lot of audiences to indulge stage setting as a stand-alone entertainment. (“Chapter 2” will be released in August; “Chapter 3” is currently filming. “Chapter 4”? Anyone’s guess.)

There are some fine performances and galvanizing sequences in “Chapter 1,” as well as a wagonload of western clichés, some of which aim for and achieve classicism, and others of which just feel retrograde. To round up the various storylines: In 1859 Arizona, the nascent town of Horizon — at this point a tent city on a river crossing — is attacked by an Apache war band, leaving as survivors Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and her daughter Lizzie (Georgia MacPhail). They’re taken in by a nearby U.S. Army regiment overseen by gallant Lt. Trent Gephart (Sam Worthington) and wise Col. Houghton (Danny Huston). Meanwhile, young Russell (Etienne Kellici), another survivor, joins a posse torn between finding the warriors responsible for the massacre and murdering any Indigenous person they meet.

Meanwhile, in Montana, Ellen (Jena Malone) tries to kill the abusive patriarch of a settler clan and lights out for the territories with their baby in tow and his angry sons on her trail. Meanwhile, in Wyoming, another frontier town sees the arrival of a mule train led by taciturn Hayes Ellison (Costner), who strikes up an acquaintance with the prettiest durn freelance prostitute (Abbey Lee) you ever laid eyes on and ends up in a shootout with one of the above-referenced angry sons (Jamie Campbell Bower, giving one of the film’s better performances as a hair-trigger psycho).

Meanwhile, on the Santa Fe Trail, a wagon train of pioneer settlers headed west is led by stalwart captain Matt Van Weyden (Luke Wilson) and includes a family led by Owen Kittredge (the always welcome Will Patton), a prissy, useless British couple (Tom Payne and Ella Hunt), and a couple of bad pennies (Douglas Smith and Roger Ivens). Meanwhile, back in Arizona, the Apache are splitting into two camps, one led by bloodthirsty Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) and the other by pacifist Liluye (Wasé Chief). Meanwhile, there’s a family of Chinese railroad laborers that will apparently figure into future chapters, while Giovanni Ribisi, who’s third billed in the end credits, is glimpsed only in teaser shots for Chapter 2.

If that suggests the editing in “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” is a mess, well, it is. The parts are there — the masterful opening massacre sequence, the showdown between Ellison and the psycho, the scenes in the wagon train — but the connective tissue is nearly nonexistent, with some characters apparently forming intimate relationships between scenes and other characters getting lots of close-ups without ever establishing who they are.

Costner’s classicism extends to a lot of John Ford worship, and while there’s nothing wrong with that in principle, in practice it results in weary tropes like a brogue-heavy Irish army sergeant (Michael Rooker, underplaying more than Victor McLaglen ever did) and female characters who stand around in gingham while the men do everything except the laundry. The less said about the Apache wife who looks like a supermodel, the better.

Costner, who co-wrote the script with Jon Baird and Mark Kasdan (brother of “Silverado” director Lawrence Kasdan) is to be commended for partly self-financing this project, but if he has a vision, it’s not yet in view. Maybe there’s an epic novel in his head, but what he’s given us with “Chapter 1” is a table of contents instead.

R. At area theaters. Contains violence, some nudity and sexuality. 181 minutes.

Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr’s Watch List at tyburrswatchlist.com.