Giddy: Horizon: An American Saga, in theaters on June 28th, is a new Western set in the Civil War era from Kevin Costner, who directed, co-wrote, produced and starred in the film. Horizon: an American saga is the first of four films in this project; the second part hits theaters on August 16.
Hollywood has a long history of romanticizing the western United States, especially by promoting the myth that much of it was empty wilderness in the mid-19th century. In fact, it was quite the opposite: the region was populated by Native Americans, Asian immigrants, and descendants of Spanish settlers trying to protect their own livelihoods. Costner said in press notes that he didn’t want to make another film that looked back on that time as a simpler time. He wanted to show how complicated everything was and show how all these groups were butting heads. Horizon It’s a very violent film.
Costner’s best-known western is from the 90s Dances with Wolveswhich became the second film about Native Americans to win Best Picture (after Cimarrón in 1931). As TIME wrote in a review, the film’s aim is “to make us reflect on the cost of fencing off our ancient space and degrading the people who lived in it.”
To get the scoop on what was really happening in the American West during the early years of the Civil War era, TIME spoke with Civil War historian Megan Kate Nelson, author of The Three Corners War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Struggle for the West.
Who is who in Horizon
Over the course of three hours, the film follows several different characters on their way to a settlement called Horizon, drawn by a pamphlet that promised land to anyone brave enough to make the trip.
After her husband is killed on his journey west, Frances Kittredge (played by Sienna Miller) and her daughter Elizabeth Kittredge (Georgia MacPhail) are taken in by the Army at Fort Gallant. The two women become beloved members of the community, reminding soldiers of the daughters and wives they left at home.
Costner plays Hayes Ellison, a loner who is attracted to Horizon because he wants to start a new life. He is accompanied by a woman named Marigold (Abbey Lee), who worked as a prostitute in a mining town called Watts Parrish, which is supposedly in present-day Wyoming.
There is a British couple, Hugh Proctor (Tom Payne) and Juliette Chesney (Ella Hunt), who are inspired by the ideals of starting over, but completely lack survival skills and irritate their traveling companions with their inability to fetch their own water. . .
The film had several consultants on Native American culture and Native American actors who learned the White Mountain Apache dialect for the roles. For example, actor Tatanka Means plays Taklishim, an Apache who lives in the mountains of present-day Arizona and tries to protect his family as settlers invade.
The Civil War in the context of Horizon
The four parts Horizon The series is set during the Civil War (1861 to 1865), with the first part beginning in 1859, shortly before the war began. The war went beyond the battles between North and South, and also occurred in the western territories.
“All the struggles over slavery between politicians from the North and South have to do with the expansion of slavery in territories,” says Nelson. “The Confederacy was very interested in taking control of the West because they wanted gold mines. They wanted Pacific ports. And the Confederacy wanted a nation from coast to coast so that they would be more legitimate and more recognized.”
The settlers heading West wanted a new life and were mainly looking for gold, Nelson said. There was the California Gold Rush in the 1840s, a great Colorado Gold Rush in the late 1850s, and another Montana Gold Rush in 1863.
Chinese workers are portrayed in Horizon. According to Nelson, they originally came to California for the gold rush and then migrated to mining towns in Montana and Utah. In the film, they are humble workers who are yelled at because they don’t speak English. In fact, they opened their own businesses like laundries, restaurants, bars.
But Western settlers became directly involved in the war. In fact, there was a civil war within the Civil War in New Mexico in the 1860s. The Union recruited Native Americans as spies and raised an army with a mix of Hispanic and white men in Colorado, who ended up in the West because they were looking for gold. In the 1860s, white settlers adopted the Native American warfare practice of scalping – killing their enemies and then taking their scalps.
The only area that the Confederacy managed to win during this period was present-day Arizona. But in the end, the Union won the Civil War and its appointees were placed in the settlements of the West to ensure that slavery would not be incorporated into these territories.
However, Nelson points out that the Native Americans were never fully allied with the Union army, seeing them as invaders. For example, when the US government began building the transcontinental railroad (1863-1869), Native Americans attacked railway surveyors. The Apaches would charge tolls to gold miners on the routes between Texas and California, forcing them to part with their food, weapons, and horses.
In Horizon, most of the time spent with Native American characters depicts them attacking white settlers. Costner said he wanted to portray Native Americans literally fighting for their lives and dignity. But in press notes, he also admits, “I don’t claim to be the best person to do just that.”
As for his approach to this four-part epic in general, he said, “I guess in some ways I’m someone who just had to go west, and didn’t know what was out there, and wasn’t afraid of it. .”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
