Kevin Costner knows exactly why so many western films and television shows fail

Kevin Costner is an American film legend. The man has been relevant for decades and starred in classics like “The Untouchables” and “Field of Dreams,” among others. But he will probably always be most closely associated with the Western genre, thanks in no small part to his Best Picture-winning epic Dances with Wolves, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. More recently, Costner directed the wildly popular series “Yellowstone,” the biggest show on cable television. In short, he knows his way around a Western. So what makes a great example? More importantly, what makes a bad product? He has given some thought to this.

In a 2022 interview with People, Costner opened up about why he keeps coming back to western films. The fifth season of Yellowstone will have to make do without him, but this show has helped tremendously to get him back on the map and paved the way 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 adds a lot to the character development. For Costner, this is key even in films. It can't just be a shooting.

“I've always believed that a good Western doesn't always just rush towards the gunfight. If you can create language and situations and then there's a shootout, I think it can be a great movie or TV show. But I think if you're trying to get there so quickly that people don't understand you, or if it's not complicated, then it's a problem.

In Costner's case, it didn't always work out. Yes, he had hits like “Open Range” in addition to “Dances With Wolves,” but he also suffered defeats like “Wyatt Earp,” which caused a lot of frustration in Costner. So he speaks from a place of authority when it comes to hits and misses.

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 latest passion project, Horizon: An American Saga, was announced as a four-film epic made specifically for the big screen. Unfortunately it didn't work at first. “Chapter 1” was a huge success at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics. Warner Bros. then pulled Horizon Chapter 2 from theaters without setting a new release date. Whether the third and/or fourth film will 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 television and in films, Costner is as qualified as anyone to comment on this. What do the best westerns of all time have in common? What distinguishes them from the many, many bad ones? For Costner, there can't be just a simple dynamic between good guys and bad guys. The Wild West in particular has something deeper that resonates.

“Most westerns aren't very good because they boil down to the black hat and the white hat. But when they're done well, you kind of wonder how you measure up and ask yourself: Were you tough enough to do it?” ? Every day in the West you were forced to make decisions that were like, “Wow.”

Yellowstone is currently streaming on Peacock, or you can download the various seasons on Blu-ray/DVD via Amazon.