Is Kevin Costner America's most iconic actor?
Baseball movies and westerns, both American pastimes, are his strong suit. But are we still underestimating the man's versatility?
A lot of people forget that Kevin Costner is an Academy award-winning director, bursting into Hollywood’s multi-faceted (actor and filmmaker) game back in the late 80-early 90s. He never fails to take a big swing with his directorial efforts, something that rides to the forefront this summer with his double feature release of Horizon, his latest epic. Part One came out on Friday, and the second part hits theaters in August. He’s filming Part Three, and Part Four is in development. Like I said… big swings.
After all, the sweet spot for one of Hollywood’s last classic movie stars from my childhood has been westerns like Wyatt Earp and Open Range; baseball classics like Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, and For Love of the Game. But are we still, in his 69th year on Earth, underestimating the man? Let’s dive in. I don’t think the answer walks a straight line, but he does exude something that doesn’t exactly rhyme with Cruise or Pitt, but doesn’t stand too far from Redford and Eastwood.
Outside of his lauded baseball films, Costner has impressed in other sports films like Draft Day and McFarland, USA. Yes, he does need to eventually play Doug Armstrong in a movie about the 2019 St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup run, but that can wait . Just like his cinema prestige on the diamond, his western adventures are just as prolific.
He won two Oscars for Dances with Wolves, showed a fine hand in Open Range and blew through the door in Silverado. He portrayed a stoic Wyatt Earp in a performance that was better than the movie. In a rare television performance, he was great in Hatfields and McCoys. This summer, he’s climbing back on the saddle again with Horizon’s two first two parts.
It’s two genres that come easily to him, but it’s not all that he is. There’s versatility that doesn’t always get mentioned or appreciated. The bad guy types in A Perfect World and Mr. Brooks (which was so underrated). Look at his heartthrob work in The Bodyguard, pairing well with the late Whitney Houston. He spun his cowboy persona into a Texas Ranger in Netflix’s invigorating Highwaymen, and rocked a perfect Boston accent in The Company Men. Bonus part of the last role was busting Ben Affleck’s chops.
One could make a fine argument for Costner owning the best moments in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. His John could have shared a hot cup of coffee on a farm with his George Blackledge in Let Him Go. He deserved another Academy Award acting nomination (following Dances with Wolves) for portraying Molly Bloom’s overbearing father. He’s been in 65 films or television shows in 69 years, including the so bad it’s good 3,000 Miles to Graceland and Criminal. He was Al Harrison in Hidden Figures.
He’s done it all and then some, but isn’t slowing down. Should Costner be America’s last iconic movie star, due to the pure Americanism of his two most popular role genres, westerns and baseball movies? Yes, with some caveats. He does spin those personas into similar roles like the glorious Tin Cup, but also knows how to do something different like Oliver Stone’s JFK. Playing John Dutton in Yellowstone for four plus seasons endears him to that idea of the west and its stature. He rides a horse like Arnold Schwarzenegger carries a bazooka: you just don’t second guess it.
Costner does know how to swing a baseball bat and throw a ball authentically. In a GQ feature where he looked back at his most iconic roles, there was a part when he mentioned going to cages with Bull Durham’s director, Ron Shelton, early on in the casting process. He felt like no other actor vying for Crash Davis would do that and look as good as he did. Originally, they offered him the role of Nuke, who was eventually portrayed by Tim Robbins. I think it worked out.
It’s that classic movie star ability that has stuck with him, endearing his icon status to multiple generations of entertainment consumers. While movies, the way they’re made and the general aesthetic of Hollywood has changed since he burst onto the scene, he’s remained the same guy. There is a sense of heroic trust one can get in Costner movies where he’s the hero or enough of an anti-hero to cheer for.
When he points his rifle at Bonnie and Clyde’s car, you get that chill down the spine that first rose up in the 1980s and 90s when he blew away those gangsters at the train station in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables. The same thing occurs twice in the trailer for Horizon, him with a rifle firing at the enemies while riding horseback.
That’s his sweet spot, one that has spanned three and a half decades without getting old. While Cruise jumps bikes off ramps in Norway and jolts around the world, Costner prefers to ride out west where the fields of grass are endless and the odds are stacked against him.
While there are a few other true stars, few are as classy and timeless as Kevin Costner. How many other stars bet $25-30 million of their own money on a four-part western as they near 70? Maybe he is America’s finest movie icon after all.
*Thanks to the super-talented and kind Ben Cerutti of Birds on the Black, who posed the wonderful question to me this week.