1923 movie reviews

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren Elevate ‘1923,’ Taylor Sheridan’s Potent ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff: TV Review

By Joshua Alston

Joshua Alston

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Taylor Sheridan , the creator of “ Yellowstone ” and tireless workhorse of Paramount+, has already proven himself a prolific writer with a fully articulated vision of the stories he wants to tell. He’s built an impressive slate of dramas populated with cowboys, cobras and compromised cops, including three “Yellowstone” spin-offs. Sheridan could probably continue with his aggressive expansion with Paramount’s blessing. Instead, Sheridan has shrewdly chosen quality over quantity.

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In the case of “ 1923 ,” Sheridan’s troupe includes Helen Mirren and, in his series television debut, Harrison Ford. Mirren and Ford – both 80-ish, neither a stranger to action badassery – make for such a potent pairing, their chemistry alone is enough to make “1923” feel like an elevated version of Sheridan’s neo-Western fare. Ford stars as Jacob Dutton and Mirren plays Cara, his Irish-born wife. (For those interested in the specific genealogy, these Duttons are apparently the great-great-great uncle and aunt of Kevin Costner’s character in the mothership series.) 

One of those problems will involve Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn of “Game of Thrones”), a Scottish-born sheep herder first seen raising hell over being denied grazing privilege to the Duttons’ land. Flynn’s piercing eyes and barely concealed rage suggest Banner will make a sturdy foe. And there will be plenty more foes to vanquish beyond the pilot episode, the only one screened for critics from the first of two eight-episode seasons planned for “1923.” “Yellowstone” mines its suspense from the sheer volume of threats circling the ranch, and with Timothy Dalton set to appear as a rival rancher, “1923” should be able to recreate the beset-from-all-sides tension.

Despite the promise it suggests, the pilot has an awkward structure that makes it difficult to tell what will constitute a standard episode once the series progresses. Like “1883,” the episode starts with scenes of carnage paired with a weary narrator who promises the Duttons have barely scraped the surface of their coming strife. (Isabel May retains voiceover duties despite her character’s ultimate fate in “1883,” adding a literal ghost to the gaggles of figurative ghosts haunting Dutton Ranch.) 

After introducing Jacob and Cara, along with their nephew John Sr. (James Badge Dale) and his son Jack (Darren Mann), and sketching out the Duttons’ most pressing woes, the focus shifts to a character initially far removed from the Duttons. Teonna (Aminah Nieves) is a Native American teenager being held in one of the horrific “boarding schools” of the era, essentially reprogramming centers designed to strip Indigenous young people of their culture. 

The tight focus on Teonna’s suffering is a no-brainer for “1923,” if only because Sheridan’s work is so easy to criticize for valorizing European settlers at the expense of the natives they forcibly displaced. And her scenes, like the rest of the pilot, are beautifully covered by director Ben Richardson, Sheridan’s long-time cinematographer. But the character is so isolated from the others, her scenes don’t yet feel like part of the same show. 

The same can be said for the scenes featuring Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), another nephew of Jacob and Cara, who’s on an entirely different adventure on the other side of the world. “1923” keeps a lot of plates spinning, consistent with Sheridan’s plot-forward style. (The pilot is bookended with two violent deaths and concludes with a jump scare, lest anyone think being set in such a bummer of a time makes the show any less pulpy or fun.) And who knows, maybe the show will falter despite its impressive cast. But the nice thing about Sheridan’s new business model is that if you don’t dig this particular flavor of “Yellowstone,” perhaps you’ll enjoy one of the next five.

“1923” debuts on Sunday, Dec. 18, on Paramount+.

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Watch 1923 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

Cast & Crew

Taylor Sheridan

Helen Mirren

Cara Dutton

Harrison Ford

Jacob Dutton

Brandon Sklenar

Spencer Dutton

Julia Schlaepfer

Jerome Flynn

Banner Creighton

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Violence, brutality and a flicker of love are the ties that bind the Dutton dynasty in ‘1923’ pilot

With the iconic duo of harrison ford and helen mirren, the pilot episode of “1923” holds the promise of yet another addictively compelling project from “yellowstone” creator-writer taylor sheridan..

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren star as Jacob and Cara Dutton in “1923.”

James Minchin III/Paramount+

“Violence has always haunted this family…where it doesn’t follow, we hunt it down, we seek it.” — Voice-over narration in the pilot episode of “1923.”

Truer words have never been spoken about the Dutton clan, no matter the century or the decade, from the brutally unforgiving wagon-train journey of the post-Civil War generation chronicled in “1883” or the seemingly endless modern-day conflicts erupting in and around the family’s sprawling ranch in “Yellowstone.” And as we see in the Expanding Taylor Sheridan Universe (ETSU!) entry “1923,” hardly a week goes by without someone throwing a punch or unholstering a gun or facing their mortality.

As Harrison Ford’s Jacob Dutton in “1923” puts it when a colleague says the easy years are the only reason worth enduring the tough years: “I’ve been here since 1894 … I do not remember an easy year.”

With the iconic duo of Ford and Helen Mirren (reunited after starring in “The Mosquito Coast” back in 1986) heading an impressive cast, cinematic-quality visuals, sprawling set pieces and a myriad of promising storylines, the pilot episode of “1923” holds the promise of yet another addictively compelling project from Sheridan. It’s further proof that no matter where we’ve landed on the Dutton family tree, there’s going to be a LOT of action — and some choice dialogue.

At the outset of “1923,” the Yellowstone ranch has been settled under guidance of the grizzled, no-nonsense Jacob Dutton, the brother of the late James Dutton from “1883.” Jacob is married to the loyal and loving Cara (Mirren), and the two have raised James’ sons as their own. John Dutton Sr. (James Badge Dale) is Jacob’s right-hand man on the ranch, while Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) is a World War I veteran dealing with PTSD while traveling through Africa as a hired marksman specializing in taking out rogue big cats. Spencer’s storyline, which includes flashbacks to WWI, allows for spectacular set pieces, and Sklenar shows true star potential in a fascinating role.

The pilot introduces a number of other subplots, including the introduction of Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves in a strong performance), a young Indigenous woman at a parochial school where she is abused by the cruel Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle). Some of the sequences in this middle section are almost unbearable to watch — especially when we’re introduced to the headmaster, Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché), who might be even more sadistic and terrifying than Sister Mary.

As for land owner and Montana livestock commissioner Jacob, he’s dealing with everything from a plague of locusts to a drought to cattle disease to the growing threats posed by sheepherders led by the hot-headed Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn), who doesn’t respect borders and fences, and is spoiling for a fight. (Jacob dismisses the sheep herders as “Bullies whining about the consequences of the rules they broke.”)

