Kevin Costner doesn’t make short movies, and the actor probably knows the reason for this. During an appearance at the History Channel’s History Talks event, the Horizon director recalled one of the very first movies he remembers watching being the Western epic How the West Was Won at the age of around 7. It was also one of the movies that began his obsession with the American West, something that has remained with him across many of his movies.
Costner is currently in the middle of his ambitious and very costly passion project, Horizon. Envisioned as a four-part saga, Chapter 1 was released in cinemas earlier in the summer, but failed to make its mark at the box office thanks to a combined general lack of audience interest and some very mixed reviews from critics. This forced Warner Bros. – who are distributing but not financing the movie – to push back the release of Chapter 2 from its original August slot to sometime later in the year. Both Horizon movies clock in at over three hours, similar to his Oscar-winning 1991 movie Dances With Wolves.
Sharing his thoughts on his history with longer movies, Costner joked about how being taken to see How The West Was Won at the Cinerama Dome for a friend’s birthday probably has a lot to answer for. He said:
It was a 4-hour movie. So it’s no surprise, mine are three.
While Costner’s timing may be a little out, How the West Was Won’s actual runtime of a little under three hours would still seem like a lifetime to a young child. What really grabbed the director about the movie was “magic” of Hollywood, and that instantly became something he wanted to be a part of.
“Everybody left for intermission, and I didn’t. I wasn’t going to give up my magic seat. I waited for that movie to start again, and when it was over, it marked me.”
Movies from the ‘50s and ‘60s Heavily Influenced Costner’s Career
For many filmmakers, writers, actors, and artists, the experiences of their childhood form the root of their creative styles and visions later in life. Costner is no exception to this. Alongside his early Western experiences, another movie he made note of was the 1956 movie Giant, which starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean, and has a runtime of 3 hours, 21 minutes.
Recalling the pivotal moment in the movie when Hudson’s character is beaten up for standing up for his beliefs and told by his wife that he “never stood taller,” Costner reflected on how that moment really fired up something inside him.
“I’m 12 years old, and I watched that, and now I know who I want to be. So, for movies and all their phoniness, there is so much we can learn about who we want to be. It doesn’t matter when you make a movie, it’s going to live forever, so it matters what details you put in it because if you put the right details in it, it’s going to be relevant, and that’s the one thing I hope in my life. It’s not hard to be popular; it’s very difficult to be relevant. I want my life to be relevant, and I believe that you would do too.”
Costner’s quest for relevance will continue later this year when Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 is released in cinemas with the hope of outdoing its predecessor.
