Kevin Costner’s upcoming Western movie franchise, titled Horizon, has the opportunity to take the success of Yellowstone from the small screen to the silver screen – but it will face an uphill battle. Costner himself was at the center of Yellowstone’s takeover of modern television, which was so significant that it spawned an entire universe of spin-offs and sequels. A far cry from the typical TV drama, Yellowstone found success leaning into the hard-nosed world of Western ranching, with satisfying outcomes based in violence and vengeance.
Yellowstone’s reliance on horses, fists, guns, and explosions makes for riveting television, and a massive part of its success is based in its Western genre roots. The show’s ascension acted as the catalyst for a true revival of the Western genre, which had been struggling since the early 1990s. Some one-off movies found mainstream success over the years, but Yellowstone’s viewing numbers – along with those of its subsequent prequels, 1883 and 1923 – indicate there is a legitimate revival of the Western genre within the television space.
Kevin Costner’s Horizon Can Continue Yellowstone’s Western Genre Revival
Horizon now has the opportunity to help revive Westerns on the big screen just like Yellowstone has done for TV. There have been some sparks in the Western genre over the last few years, but major box office successes have been few and far between. One of the more notable Westerns in recent memory is actually the Netflix film The Harder They Fall starring Jonathan Majors and Idris Elba. One-offs in any genre do not constitute a revival, however, and The Harder They Fall brought an all-star cast and highly stylized spin to the traditional Western genre.
Kevin Costner’s Horizon will have plenty of advantages when it is finally released, the most significant being its ability to ride the coattails of Yellowstone. Costner’s highly publicized exit from Yellowstone has been mostly blamed on his desire to work on Horizon, so the project has a built-in audience already aware of it and waiting to see it. If Costner can bring some of the most successful elements of Yellowstone to the big screen with Horizon – interesting characters, tight writing, and explosive Western action – he could revitalize the Western genre for the modern audience.
How Yellowstone Made The Western Genre Mainstream Again
Viewers love Yellowstone for many of the same reasons they love any good modern drama–entertaining plots, characters they care about, and dramatic relationships and conflicts. What separates Yellowstone from other TV shows is specifically the Western genre elements. The scenic vistas of the Yellowstone ranch are borderline intoxicating, especially for city-dwellers or suburbanites who rarely see the mountains and meadows that make up the West. Conflicts are resolved not with words but with horses, guns, and fists, all of which are foreign concepts to the average citizen.
The West has always represented something new and better throughout American history, and Yellowstone tapped into that notion. In the modern world of screens, concrete, and cars, the allure of the wild West is rising again. One could argue that American TV and cinema was “due” for a Western revival, and Yellowstone perfectly packaged the best elements of the genre in a smart modern drama with impeccable timing.
Horizon Faces A Tougher Challenge Than Yellowstone Ever Did
The combination of classic Western elements with a modern TV drama is what made Yellowstone successful. Horizon, on the other hand, will be an immersion in the traditional Western format – which could make a revival many times more difficult.
Horizon will cover a number of years, specifically including the pre and post-Civil War time frames and the settling of the American West. Whereas Yellowstone brought viewers to a relatively unexplored time period in the West (now), Horizon will be walking over ground that has been covered many times before. In fact, most of what the average moviegoer thinks of when they think “Western” is set in that time period.
If Horizon is to actually revive the Western genre on the silver screen, it will need to find a way to reinvent the traditional Western format. While it can be certainly be done (as evidenced by The Harder They Fall), Kevin Costner’s roots as a director and actor lie in the absolute firmest Western traditions.
Horizon will almost certainly be influenced by Costner movies like Wyatt Earp, Dances with Wolves and Silverado, which may result in the new saga not landing with modern audiences. Costner has poured much of his own money and effort into the new franchise and has been very open about doing it for the sake of telling the story, not to necessarily revive the Western genre.