The pilot even squeezes in a romantic subplot, with great-nephew Jack Dutton (Darren Mann) having to break the news to his betrothed, Elizabeth, (Michelle Randolph) that their wedding will have to be postponed for a cattle drive. It’s left to the wise Cara to comfort Elizabeth and explain to her, “You’ll miss more than weddings for cattle, my dear … you have to want more than the boy, you have to want the life, too, because in this life there’s no debating what’s more important, the wedding or the cattle. It’s always the cattle.”

That is and was the Yellowstone way. Even in 1923.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.

• Taylor Sheridan
• Harrison Ford
• Helen Mirren
• Brandon Sklenar
• 349 User reviews
• 16 Critic reviews
• 4 wins & 22 nominations

• Jacob Dutton

• Cara Dutton

• Spencer Dutton

• Banner Creighton

• Jack Dutton

• Elsa Dutton

• Teonna Rainwater

• Elizabeth Strafford

• Sheriff McDowell

• Emma Dutton

• Father Renaud

• Donald Whitfield

• Sister Mary

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• Trivia While America's Great Depression began in 1929, it got an early start in Montana. The Great Depression began in Montana in 1918, almost 10 years before the rest of the nation. While the rest of America was thriving, Montana was struggling. Between drought and the reduced demand for agricultural products, due to the end of the "Great War" (aka First World War, from 1914 to 1918), many farmers suffered greatly. As a result, Montana farmers would default on wartime loans which lead to widespread bank failure throughout the state. Between 1921-1925, half of the farmers in Montana lost their land. By 1925, 70,000 of the 82,000 homesteaders in Montana left. In addition, 200 banks in Montana failed. Not only were crops affected by the drought, it was followed by locusts infestation and cattle succumbing to contagion.
• Connections Featured in Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford (2023)

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• December 18, 2022 (United States)
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• 101 Studios
• Bosque Ranch Productions
• MTV Entertainment Studios
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• Runtime 1 hour
• Dolby Digital

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‘1923’ Review: Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren Seek Violence in Grim ‘Yellowstone’ Prequel

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Harrison Ford aiming a pistol is an indelible American image , yet one almost entirely divorced from the indelible American genre that so often yields such macho iconography. Many actors who carried themselves as well as they carried their sidearm — the likes of Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Kurt Russell, Jack Palance, Mel Gibson — either did so in westerns or eventually made their way to the genre. (Even Gibson, who hit it big with “Lethal Weapon,” still has “Maverick” on his résumé.) But Ford the cowboy isn’t ingrained in our collective consciousness. Sure, he dabbled in TV shoot-em-ups before he made the A-list and later carried best-forgotten movies “The Frisco Kid” and “Cowboys & Aliens.” The latter even calls to mind Ford’s breakout stance — a little space western called “Star Wars” — but it’s not Han Solo’s vest or skills as a marksman that make him stand out.

At the risk of stating the obvious, there’s something about his face . Eastwood and Russell may emit a striking sneer or wrathful tremble when gripping their respective barrels, but Ford tells us so much about his characters in the way his eyes bulge or lips curl when he picks up a gun. Debates over whether Han shot first (and the historical rewriting that ensued) can be traced back to our ability to believe either option: How could this guy shoot first? How could this guy not? Over the years, Ford shaped and reshaped that iconic image, every time rooting his expressions in character , while still bringing fresh dimensions to our understanding of the actor, the star, the person making them.

When he inevitably draws his six-shooter in “1923,” Ford’s face doesn’t change. He doesn’t blink. His posture doesn’t even shift. His irritated livestock commissioner, Jacob Dutton, is so focused on a cocky little troublemaker that when Jacob turns around, walks up to him, and sticks a gun under his chin, it’s as though the revolver is an extension of his body — as casually unsheathed as a hand from its coat pocket. It’s also one of the few times in the pilot episode where Ford’s expression isn’t affixed in an indignant scowl. “1923,” the second “Yellowstone” prequel from writer and creator Taylor Sheridan , grounds itself in violence — violence on animals, like the cattle plagued by locusts; violence on the land, which isn’t producing enough nourishment for the animals, and thus, their owners; and yes, violence on people, like the threat Ford is convincingly ready to carry out with his brandished firearm.

Through one episode, there’s little to say definitively about the purpose of all this violence, or “1923” in general. A familiar voiceover opens the episode with a bit of blunt exposition that still required many minutes of internet sleuthing to make sense of; Helen Mirren, as Jacob’s Irish immigrant wife Cara, is the first to fire a weapon, in a scene that’s equally indecipherable; two storylines — one in Africa and the other at a government-run boarding school — feel like they belong in different shows (but hey, at least one involves repeated, vicious beatings for the only person-of-color in the cast); and because I fear the wrath of the “Yellowstone” faithful, I won’t be sharing any closely guarded revelations about the Dutton family tree. After all, figuring out who’s who and how they relate to “1883” or present-day characters is requisite homework for anyone tuning in for anything other than the iconic leads. (Mirren, so far, gets to have all the fun.)

One would hope Jacob’s disgust with his adversaries (who he calls “bullies whining about the consequences of the rules they broke”) and exhaustion over ranching’s continued hardships would lead the aging cowboy toward grace; that he’d want better for the future Dutton generations we know will inherit his “crumbling empire.” But remembering Sheridan’s penchant for juxtaposing mankind’s ugliest antics with magnificent natural vistas, it seems just as likely that “1923” will only match Jacob’s grimace with a perpetually grim tone.

At least Ford — and Mirren — will make finding out as gratifying as possible.

“1923” premieres Sunday, December 18 on Paramount+. New episodes will be released weekly.

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1923 Review: Harrison Ford And Helen Mirren Shine In Taylor Sheridan's Latest Adventure

It seems like there's no stopping Taylor Sheridan. Since writing "Sicario" and making his directorial debut with the seriously underappreciated "Hell or High Water" in 2016, Sheridan has found his home at Paramount, creating "Yellowstone," an enormous success for the company, and one of television's biggest success stories. With "Yellowstone" now into season 5 with no signs of slowing down, the world of the Dutton family is expanding with a second(!) spin-off series, "1923."

Having never seen an episode of Paramount's biggest hit "Yellowstone," I was curious if "1923" would feel too inaccessible, relying so much on the lore of the first series that any spin-off would feel inaccessible. To add another layer of potential confusion, "1923" is the sequel to another "Yellowstone" spin-off series, "1883," but this new series is also a prequel to "Yellowstone." Now that you've taken some time to digest this surprisingly complicated information, I was pleased to discover that there aren't any barriers to following what's going on in "1923," though I was plagued by the sneaking suspicion that I was missing some subtle (and not-so-subtle) nods to the other shows in the "Yellowstone" universe.

For those like me who have no familiarity with "Yellowstone" or "1883," the appeal of watching Taylor Sherdian's newest series is two-fold: screen legends Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren star in "1923." (A third reason is former James Bond Timothy Dalton playing a major antagonist, but sadly he doesn't appear in the first episode).

