Kevin Costner gets huge Cannes honor while Horizon earns mixed reviews

Kevin Costner’s first chapter of Horizon: An American Saga might not be winning over the critics, but the star himself received true praise at Cannes.

Premiering out of competition at the festival, Horizon: An American Saga is officially a-go. The first of no less than four installments in Costner’s epic historical exploration of the Old West, the stakes were high for this Western to boost a sleeping genre.

While Horizon isn’t bringing in highly-desirable reviews, Costner ended up getting his flowers once again — three decades after he made Dances With Wolves, a film widely considered to be one of the best Westerns ever made.

After Horizon’s premiere, Costner was apparently the subject of theater-wide chants, with the applauding crowd yelling: “Kevin! Kevin! Kevin!” This, plus a seven-minute standing ovation, brought Costner to tears.

After the applause ended, Costner — who directed and starred in the first two chapters, and is currently working on a third and fourth — spoke to the crowd.

“I’m sorry you had to clap that long for me to understand that I should speak,” he said. “Such good people. Such a good moment, not just for me, but for the actors that came with me, for people who believed in me who continued to work. It’s a funny business, and I’m so glad I found it. There’s no place like here. I’ll never forget this — neither will my children.”

Meanwhile, on the review front, things aren’t looking so good for Costner’s ambitious project. At the time of writing, Horizon has a 20% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, and reviews are generally looking pretty mixed.

As Owen Gleiberman from Variety wrote: “As a stand-alone film (which it isn’t, but let’s pretend for a moment), Horizon is by turns convoluted, ambitious, intriguing, and meandering.”

While David Rooney from The Hollywood Reporter said: “[Costner’s] connection to the quintessential Americana genre and the rugged lands it calls home is indubitable. So why is his sprawling new frontier tale, Horizon: An American Saga, such a clumsy slog?”

Some critics were more generous, with Pete Hammond from Deadline describing it as “an impressive beginning, with the promise of more to come.” Elsewhere, Robbie Collin from The Telegraph noted: “Part of the pleasure of Horizon is the sheer, magisterial sweep of the thing — with mountains and buttes and mesas like these, who needs CG?”

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 will release in theaters on June 28, 2024. For more, take a look at our guide for Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2. Or, find out why Kevin Costner was right to quit Yellowstone for Horizon.