What You Need to Know About Kevin Costner’s Western ‘Horizon’

How are the early reviews?

So far Horizon has a weak 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which averages 15 critics’ opinions from Cannes. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calls it “convoluted, ambitious, intriguing and meandering. But it’s never quite moving.” RogerEbert.com’s Robert Daniels calls it “a chore to sit through.”

But some critics give it a thumbs-up. It’s certainly a gigantic, old-fashioned movie with stunning landscapes and dramatic gunfights, packing in things you’ve loved in Westerns from 1948’s Fort Apache to Costner’s own 1990 Dances With Wolves.

“Director Kevin Costner may have just invented granddad cinema,” raves Britain’s The Telegraph, “a Western of the breed John Ford made in the 1940s and ’50s: earnest, stately and — even in the face of dire odds — humane and hopeful; full of crisply drawn characters and wide landscapes golden with promise, and without a crumb of cynicism in sight.”

The vast majority of critics won’t weigh in until the movie is out June 28. And maybe Chapter 2 will wrap up some of the storylines satisfyingly — it’s too bad the two parts of the story aren’t premiering together, so we could binge-watch them on the big screen.

How did Horizon impact Yellowstone?

Costner has long had a Midas touch with Westerns, from Silverado in 1985 to 2012’s Hatfields and McCoys, cable TV’s top series, which revived his career. But Yellowstone made him bigger than ever. The modern-day cowboy epic about a Succession-like Montana family feud became TV’s No. 1 scripted series, broke ratings records and was the No. 1 DVD bestseller.

Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, 54, was eager to do more seasons of the original show with Costner. But Costner was determined to make Horizon and quarreled with Sheridan. One insider compared them to “silverbacks wrestling,” and Sheridan’s camp blamed Costner for his departure from the show.

Costner tells AARP the problem was that Yellowstone got so successful, it started generating spin-off sequels and prequels (1883, 1923, 1944, 2024), and Yellowstone’s scripts did not arrive in time before he had to go shoot his own Western.

As for him being depicted as the bad guy in the black hat who threatened Yellowstone, he says, “That was really unfair. I had 300 people waiting for me in Moab, all of them ready to begin work on Horizon.”

But don’t give up hope, fans!

Yellowstone just announced plans to start shooting a new season, premiering in November 2024. Costner tells AARP he’s open to a future season as its hero, John Dutton: “I loved Yellowstone. I’d go back and do it again.”

How will viewers react to Horizon?

“Movies aren’t just about opening weekend,” says Costner. “Ten years later a good movie will still be shared. Success is: Will you revisit it and show your daughter, show your son?” He points out that prospects and buzz were so bad for Dancing With Wolves that he had to put his own money into that too. It grossed just under $1 billion in 2024 dollars and won seven Oscars, including best picture and best director.