A bitter battle brews in Montana

Harrison Ford plays Jacob Dutton (a name I've learned carries quite a bit of weight in this franchise), family patriarch and livestock commissioner. There's a lot being thrown at Jacob in this first episode. There are rising tensions in Montana, with the rough, ruthless landscape going through a lengthy drought that's led to a grass shortage. That might not sound like a big deal now, but considering the community depends on livestock — which eats that very grass to survive — and you've got a heck of a problem on your hands. There's also a rise in locust, an oncoming economic depression, and just about every other problem you can fathom. Most important is the drought, which has led to sky-high tensions between the cowboys and sheepherders.

The sheepherders are led by Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn), who is furious over the sudden lack of resources while also harboring a vendetta against Jacob and his entire family, particularly in regard to how much land they have. Jacob has no time for Banner's complaints, which leads to a quick, furious scene in a courthouse. It sets up the conflict between Banner and Jacob quickly, but the worldbuilding here feels too rushed and doesn't let us understand why Jacob and Banner have what feels like a heated rivalry.

The scene establishes that Jacob's family has the largest plot of land in the region, while sheepherders like Banner are suffering. That's an interesting dynamic, but it's all too familiar and gets to violence in a few seconds — and it feels like a missed opportunity to really establish something special. Thankfully, Ford is thrilling, effectively channeling a lifetime of fury and frustration into this no-nonsense patriarch. He's not one to shy away from violence, and it's clear this is a man that will do absolutely anything in his power, and maybe more, to keep what's his. A lifetime of difficulty has led to this toughness — "I've been here since 1894, Clive, I do not remember an easy year," he tells a co-worker. It's admittedly a bit one note in the first episode, but "1923" has an entire season to give Jacob some nuance.

Then there's Helen Mirren, who plays Dutton family matriarch Cara. If you had concerns that Cara would be little more than a doting wife, you can toss those worries away: It takes less than a minute into the first episode for Cara to blow away a foe with a shotgun. It's clear Cara is not one to be messed with, and Mirren feels very much in her element, feeling every bit as hardened as Ford, but with a sense of humanity that allows her to feel more grounded. Cara seems to be a person far more sensitive when talking to those she cares for, but if someone comes to threaten what her family has worked for, well ... she's got a shotgun and she knows how to use it.

The subplots are where the excitement lies

While the story of the Dutton family is intriguing, it feels a bit too familiar — though I've not seen "Yellowstone," I've seen plenty of Westerns, and the whole family fighting to keep their ranch is very well-worn ground. What is a lot more exciting are the two other storylines established in the first episode of "1923." The first involves Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) working throughout Africa as a sort of mercenary, taking down lions, leopards, and any other big-cat terrorizing civilians. Spencer is carrying some heavy trauma with him after fighting in World War I (known in 1923 as the Great War), which is explored in a lengthy, blood-spattered, hyper-violent flashback that also highlights "1923's" impressive budget and cinematic qualities.

The other, and most intriguing story, follows Teonna (Aminah Nieves), a young Indigenous woman introduced in a ruthless scene at a Parochial school that appears to be designed to assimilate Indigenous children into an English-speaking lifestyle no matter the cost. Teonna is being brutally attacked by her teacher, Sister Mary (the always brilliant Jennifer Ehle), in a brutal, unflinching moment that expresses the cruelty and mistreatment of Native peoples. Teonna has clearly undergone unimaginable torment in this school, and has little hope for the future — at night, one of her classmates tells her this will all be over soon. Teonna remarks that those who have left have promised they'd send letters, but how many letters have they received? It's a brutal question that requires no answer, and of all the stories brewing in the first episode of "1923," it's Teonna's that will keep me watching.

In its premiere, Sheridan's latest entry into the "Yellowstone" universe is packed with plenty of promise. While a lot of it feels familiar to fans of westerns and likely to devotees of "Yellowstone" and "1883," I can't deny that I was excited by all of it. The Montana landscape affords the show some impressive beauty, and this episode certainly suggests that "1923" has all the potential to be a thrilling epic, rife with revenge, violence, and petty squabbles. I wasn't sure if it would win me over, but by the episode's end, I found myself excited for what is to come.

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1923 Review: Yellowstone Prequel Is a Promising Mix of Familiar and Fresh

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren lead the latest expansion of Taylor Sheridan's franchise

Helen Mirren, 1923

Taylor Sheridan can't do this forever. His workload of writing, producing, and occasionally directing and acting in multiple shows and movies at a time will become unsustainable, and his winning streak that allows him to have complete creative control will inevitably come to an end. But that time has not yet come, and until it does, Sheridan is going to ride his horse at full gallop and do extravagant stuff like put Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in a Western epic that's filmed on two continents and probably costs as much as the GDP of a small nation. 1923 is not even close to the beginning of the end of the Sheridan era. It feels like another hit for the Yellowstone kingpin.

1923 is Yellowstone 's second prequel series, after last year's 1883 . That limited series told the story of the Dutton family's arduous journey to the land that became the Yellowstone Ranch, which John Dutton ( Kevin Costner ) is still trying to hold on to in the flagship series. 1923 finds the ranch settled and successful under the stewardship of Jacob Dutton (Ford), the brother of 1883 's James Dutton ( Tim McGraw ), and Jacob's wife Cara (Mirren), but there are always problems. No matter what decade it is, somebody is always threatening the Duttons' way of life. 

Because it's set on the ranch, 1923 is more like Yellowstone than 1883 was. Jacob even has the hereditary Dutton man job of Montana livestock commissioner. He has to deal with a drought that has left the region without enough grass for everyone's livestock, cattle disease, tensions between cowboys and sheepherders led by belligerent Scotsman Banner Creighton ( Jerome Flynn ), Prohibition, and a plague of locusts. His growly "my way or the highway" leadership, as well as the ranch-life stuff, like Cara talking the young woman ( Michelle Randolph ) betrothed to her great-nephew Jack Dutton ( Darren Mann ) into accepting that being married to a cowboy means always being second to the ranch, will feel very familiar to fans of Yellowstone . It's the same kind of storytelling, with different costumes and fewer F-words. 

• Cinematic ambition
• A different take on the Yellowstone franchise
• One episode is too small of a sample size to fully evaluate a show like this

Where 1923 deviates from the Yellowstone formula is in its other two storylines. One follows Spencer Dutton ( Brandon Sklenar ), James Dutton's younger son, as he works as a hunter-for-hire killing man-eating big cats in Africa ( Yellowstone  began with John Dutton putting down an injured horse, and yet I'm somehow always still surprised at the amount of animal death in the franchise). Spencer is a shellshocked Great War veteran who does not want to go home to Montana, which he describes to an acquaintance he meets in Kenya as the American "mountain version of this place," in one of 1923 's most perfectly Sheridanian lines of dialogue. He's wandering all over Africa searching for the piece of himself he lost. Like 1883 , 1923 is narrated from beyond the grave by Elsa Dutton [ Isabel May ], who warns from the moment Spencer is introduced that his story is bound to end in tragedy. The international, Hemingway-influenced storyline opens up new possibilities for the Yellowstone franchise.

