When you think of Westerns, and the truly great scores and soundtracks that propelled them into legendary status, there are a staggering number of all-time greats. Much of that credit is thanks to a wide range of composers who have tried their hand in this sacred genre: Elmer Bernstein, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Alfred Newman for starters. Then there are contemporaries like Bruce Broughton, Alan Silvestri, John Barry, Michael Kamen, James Newton Howard, Harry Gregson-Williams and James Horner as well as those just dipping their toe in for a particular film David Newman and Michael Abels. Part of that great pantheon is John Debney who has been around the corral a few times.
Westerns are probably the most honest of all film styles. What’s important to those stories is the sense of scale to the story and characters, whether it is one-town drama or a sweeping magnum opus. It’s about people dealing with some extreme hardships and all the efforts to make a life for themselves. Nothing was given and nothing was guaranteed.
This year we got to see Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 which, if you believe it, is the first of a four-part story Kevin Costner has been trying to bring to the screen for 20 years. His saga chronicles the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West, and he certainly knows a thing or two about living on the land. From his Oscar-winning performance in and direction of Dances with Wolves to Wyatt Earp to his truly underrated but insanely satisfying Open Range, audiences certainly didn’t need to wait for Yellowstone or the music of Modern West to show how much he loves the countryside, and the cowboy way of life.
So if you’re gonna make a Western, it’s hard to be more ambitious than doing it as a quadrilogy. Sure, that level of planning is, as some journalists have noted, turning it into TV. But the beauty of the story, especially for those who have seen it, is the expert pacing. And some stories take a while to tell. The original cut of Dances with Wolves was five hours, same for Kingdom of Heaven.
While long in delivery, this Chapter 1 sets up all the characters. We spend 180 minutes with these individuals yet we still don’t truly know them. The story finds may of them in transit – on a variety of journeys so to speak – so we don’t learn too much about them or their background. And that’s the hook. Many have set out for “Horizon”, an almost mythical land in the West where the hope of something is worth the strain and uncertainty to get there. So Costner is looking to loop us in for the long haul, and I don’t mind being on that ride.
The film is bold, majestic, fierce, unflinching, and the project was quite the challenge for Debney to work his magic. While an enormous undertaking, the film (which changed many times during the production) allowed many themes to surface. The beauty in what was written showed that the music worked for nearly every character. His efforts – a symphony of folky & steel strings, percussion, native wind instruments and more – gave Horizon an added layer of depth and emotion that helped elevate the story. If we can say one thing, it would be to see the movie. If we could say two, well, see it twice! It’s impacting, grand filmmaking that will really stick with you.
We’ve been a fan of John’s work for years, and fortune allowed us to have had him on the show many times to talk about a variety of projects. So welcome back a great friend of the site and enjoy this episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience!
Academy Award-winning visionary filmmaker Kevin Costner directs New Line Cinema’s vast “Horizon: An American Saga” Chapters One and Two, a multi-faceted chronicle covering the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West. A story of America too big for one film, this true cinematic event also stars Costner, who co-writes with Jon Baird (“The Explorers Guild”) and produces through his Territory Pictures. In the great tradition of Warner Bros. Pictures’ iconic Westerns, “Horizon: An American Saga” explores the lure of the Old West and how it was won—and lost—through the blood, sweat and tears of many. Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.
Horizon: An American Saga – Only in Theaters June 28
