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Kevin Costner is an American cinematic legend. The man has been relevant for decades, starring in classics such as “The Untouchables” and “Field of Dreams,” among many others. But he will likely always be most closely associated with the Western genre, in no small part thanks to his Best Picture-winning epic “Dances With Wolves,” but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More recently, Costner has led the wildly popular series “Yellowstone,” the biggest show on cable. He knows his way around a Western, put simply. So, what makes a great one? More importantly, what makes a bad one? He’s got some thoughts on the matter.
In a 2022 interview with People, Costner touched on why he keeps returning to Westerns. “Yellowstone” season 5 is going to have to soldier on without him, but that show helped put him back on the map in a huge way and paved the road for something of a late-career resurgence. That’s because Taylor Sheridan’s show allows us to spend a lot of time with the Dutton family, which provides a lot of character development. For Costner, even in movies, that’s key. It can’t just be a gunfight.
“I’ve always believed a good Western isn’t always just rushing towards its gunfight. If you can create language and situations, and then you end up at a gunfight, I think it can be an amazing movie or TV show. But I think if you’re trying to get there so fast that you don’t understand the people, or it’s not complicated, then it’s a problem.”
In Costner’s case, it hasn’t always worked out. Yes, he’s had hits like “Open Range” in addition to “Dances With Wolves,” but he’s also suffered defeats such as “Wyatt Earp,” which caused Costner a lot of frustration. So he’s speaking from a place of authority when it comes to the hits and the misses.
Kevin Costner thinks Westerns need to be more than just black and white
Even in Costner’s modern era, it’s a tale of two sides of the same coin. “Yellowstone” was a huge success as a modern Western on the small screen. Meanwhile, his recent passion project “Horizon: An American Saga” was billed as a four-film epic that was made specifically for the big screen. Unfortunately, it hasn’t panned out in the early going. “Chapter 1” bombed at the box office and was met with mixed reviews from critics. Warner Bros. then pulled “Horizon Chapter 2” from theaters with no new release date set. Whether or not the third and/or fourth films happen now remains to be seen.
The point is, this is a man who knows this tried and true genre inside and out. As an actor, as a director, on TV and in movies, Costner is as qualified as anyone to comment on it. So, what do the best Westerns of all time have in common? What separates them from the many, many bad ones? For Costner, it can’t just be a simple good guy against bad guy dynamic. There’s something deeper about the Old West in particular that resonates.
“Most Westerns aren’t very good because they reduce themselves to the black hat and the white hat. But when they’re done well, you are kind of haunted by how you can measure yourself to wonder, Were you tough enough to make it? You were forced into decisions every day in the West which were kind of, ‘Wow.'”
“Yellowstone” is currently streaming on Peacock, or you can grab the various seasons on Blu-ray/DVD via Amazon.
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