The other storyline follows Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves), a young Indigenous woman at a cruel parochial school for Native Americans run by the sadistic nun Sister Mary ( Jennifer Ehle ) and the more compassionate but still merciless Father Renaud ( Sebastian Roché ). The Yellowstone franchise, and Sheridan's work in general, has always been concerned with the mistreatment of Native American people, women in particular, but the franchise has never had a thread as devoted to that theme as Teonna's appears to be. 

Paramount+ only sent the first episode for review, so it's hard to say where any of these storylines are headed. This is not a review of the season as a whole. But just based on the premiere, 1923 is an ambitious undertaking with a ton of potential that will give fans of Yellowstone a series that at times feels familiar and other times feels like it's expanding what Yellowstone can be. And nothing can match the Yellowstone franchise for the grandness of its cinematography and the  distinctiveness of its flavorful dialogue. No one writes like Taylor Sheridan, and that's why he gets to make stuff like 1923 .

Premieres:  Sunday, Dec. 18 on Paramount+ (the premiere will also air after the Yellowstone S5 midseason finale on Paramount Network) Who's in it:  Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Jerome Flynn, Brandon Sklenar, Aminah Nieves, James Badge Dale, Darren Mann Who's behind it:  Taylor Sheridan For fans of: Yellowstone, Ernest Hemingway How many episodes we watched:  1 of 8     

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'1923' Review: Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren Head to Yellowstone Country

1923 , which follows Yellowstone  prequel 1883 , moves the Dutton saga forward by a decisive four decades

Tom Gliatto reviews the latest TV and movie releases for PEOPLE Magazine. He also writes many of the magazine's celebrity tributes. 

At the very start of 1923 , the latest chapter in Taylor Sheridan 's big, bold Yellowstone narrative, Helen Mirren , rifle in hand, is chasing a man through the woods.

She ends up shooting him in what appears to be self-defense, then she looks up to the sky and howls. It's a keen dramatic moment, made even better when you notice that the color of Mirren's skirt and jacket is cerulean blue.

The rare western that might earn the approval of The Devil Wears Prada 's Miranda Priestly, 1923 should engross Yellowstone fans too.

This new series, following up on 1883 , moves the Dutton saga forward by a decisive four decades. The country has been to war over in Europe — we get a battle flashback — and the Great Depression is less than a decade away.

Things will be bad, at least according to the opening narration spoken by the familiar voice of 1883 's Elsa Dutton ( Isabel May ): "Violence has always haunted this family. . . . Where it doesn't follow, we hunt it down. We seek it."

That sounds like the spirit of Hemingway coming through at a séance, but it does set a tone. On the other hand, you might be surprised to hear someone use the phrase "a leopard the size of a sofa."

Mirren and Harrison Ford are well matched as the new Dutton power players, Cara and Jacob. She's crisply dutiful, resourceful but appealing, while he often has the expression of a man whose egg order keeps coming out wrong.

Who's to say that isn't historically accurate?

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1923 premieres Sunday evening on Paramount+ and Paramount Network, following the latest episode of Yellowstone at 8 p.m. ET.

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1923 review: an unremarkable Yellowstone prequel

“Taylor Sheridan's latest Yellowstone prequel series, 1923, is shaping up to be a disappointingly melodramatic, forgettable western.”

• Harrison Ford & Helen Mirren's lead performances
• Jerome Flynn's villainous supporting turn
• Taylor Sheridan's dialogue
• An overly slow pace
• A suffocatingly somber tone

1923 begins, like so many other Taylor Sheridan productions, with a doom-laden moment of violence. The show’s opening scene, which sees Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) ruthlessly gun down a fleeing man in cold blood, is followed by two other instances of ominous brutality and death. These opening images are all underscored by a narration that speaks of crumbling empires and bodies found frozen in the dead of winter. To call 1923 ’s opening a somber one would, in other words, be a massive understatement. However, whatever weight 1923 ’s opening minutes might have had is erased by the clunkiness of creator Taylor Sheridan’s writing.

Not only do the series’ opening three scenes flow ineffectively from one to another, but the narration that accompanies them serves little purpose other than to solidly place 1923 ’s story within the history of the Duttons, the fictional family around which Sheridan’s growing Yellowstone universe revolves . Even Mirren’s bloodied debut scene feels like nothing more than a superfluous teaser, one that’s solely meant to hook viewers in despite how incongruently it fits within the rest of 1923 ’s largely meditative, exposition-heavy premiere.

Set around 40 years after 1883 , Sheridan’s previous Yellowstone prequel , 1923 follows Cara and Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford), the matriarch and patriarch of the Dutton family, as they deal with various hardships and tensions in their Montana community. In the series premiere episode, which is the only installment that was provided to critics early, the primary conflict facing Jacob and Cara is the growing tension between their community’s cattle ranchers and sheep herders.

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The latter party is unofficially led by Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn), whose own desperate desire to prevent his herd from dying leads him into direct conflict with Jacob and his fellow ranchers. As far as conflict goes, 1923 ’s premiere is severely lacking, but the series does show signs of life whenever it actually lets Flynn and Ford go head-to-head with each other. Outside of Jacob and Cara’s immediate problems, 1923 ’s premiere spends a considerable amount of time in Africa following Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), one of Jacob’s nephews, as he tries to run away from his experiences in World War I by making a hard living as a hunter of deadly animals.

Over the course of its first chapter, 1923 follows Spencer as he faces down not only an African lion but also a leopard. While these scenes are written with Sheridan’s trademark confidence and Sklenar brings a refreshingly grounded approach to his character as well, Spencer’s African adventures are so disconnected from the rest of 1923 ’s plot that they inevitably feel like dramatic detours. The same, unfortunately, can be said for the scenes in the 1923 premiere that focus on Teonna (Aminah Nieves), an indigenous girl trapped in a harsh, Catholic boarding school.

Teonna’s scenes are the hardest and most difficult that 1923 ’s premiere has to offer. As commendable as Sheridan’s commitment is to shining a light on the ways in which the U.S. government has abused America’s indigenous people, Teonna’s scenes bear so little connection to the rest of 1923 that they feel like they belong in a different show. That aspect isn’t helped by the fact that the scenes set in Teonna’s boarding school focus primarily on the abuse that she suffers at the hands of its “educators,” which makes investing in them that much more difficult.

As has been the case ever since Yellowstone premiered, Sheridan’s dialogue also remains a mixed bag. In his best moments, the Yellowstone creator is capable of writing conversations that feel lived-in and distinct. His commitment to remaining “ a first-draft writer ,” however, results in multiple cringeworthy lines still making it into 1923 ’s premiere, including one moment when Sklenar’s Spencer tells an unassuming train attendant, “I have no destination,” without a single note of self-awareness or sarcasm.

