Kevin Costner addresses Native American representation in ‘Horizon’: ‘I’m not interested in spoon-feeding people’

6 comments

1. [deleted]

2. Thank god we have Kevin Costner to teach us the TRUTH about Native Americans

   “They’re not the bad guy, but they were aggressive.”

   WE KNOW. Thanks Kevin!

3. As usual on reddit, I’m seeing a lot of people commenting who clearly did not read the (very short) article and are just taking guesses out their ass what is going on based on the title.

   He’s not trying to defend a problematic representation of Native Americans, but rather it seems that the film opens with a sequence that – if taken alone – would seem problematic if not for the fact that the rest of the movie counters that opening by showing a more nuanced portrayal. Basically it starts off with the old timey problematic “cliche” of “bad guy Indians” but after that opening, they show the American Indian perspective and reveal that opening to be only part of the story.

   >The movie is the first in a saga that tells an array of stories over the course of 12 years in the American West. But the Western genre has a long history of problematic portrayals of Indigenous people, often depicting them as the villains — nameless “savages” who attack innocent white settlers and wreak havoc on the lives of the film’s heroes. Either that, or they’re shown as tragic, noble figures who sacrifice themselves for white people.

   >At first, *Horizon* appears to perpetuate that, with the early parts of the film centering on the massacre of the settlement of Horizon and the townspeople’s attempt to fend off the brutality of the attacking Apache. But as the film goes on, we delve more into the lives of the Native characters as they deal with internal strife among their people amid the upheaval settlers have brought to their lives.

   >Tribes that previously co-existed are fighting each other for limited resources as the settlements now disrupt the once fruitful land. After leading the massacre that opens the film, Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) decides to break away from his Chief and create a new tribe of those who wish to fight to protect their land.

   >But Costner says he wasn’t worried about opening the movie with what could be viewed as a more stereotypical rendering of Native Americans. **”I’m just so tired of everybody trying to be so delicate about things,” he says. “[The Native Americans] were pissed. I don’t feel like I have to [hold someone’s hand]. ‘Oh my God, here we go again. Indians are the bad guys.’ Of course, they’re not the bad guys. But if you’re going to be limited, if people aren’t willing to watch how something unfolds, I don’t know what to say.”**

   >Costner, who also famously starred in and directed [*Dances With Wolves*](https://ew.com/dances-with-wolves/) with the cooperation and blessing of the Lakota people, also wanted to show the strife between tribes that arose due to Westward expansion. “That was brought about because of those tents [of settlers],” he explains. “Those people can’t cross the river there, so they have to go to the left, or they have to go to the right, and it brings in that contact with other tribes.”

   >He hopes that audiences will understand that showcasing the anger of the Native Americans is part of representing the reality of their stories as complex characters. “I’m not interested in spoon-feeding people,” he says of his approach. “The reality is it was one tent too many, and the [Apache] went down there, and they tried to wipe the [settlers] out. Their anger is they’re not able to hunt. They have to go and interact with tribes when they had long ago settled those issues.”

   See how reading the article or even the full quote, and not just the title, changes the meaning?

   The # of times I’ve had to copy & paste & post a handful of paragraphs that make up an entire article in threads on reddit because no one commenting read it is absolutely pathetic.

4. this fucking guy has made a living being a living fucking cliche who thrives off of stereotypes of indigenous people, fuck this dances with wolves bullshit

5. I just don’t really like Kevin Costner and I’m not even sure why

6. Says the dude who’s everything short of spoon fed himself. Literally look him up.. dude has luxury everything on sets, hard to work with.. etc.

   lol. I’m so tired of hearing about him.