INTERVIEW | 'It is a film for the big screen'
Horizon: An American Saga is the latest in a long line of epics you have worked on over the years. Where do you find the inspiration?
I get inspired by art and by books. And of course, the camera was a thing back in the 1800s, so photographs really inspire me. This is an era that has fascinated me from when I was growing up and it still does. Horizon definitely draws on a lifetime of everything I have read and learned.
How important is it to you to have audiences experience Horizon on the big screen?
It’s important. The theatre experience is something I truly believe in, and Horizon is the kind of movie you want to see on a big screen.
You invested a lot of your own money in making this film. Why is that?
Because it was so hard to get people to believe in the movie that I wanted to make. I made this movie as much for myself as for the audiences. It was the same with Dances With Wolves, Field Of Dreams, Bull Durham and Open Range. I never think my movie is better than anybody else’s, but I also don’t think anybody else’s movie is better than mine. It’s just so happens that my movies are harder to make. My problem is that if I think something good, I have to do it anyway.
Horizon is set to be the first of a trilogy. When do you plan to release the next?
Well, we have filmed the second one, so that will follow soon. Right now, we are busy making the third. It’s a matter of money, but I am lucky to have acquired some things that are valuable. I am at a point where I don’t need four homes, so I am willing to take a risk to make my movies. Ideally, I want to leave those homes to my children, but they live their own lives. Hopefully, this will go well, and I won’t lose any homes, but it is a risk.
Speaking of your children, what was it like to have your 15-year-old son, Hayes, as one of your Horizon co-stars?
He had never acted before, but he did a good job. It’s a small part, but I was glad that he was able to follow the level of direction I was giving him. Hayes actually gets his name from my character in the trilogy. That’s how long I have been working on this project. It’s beautiful that he is here to help me tell it.
What is it about the Western genre that appeals to you?
It’s the challenge of not just making a Western, but making a good one. They are really hard to make and there’s not a lot of great ones. A lot of films set the genre back because they’re just too simple. They have somebody killing a family, and then someone seeking revenge for the rest of the movie. That’s fine if it’s done well, but it makes people think of the American West as something simple. It was terribly complicated.
You have been in the business for more than 40 years now. Would you say you are as passionate about filmmaking as you ever were?
I’m passionate about the work. I want to make films as an actor and director that are going to stand the test of time. That continues to be my goal.
How much do you take notice of the critical response?
It’s all part of the business. But, one has to make sure why they have done the movie. I will continue to try to do my best. That is all we can do.