For the most part, 1923 ’s cast makes it out of the series’ premiere relatively unscathed by Sheridan’s more irksome quirks. Ford and Mirren, in particular, manage to bring their usual gravitas and charm to 1923 . The series gives Mirren a chance to be more outwardly fearsome on-screen than she’s been allowed to be in years. Ford, meanwhile, seems to shine the brightest during 1923 ’s more conversational moments, which allow him to blend his commanding presence with a likable sense of wry wisdom.

Other noteworthy performers, like Robert Patrick and James Badge Dale, aren’t given much to do in 1923 ’s premiere, but they round out the show’s cast of cattle ranchers and law enforcers well. Unfortunately, while Darren Mann and Michelle Randolph bring two refreshingly youthful personalities to 1923 , the romance between their two characters lacks any of the complexity or authentic qualities present in many of the show’s other relationships. To its credit, the series premiere does end with a moment that suggests that the romance between Mann’s Jack and Randolph’s Elizabeth may not maintain its pearly innocence for much longer.

It is hard to say for sure whether or not that’s what actually lies in Jack and Elizabeth’s future. In fact, having only seen one episode of 1923 , it’s impossible to predict if the series will ever fix any of the flaws present in its premiere. It is, after all, entirely possible that 1923 will emerge as Sheridan’s most narratively successful TV effort to date. Based solely on its premiere, though, 1923 is shaping up to be a largely grim, melodramatic exercise on Sheridan’s part — one that never quite lives up to the talent of its own stars.

New episodes of 1923 premiere Sundays on Paramount+. For more about Yellowstone , click here .

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Up to this point, Flanagan’s commitment to taking the horror genre as seriously as he can has both paid off in spades and made his attachment to authors like Stephen King unavoidably clear. In The Midnight Club, however, that earnestness has never felt more earned and never been quite as distracting. The series, which is based on the horror novel of the same name by author Christopher Pike, chooses more often than not to face everything that happens in it with as straight a face as possible — even in the moments when a knowing smirk is deeply needed.

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Unfortunately, the film’s attempts to blend screwball comedy with open-hearted romanticism often come across as hackneyed rather than inspired. Behind the camera, director Alex Lehmann fails to bring Meet Cute’s disparate emotional and comedic elements together, and the movie ultimately lacks the tonal control that it needs to be able to discuss serious topics like depression in the same sequence that it throws out, say, a series of slapstick costume gags.  The resulting film is one that isn't memorably absurd so much as it is mildly irritating.

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Young Sheldon Finale: Sheldon & Amy’s Daughter Reveal Addressed By Showrunner

Young sheldon series finale set images reveal lance barber's unexpected cameo at george's funeral, song kang & han so-hee’s romantic k-drama is perfect to watch while waiting for their 2024 shows.

1923 , the second prequel series to the hit Yellowstone franchise, premiered in December 2022 and critics have shared their thoughts. 1923 is both the sequel to 1883 and the prequel to Yellowstone . It continues the story of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch 40 years after its establishment in 1883 . Now, the new generation of Duttons must deal with the hardships of the time including the Great Depression and Prohibition. Yellowstone has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes while 1883 has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning expectations are high for the next installment of the Dutton family saga.

Like Kevin Costner in Yellowstone and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw in 1883 , 1923 is also led by veteran actors. Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford star as Cara and Jacob Dutton respectively, and lead an ensemble of accomplished actors including, Jennifer Ehle and Timothy Dalton. Combined, Mirren and Ford have been nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one, and 13 Golden Globes, winning 2. Their talents and the captivating story from Academy Award-nominated writer Taylor Sheridan made 1923 a long-awaited project for fans of the neo-Western turned traditional Western franchise. Critics were quick to share their thoughts in reviews for 1923 .

Critics Thought 1923 Was A Solid, Gritty Yellowstone Followup With Great Performances

Just like its predecessors, 1923 received excellent reviews from the majority of critics and has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes , the highest score of any series in the franchise. Overall, critics have responded warmly to the new timeline and the new characters. Unlike the other shows in the series, 1923 bounces around to different lands rather than focusing solely on the Dutton Ranch. The story of Teonna was universally praised by most critics, with many sighting it as an important acknowledgment of the revisionist way Indigenous Americans were portrayed in older Westerns. Clint Worthington writes in his review, “ ...these scenes are shot with an irresistibly potent tension ” (via Roger Ebert ).

Much praise has been heaped on the performances of the ensemble cast. Mirren, in particular, has been called out for her layered and emotional performance. Max Gao of AV Club writes of her in his review, “ Mirren [taps] into the matriarch’s quiet humanity and strength. ” While some describe Ford’s performance as stiff, Ben Travers in Indie Wire describes how that inflexibility actually makes for a disarmingly irritated version of a Dutton patriarch. Whereas some reviewers make mention of the growing weariness of Sheridan’s cinematography and repetitive storytelling, many mention the separated story elements of 1923, adding a welcome puzzle-box nature to the show that keeps the series feeling fresh.

1923 Is Getting A Season 2

In February 2023, it was announced that 1923 was renewed for season 2 . No set date has been revealed yet and due to the WGA strike, season 2 has been delayed. However, it will still be filmed at some point and has yet to be canceled. Actor Brandon Sklenar also confirmed that season 2 will be the finale of 1923 and there will be no season 3. The story is not nearly over for the characters in 1923 and season 2 will see Teonna Rainwater and the Duttons of the Depression era end their sagas.

• 1923 (2022)

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Harrison Ford isn’t even the best thing about Yellowstone spinoff 1923

Thank Sheridan for Helen Mirren

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A good character introduction is one of the greatest weapons in a TV show’s arsenal. It’s the fastest way to turn viewers into ride-or-dies, because it’s easy to forgive a lot if a show introduces you to someone you find incredibly cool (this is why I and many other grown-ass adults still love Dragon Ball ). 1923 , the second Yellowstone prequel series after last year’s 1883 , has a lot going for it in this regard. It stars Harrison Ford , for one — the easiest way to get boomers and their families to stop what they’re doing and pay attention. And it also helps that creator Taylor Sheridan is pretty good at introducing cowboys, as 1923 ’s predecessors excel at memorable openings built around their leading men.

1923 is not. Instead, it builds its splashy arrival around its leading woman.

Helen Mirren is 1923 ’s other big gun, a legendary actor on par with Ford that will both resonate with older viewers and be appreciated by younger ones — a shrewd power play by one of the most popular TV franchises on television right now. She is also, unfortunately, the only bright spot in the premiere, a quiet force of nature who watches men talk about doing things while she goes to get them done; 1923 ’s first scene shows her, as matriarch Cara Dutton, confronting and killing a presumed thief. It’s an act of violence that, crucially, no one sees — because when men are watching, Cara will have to act in more subtle ways.

In its runaway success, Yellowstone has become a franchise about the Dutton family, chronicling the powerful Montana ranchers and their various conflicts with those around them. Thus far its spinoffs each focus on a different generation of Duttons — 1883 followed James Dutton (Tim McGraw), the first Dutton patriarch to settle in Montana and establish the Yellowstone Ranch the franchise is named after.

