There can be no doubt if there is one person bound and determined to keep Hollywood’s long history of Westerns alive it has been Kevin Costner. Okay, well Clint Eastwood too. And that has been true right from the beginning of his career when he played the freewheeling scene stealer Jake in Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado in 1985, and he also made an impression as title star of 1994’s Wyatt Earp. But his real mark on the genre has been not just as an actor but also as director and producer behind the scenes, first with his Oscar-winning 1990 Best Picture Dances With Wolves and 2003’s terrific Open Range with co-star Robert Duvall. For the past few seasons he has prominently been involved in a more contemporary take in his hit TV series, Yellowstone. But without question his most ambitious and sprawling swing yet, Horizon: An American Saga, which kicked off Sunday night at the Cannes Film Festival in an out of competition world premiere, is the pinnacle of this star’s love affair with the West and how it evolved.
