“It appeals to me”: how one movie became the genesis point for Kevin Costner’s entire career
As either an actor or filmmaker, Kevin Costner has always been willing to bet big on himself for better or worse. He rose to stardom playing a variety of different characters in movies that touched base with multiple genres, but one film became the genesis point for everything that followed.
Admittedly, it took him a while to embrace what couldn’t have been anything other than destiny, but looking back on his efforts on either side of the camera, it’s clear a formative experience moulded him in ways he couldn’t have possibly imagined at the time.
Strangely, though, Costner didn’t appear in a western until the 11th feature of his career, when he exuded effortless charm as part of the ensemble cast Lawrence Kasdan assembled for Silverado in 1985. He wouldn’t make another one until eight years later when he was already a superstar, but it was nonetheless a case of one hand feeding the other, potentially even on a subconscious level.
Between those two points, Costner cracked the A-list after anchoring conspiracy thriller No Way Out, crime classic The Untouchables, and smash hit sports flicks Bull Durham and Field of Dreams. When it came time to make his directorial debut, however, there was only one form of cinema at the forefront of his mind.
Investing millions of his own dollars into the production, his faith was rewarded handsomely when Dances with Wolves became the highest-grossing western in history, winning seven Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’. The wide-open vistas had been very kind to him, but it was a relationship that would continually seesaw back and forth.
He once again funnelled his own cash into Waterworld, which wasn’t exactly dissimilar to a post-apocalyptic western, with Costner playing the wandering hero. The Postman was an unmitigated disaster that took both of those aforementioned tropes one step further, doing severe damage to his career in the process.
His next directorial vehicle after that? Open Range, a western. A Golden Globe-winning performance that reminded audiences of what he could do after more than a decade in the wilderness? It came in Hatfield & McCoys, another western. The role that lit the touchpaper on his comeback? Yellowstone, basically a modern western. His incredibly risky passion project he’s been dreaming of for decades that finally came to fruition? Horizon: An American Saga, a western.
Suffice to say, Costner loves himself a western, and that adoration was instilled at a very early age. “I guess my first real impact in a movie theatre was with How the West Was Won,” he admitted to Roger Ebert, before explaining the knock-on effect. “And then later I saw Red River and The Searchers. It appeals to me. It’s not as simple as I think people make it out to be.”
In terms of having his eyes opened to the complexities of the western, the star-studded 1962 epic was one way of going about it. Boasting genre icons Henry Hathaway and John Ford among its directors, the cast was equally esteemed with James Stewart, Lee Van Cleef, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Eli Wallach, and ‘The Duke’ himself John Wayne all appearing on-screen.
It’s not the sort of thing that can be written off as a coincidence, with Costner having enjoyed his greatest successes and most disastrous lows in the genre. The western may have been equal parts cruel and kind to him over the years in a number of different ways, but a straight line can nonetheless be drawn between the wide-eyed kid who sat in awe of How the West Was Won and the industry veteran who shrugged off concerns he was in danger of committing career suicide for a second time when he felt the four-part Horizon series was something he couldn’t forgive himself for not doing.