1923 leaps forward 40 years to Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford), current head of the Dutton family and Yellowstone Ranch, who is currently trying to mediate a dispute between cattle ranchers and sheepherders after a tough season leaves both herds with little to graze. It’s not terribly riveting stuff, and mostly consists of scenes where Harrison Ford intimidates indignant farmers with his gruff voice and a six-gun. It’s a downer compared to the way 1923 introduces his wife, Cara, or the ways 1883 and Yellowstone proper introduced their leading men.

One can forget a lot of things that happen in the 90-minute Yellowstone pilot, but it’s hard to shake the opening moments where John Dutton III (Kevin Costner) calms a horse in a terrible accident before putting it out of its misery. Or 1883 ’s dual introductions of Pinkerton agent Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) and James Dutton, the former with a moment of terrible loss, and the latter single-handedly fending off a gang of bandits that should’ve had him dead to rights.

None of 1923 is so immediately indelible after its title credits roll. In fact, little of it is concerned with the Yellowstone Ranch at all. One subplot follows Teonna (Aminah Nieves), a young woman in a Montana School for American Indians run by the taciturn Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché). Another introduces Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), Jacob’s nephew estranged from the family after his service in World War I, currently working as a hunter and guard of the rich in the African savanna. It’s not clear how either plotline will play into things brewing around Yellowstone Ranch — Spencer’s story just seems like a change of pace for the franchise, a diversion before the prodigal son returns home. Teonna’s is more significantly removed — although the collision between Native Americans and settlers/ranchers like the Duttons is a regular feature of Yellowstone and its spinoffs.

With a two-season order in place, 1923 is content to take its time — primary antagonist Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) doesn’t even show up in the first hour, despite his prominent placement in trailers for the show. Whenever that does happen, 1923 might turn up the heat — currently, it does little to establish its own identity outside of its time period.

That time period is perhaps the most compelling thing about 1923 , a moment in American history where the Wild West of legend was long over and settlers had to go about deciding how they would live (or not live) with the people and land around them. The show is not a radical departure for the Yellowstone franchise — in these shows, Sheridan is building a sprawling libertarian opera, one where owning land is the highest ideal a man can strive for, and seizing that American destiny makes him a target of those with less ambition. They are about men who impose order on a world that is out of their control, and most commonly respond to change with violence. And at this moment in history, change is coming: The gulf between America’s burgeoning frontier and its cities is at its widest, and the looming disaster of the Great Depression, famine, and another World War lurk just ahead. Right now, Cara Dutton is the only character on 1923 that seems ready to survive it.

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1923 season 1 review – a magnetic western with honest to God Hollywood star power

We review of the Paramount+ series 1923 season 1, which does not contain any significant spoilers.

I was skeptical that Taylor Sheridan couldn’t come back to that strangely profitable Yellowstone well without tripping up a bit. However, with each new series, he seems to be gathering more steam and becoming one of Hollywood’s great mainstream storytellers. Do you disagree? With Yellowstone and 1923 under his belt, he brought Harrison Ford , a Hollywood legend, to helm his first television series. Shrug that off all you want by the mere suggestion Ford is past his prime — he is not — how about signing the most acclaimed actress of the last twenty years, Helen Mirren , to lead the Dutton clan through one of the most turbulent times in American history? The result is a series brimming with magnetism, flawless writing, and genuinely engaging storytelling.

1923 season 1 review and plot summary

The year is 1923, and the Duttons are only concerned about the herd. That is the unwritten rule in Yellowstone, Montana. Family, personal lives, and dreams are cast to the side when it comes to their prized collection. If there are no cattle, families will be unable to survive a harsh, cold winter. That’s what Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) tells Elizabeth ( Michelle Randolph , a movie star in waiting), who is upset she now has to delay her wedding by two weeks to Jack ( Darren Mann ). You see, the Duttons are fighting crippling droughts as locusts ate the herd’s crops. There is also the end of Prohibition , and the Great Depression has no end in sight. The herd comes first and never second.

That’s when Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford, a commanding presence as ever) makes the call to move his herd up the mountain. The issue is there are dangers, like giant grizzly bears and mountain lions, that will endanger their livelihood. Not to mention a spry gang of sheepherders led by Banner Creighton ( Jerome Flynn ), who keep stealing the grass off Dutton’s land. In a phenomenal scene where Banner confronts Jacob in front of the courthouse, Dutton tells him that his family had fought for the land. Ford’s Jacob then delivers a line only he knows how saying, “Do you want to fight me for it?” That’s called a chef’s kiss, sir.

1923 is full of cinematic-quality moments like that one. Sheridan brings his standard depth when it comes to writing well-drawn characters and jaw-dropping thematic depth. For instance, the pilot has an armrest-grabbing opening sequence with Mirren having a killer confrontation with a man on her land, most likely a sheepherder; that’s a visceral scene full of sorrow and rage. It’s pure Sheridan, up there with such quality moments like Ben Foster’s shootout on the side of a hill in Hell or Highwater or the ominous choice of Jeremy Renner’s Lambert giving a wrongdoer a choice even Sophie couldn’t make in Wind River . It’s that good.

There is also Sheridan’s wicked smart lens he uses. For instance, the one to view how organized religion and the cross-sectionality treatment of indigenous women. In the subplot of extraordinary power, he takes you inside that unforgiving world. In what could be the series breakout character, Teonna ( Aminah Nieves , phenomenal here) defiantly stands up to a sadistic nun (a terrific Jennifer Ehle ) who beats her wrists mercifully for not remembering information from her homework assignment and the class discussion.

It’s a stunning scene, but nothing tops the eye-opening treatment of the school’s headmaster ( Sebastian Roché ), who rules his staff and students with an iron fist. And most importantly, these scenes are authentically relevant and matter. If you google papers on the indigenous, colonialism, and the displacement of putting children in Christian orphanages, the treatment is horrifying and shameful. These are the scenes that make Sheridan a master storyteller, which separates 1923 from not just other series but from Yellowstone and 1883 .

Where the show falters a bit is the story of Mirren’s son, Spencer (a charismatic Brandon Sklenar ), which seems oddly out of place and doesn’t quite fit. He plays a hunter who tracks down big game cats that endangered villages and tours carrying around wealthy aristocrats looking for grand adventures (and getting more than they intended). Don’t get me wrong, these scenes are entertaining and generate a fair amount of suspense for something that seems like a misplaced puzzle piece.

Is 1923 season 1 worth watching?

Sheridan and company are in fine form with their latest edition of the Yellowstone universe. With magnetic Ford and Mirren, a quality deep bench of actors, and engaging storytelling with deeper themes, 1923 should satisfy diehards and bring in new ones alike.

What did you think of 1923 season 1? Comment below.

