Member Review Horizon film

[RetiredCanuck]

Watching it right now. Good story but already rife with errors.
Apaches in Montana.
Metallic cartridges galore in 1863. Even the Indians have bandoliers full of them.
Michael Rooker is 69 years old and looks every day of it but is still a serving dragoon.
Dragoons's shell jackets have correct orange trim, but yellow NCO stripes.

 

[Gandycreek]

Watched it on MAX. Not what I expected. Disappointed.

 

[Sheltowee]

Watched half of it last night- beautiful film locations, but story kind of jumps around a bit.
Yes- a lot of cartridge- firing guns. And the small rifle the boys are fooling with looks to be 20th century.
Seems kind of plodding. Not sure I will finish.

 

[RetiredCanuck]

Few more things I noticed.
Railway tracks in Montana/Wyoming in 1863?
The time of year in 1863 moves back and forth. Some scenes with snow in the background, yet at the same time people are being baked in the hot desert sun. Must be before Chancellorsville, because the transferred Regulars speak about fighting Jackson.
Michael Rooker's character is supposed to be a veteran Sgt. Major of regular dragoons. Yet his uniform is absolutely spotless, like it was issued 20 min before he appeared on screen.
As is the dress of Juliette Chesney, after travelling half way across the continent.
There seems to be an intermingling of a cavalry troop and a dragoon company which are under the command of 1 colonel.
Half dozen US regulars get transferred to fight in the Civil War back east. Men are reassigned by unit, not individually. Who would they serve with? Regular enlisted men would never serve in another regiment, especially a volunteer one.

 

[MAJOR DUNDEE]

There's already a topic about "Horizon", you can see it there :https://civilwartalk.com/threads/horizons-an-american-saga.208823/

 

[bayonet]

It's friggen Hollywood, they never get anything or at least 100% right or correct. They couldn't even get BAND OF BROTHERS correct, so don't expect anything ACW to be correct out of Hollywood!

 

[Belfoured]

Few more things I noticed.
Railway tracks in Montana/Wyoming in 1863?
The time of year in 1863 moves back and forth. Some scenes with snow in the background, yet at the same time people are being baked in the hot desert sun. Must be before Chancellorsville, because the transferred Regulars speak about fighting Jackson.
Michael Rooker's character is supposed to be a veteran Sgt. Major of regular dragoons. Yet his uniform is absolutely spotless, like it was issued 20 min before he appeared on screen.
As is the dress of Juliette Chesney, after travelling half way across the continent.
There seems to be an intermingling of a cavalry troop and a dragoon company which are under the command of 1 colonel.
Half dozen US regulars get transferred to fight in the Civil War back east. Men are reassigned by unit, not individually. Who would they serve with? Regular enlisted men would never serve in another regiment, especially a volunteer one.

A lot of good points. If you're going to make a film claiming the setting is WY, try a little harder. For just one example, film in SW Alberta. It's not like that should come as news to Costner, since I seem to vaguely recall that he was in Open Range. If you're going to shoot in Moab/Red Rock Utah, you might as well pick the Everglades. Or pick another setting for the story, like New Mexico.

 

[RetiredCanuck]

There's already a topic about "Horizon", you can see it there :https://civilwartalk.com/threads/horizons-an-american-saga.208823/

Oops. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[RetiredCanuck]

Not sure if this will get merged to the other thread but I have one more goof.
Sam Worthington is 48 years old.
Far too old to play a US Regular officer with 25 years seniority, that had not risen above company grade.
He would have graduated West Point in Class of 1838. Higher seniority than both Grant and Sherman.

There must be a back story on how a regular officer could serve so long and not rise up.

 

[huskerblitz]

It's friggen Hollywood, they never get anything or at least 100% right or correct. They couldn't even get BAND OF BROTHERS correct, so don't expect anything ACW to be correct out of Hollywood!

Could it be they are in the entertainment business and not the history business?

 

[MAJOR DUNDEE]

There must be a back story on how a regular officer could serve so long and not rise up.

He's maybe in the same situation than Burt Lancaster in "Go tell the Spartans" !

 

[JackADriscoll]

I tried it too, lasted like fifteen minutes before I turned it off. What a mess of a story

 

[bayonet]

Could it be they are in the entertainment business and not the history business?

history is entertainment so not much need to alter it, or change it, or lie about it, etc.

 

[RetiredCanuck]

Could it be they are in the entertainment business and not the history business?

A good point, but the film cost $100 million to make, not including distribution costs and only took in $35 million at the box office.
So the business portion of this endeavour was a washout.

 

[huskerblitz]

history is entertainment so not much need to alter it, or change it, or lie about it, etc.

To you maybe, the general public could probably care less.

 

[bayonet]

To you maybe, the general public could probably care less.

and that in there lies the problem

 

[Belfoured]

A good point, but the film cost $100 million to make, not including distribution costs and only took in $35 million at the box office.
So the business portion of this endeavour was a washout.

My point is how hard would it be to change the script to Utah/NM/Arizona if you're not going to make the setting pass the laugh test? I get the idea that maybe he's not drilling down to complete, detailed historical accuracy that most viewers won't know, but the scenery issue at least is pretty simple and so is the RR stuff. It's 2024. We no longer use the back lot in Sherman Oaks and call it "Kansas" like they did for tv in the '50's. At least then you're trying.

 

[Belfoured]

Not sure if this will get merged to the other thread but I have one more goof.
Sam Worthington is 48 years old.
Far too old to play a US Regular officer with 25 years seniority, that had not risen above company grade.
He would have graduated West Point in Class of 1838. Higher seniority than both Grant and Sherman.

There must be a back story on how a regular officer could serve so long and not rise up.

Maybe he entered West Point in 1830.

 

[huskerblitz]

and that in there lies the problem

Well the problem would be if the film lost money.

Hollywood is in the entertainment business, not the documentary business. They're goal is that of any business, to make money. A 2020 study determined only 20% of documentaries made money and 40% made no money at all. Your idea is not sustainable.

 

[bayonet]

Well the problem would be if the film lost money.

Hollywood is in the entertainment business, not the documentary business. They're goal is that of any business, to make money. A 2020 study determined only 20% of documentaries made money and 40% made no money at all. Your idea is not sustainable.

one can be entertainable and accurate at the same time if they bother to make the effort. Your math does not add up. 20% plus 40% makes 60%. What happened to the other 40%? It be sustainable if that's what they offered. Folks will tune in with or without the falsehoods especially if just the truth is offered up to begin with.