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Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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Harrison Ford Loves His Craft. ‘1923’ Tested His Limits.

The actor, now 80, is still trying new things, including his first major TV role. Just don’t ask him to get all touchy-feely about it.

“I don’t want to reinvent myself,” Harrison Ford said. “I just want to work.” Credit... Chantal Anderson for The New York Times

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• Dec. 15, 2022

LOS ANGELES — In the course of 20 months and in the midst of a pandemic, Harrison Ford filmed a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” sequel in England. He shot a 10-part comedy, “Shrinking,” in Burbank. He herded cattle up a mountain in subzero Montana temperatures for “1923,” the latest prequel to the hit western series “Yellowstone.”

He also celebrated his 80th birthday.

“I’ve been working pretty much back-to-back, which is not what I normally do,” said Ford, unshaven, wearing bluejeans and boots and easing into a chair at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel here earlier this month. He was in Los Angeles for one night, for the premiere of “1923,” debuting Sunday on Paramount+. From here, it was on to Las Vegas the next morning for the next screening, yet another stop after a stretch of filming, travel and promotion that would exhaust an actor half his age.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Ford said, taking a sip from his cup of coffee. “But it happened.”

It has been 45 years since Ford leaped off the screen as Han Solo in the first “Star Wars” movie, laying the foundation for a blockbuster career in which he has personified some of the most commercially successful movie franchises in film history. He has appeared in over 70 movies, with a combined worldwide box office gross of more than $9 billion. By now, it would seem, he has nothing left to prove.

But at an age when many of his contemporaries have receded from public view, Ford is not slowing down, much less stepping away to spend more time at his ranch in Jackson, Wyo. He is still trying new things — “1923” represents his first major television part — still searching for one more role, still driven to stay before the camera.

“I love it,” he said. “I love the challenge and the process of making a movie. I feel at home. It’s what I’ve spent my life doing.”

And why should he slow down? Ford shows no sign of fading, physically or mentally — he was fleet and limber as he strode into the Luxe for our interview, cap pulled down, and later, as he worked the room at the post-premiere party at the Hollywood restaurant Mother Wolf. In his pace and eclectic choice of roles, including the weathered and weary rancher Jacob Dutton of “1923,” he seems as determined as ever to show that he can be more than just the swashbuckling action hero who gave the world Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

“He can rest on his laurels: He doesn’t need to work financially,” said Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” and who, at 71, does not miss the 5 a.m. wake-up calls and the hustling for the next role. “To be doing another ‘Indiana Jones’ — I’m in awe of him.”

Ford is known for being gruff and nonresponsive, an actor not given to introspection and with little patience for “put me on the couch” questions. There were flashes of that during our 45 minutes together. “I know I walked myself into that dark alley where you’re now going to have to ask me to describe the character,” he said at one point. “And I don’t want to.”

But for the most part Ford was forthcoming, relaxed and contemplative. This was a promotional tour, and after a half-century in the business, he knows how to do this. “I’m here to sell a movie,” Ford said, though, of course, he was there to sell a TV show — and to some extent, himself.

“I don’t want to reinvent myself,” he said. “I just want to work.”

FORD WAS ALWAYS more than just another charismatic Hollywood action star. He could act. There was the swagger and the smirk, but they were put to service in presenting complex heroes with flaws and self-doubt, including John Book, the detective in “Witness”; Jack Ryan , the C.I.A. analyst at the center of the Tom Clancy novels that inspired the films; and Rick Deckard, battling bioengineered humanoids in “Blade Runner.”

That style distinguished him for much of his career from monosyllabic, musclebound action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude Van Damme, and it has always been integral to his appeal: Hamill said he was struck by it the first time they acted together.

“He was impossibly cool, world-weary, wary, somewhat snarky, flippant,” Hamill said.

Television isn’t entirely new territory for Ford. When George Lucas cast him as a white-cowboy-hat-wearing drag racer in the 1973 film “American Graffiti,” Ford was 30, making a living as a part-time carpenter in Los Angeles. By then he had already been picking up modest roles in series like “Ironside,” “The Virginian” and “Gunsmoke” since the late 1960s.

His role in “1923” is anything but modest: the great-great-great uncle of John Dutton III, the family patriarch portrayed by Kevin Costner in “Yellowstone,” TV’s most popular drama . As with “Yellowstone,” the scope of “1923” is vast — the Western vistas, the sweeping aerial shots, the complexity of the characters and their stories. It also features another major star, Helen Mirren, as his wife, Cara, the tough matriarch of the family.

Ford watches little television — he said doesn’t have the time — and he knew little about “Yellowstone” when his agent first brought him the role. (In preparation, he watched some of “1883,” the first “Yellowstone” prequel, which follows an earlier generation of Duttons as they travel west by wagon train to establish the family ranch.) Based on an advance screener of the pilot, the cinematic ambitions of “1923” would be familiar to anyone who has watched “Game of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad.” But they have, these past four months, been a pleasant surprise for Ford.

“They keep calling it television,” Ford said, gesturing with a twist of his upper torso to a television screen in the next room. “But it’s so un-television. It is, you know, a huge vista. It’s an incredibly ambitious story that he’s telling in epic scale. The scale of the thing is enormous I think for the television.”

Ford said he had agreed to the role after Taylor Sheridan, the lead creator behind the “Yellowstone” franchise, brought him to his ranch outside Fort Worth and sketched out the character. (“I’m 80, and I’m playing 77,” Ford said with a wry grin. “It’s a bit of a stretch.”) Ford was intrigued by Dutton, a stoic and somber rancher who must battle in the final years of his life to protect his land and family.

“The character is not the usual character for me,” Ford said, likening it to his role playing a psychiatrist with Jason Segel in “Shrinking,” created by Segel and Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein (of “Ted Lasso”), debuting next month on Apple TV+. “I’ve never been to a psychiatrist in my life.”

Filming “1923” tested his resilience and his love of the craft. Montana proved a brutal place to work; the cast and crew encountered blinding blizzards and stunningly cold temperatures during 10-hour days spent almost entirely outdoors.

“It was a nightmare,” said Timothy Dalton, a former James Bond, who plays a rancher who challenges Ford for control of the land. “We are on top of a hill with a blasting wind coming at us. The cameras freeze up. Your toes freeze up.”

Ben Richardson, who directed most of the “1923” episodes, described filming Ford as he rode horses up steep mountains, against knife-sharp winds, as Dutton herds cattle to higher altitudes and the promise of fields to graze.

“I’ve never had a complaint from him,” Richardson said. “I can’t express how much of a team player he is — to the point that it’s shocking. He’s Harrison Ford. He could be doing anything. I’m sure there are people who would prefer to have a double standing in. He did not.” He added that he had “probably seen ‘Blade Runner’ 20 times,” studying how Ford presented himself onscreen.

“There’s something truly compelling about watching him deal with difficult situations,” he said.

From Ford’s earliest days as Han Solo, he has been wary of being typecast as a go-to action hero. He agreed to do the blockbusters urged on him by a Lucas or Steven Spielberg, but he also sought more than laser guns and bullwhips, gravitating to films like Peter Weir’s “Witness” (1985), and to directors like Alan J. Pakula (“Presumed Innocent,” “The Devil’s Own”).

“I always went from a movie for me to a movie for them,” he said, referring to directors — and audiences — with a taste for action-hero blockbusters. “I don’t want to work for just one audience.”

So it is that Ford will play a rancher in “1923” and a therapist in “Shrinking”— six months before his fifth “Indiana Jones” movie, “ The Dial of Destiny ,” opens in June.

“He doesn’t get the credit for the diversity of his choices that he has chosen,” Hamill said. “Everybody loves ‘Indiana Jones,’ but we know what it is, and we’ve seen it before — he could do those for the rest of his life. The fact that he is doing something more challenging and more thought-provoking is something I admire about him.”

A CENTRAL PARADOX of Ford’s biography is that “Star Wars,” the franchise arguably most responsible for reshaping the industry in its image, made him one of the last true movie stars , a man whose name alone could sell tickets; Hollywood’s shift from star vehicles to intellectual property, from big screen to small, can now be neatly tracked over the arc of his career.

“Star Wars” united a country — crossing geographic, class and political lines — enthralling audiences who gathered in theaters to share in its fairy-tale story of love and adventure. These days, audiences are made up of friends and family gathered in a living room, and Ford faces questions about whether the “Yellowstone” franchise is a paean to Red America.

“I’m aware of the interest in the politics of the characters,” he said, adding that he had no interest in the political beliefs of Jacob Dutton. (Ford, who was born in Chicago to Democratic parents and supported Joe Biden against Donald Trump in 2020, suggested that the audience for “Yellowstone” was so vast that it was unlikely to be made up of only Republicans.)

When Ford began working on “1923,” Sheridan told him to approach it as if it was 10 hourlong movies. “And that’s the way it feels to me,” Ford said. “But we’re working at a television pace. There’s something about movies that allows for, you know, a little bit, you know, a kind of luxury of time and a certain …”

He hesitated as he considered the risks of a road better not taken, of Harrison Ford weighing in on the merits of movies versus television. “I don’t think I really want to get too deep into this because there’s no place to go with it, for me.”

“I’m doing the same job,” he said. “It’s just being boxed and distributed in a different way.”

Ford is not a pioneer. He resisted television for many years, and in finally relenting, he is following other major box office stars — Kevin Costner on “Yellowstone” and Sylvester Stallone on “Tulsa King” — who have joined Taylor Sheridan television productions.

Still, as he prepared to attend the premiere of “1923,” at a big screen tucked away in an American Legion Hall in Hollywood, it was clear where his heart remained.

“The important thing is to go into a dark room with strangers, experience the same thing and have an opportunity to consider your common humanity,” Ford said. “With strangers. And the music — the sound system is better, right? The dark is deeper, right? And the icebox not so close.”

Ford paused at his revealing reference to a kitchen appliance from another era — the era when he grew up. He could not help but laugh at his lapse. “Icebox!” he said.

Adam Nagourney covers West Coast cultural affairs for The Times. He was previously the Los Angeles bureau chief and served eight years as the chief national political correspondent. He is the co-author of “Out for Good,” a history of the modern gay rights movement. More about Adam Nagourney

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1923 Episode 1 Review: Yellowstone Prequel Starts Strong

In the premiere story of this next generation of the Dutton family, we see the seeds being sown of a young ranch, young love, and a young empire.

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This 1923 review contains spoilers.

1923 Episode 1

When audiences met the first generation of American-born Duttons in last year’s beautiful and bounteous 1883 , their struggle would come to define the stubbornness, ferocity, and strength of the characters of Yellowstone . When the family ventured across America to carve out their chunk of Montana, almost nothing but tragedy followed them, and when they finally arrived at the land they called home, the land was not yet satiated. Creator Taylor Sheridan made it clear that this family would forever have the shadow of violence looming behind them. 

The continued story of 1923 , not completely surprisingly, is a familiar one. The new limited series even uses the haunting voice of Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) much like 1883 did, narrating the short history of the decades that have passed from the time of her death, to this new American frontier. Following the death of  James Dutton (Tim McGraw), his wife Margaret (Faith Hill) sent a letter to James’ brother, Jacob (Harrison Ford) to come and join the family in Montana, and to help the family to flourish. 

The family was already on its last legs, as tragically, Margaret had also passed when Jacob arrived. Jacob and his wife Cara (Helen Mirren) then inherited the two Dutton boys, Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) and John (James Badge Dale), the ranch, and the lifestyle James once dreamed of. 

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In reality, we learn quickly that this family’s struggle hasn’t changed much for the almost century and a half they’ve been on the land. Sheridan, as he did when 1883 was on the air, has done well to reinforce key themes throughout Yellowstone this season that are rippled and reflected across time in the proverbial Dutton pond. Season 5 of Yellowstone has been about almost nothing but how the cowboy way of life is dying , what it means to work the land until your fingers bleed, and how important it is to preserve what little piece of that existence is left.

One of the more lighthearted subplots in the 1923 premiere is meeting young Jack Dutton (Darren Mann), a sprout of a man as passionate and energetic as his aunt Elsa was in her youth. Jack gets himself into hot water quickly as he has to postpone his wedding to the neighboring beauty Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) to drive his family’s herd. Elizabeth doesn’t understand Jack’s sense of duty to the ranch instead of her, and so the two young lovers are quickly at odds.

If not for the wisdom of Aunt Cara, the wedding may have been off, but Cara is as steadfast, intelligent and in control as the actor who portrays her. Make no mistake, this premiere belongs to Dame Helen Mirren. Fans have come to appreciate and perhaps even love the strength of Dutton women throughout the generations we’ve seen on our television, but Cara’s is not a singular strength. She is a provider and mother to her nephews, she is a loving and equal partner to Jacob, and most importantly, she will always get what she wants, by means of a kind materteral whisper in your ear, or a shotgun pointed at your chest. 

Cara is perhaps the most interesting and noteworthy character to come out of the Yellowstone universe in the five years these shows have been airing, and the casting of Mirren to bring her own wisdom wrapped in an Irish-lilt was perhaps one of the best bits of casting, as well. Sheridan, through his writing, has seemingly endeared himself to a mass of Hollywood legends, who are springing to be a part of his projects in droves, but you can see how much Mirren especially believes in the words and the character he has written for her.  

Sheridan also wrote what was certainly the most powerful 10-15 minutes within the storied history of this universe. In the subplot of Teonna (Aminah Nieves), we see how the young Native American woman is held in one of the barbaric Residential schools that were sadly all too prominent in North American history. As we know, Sheridan does not write weak-willed female characters, and we see perhaps the most ferocity in any of them when Teonna must stand up for herself against the abuse within the school. The severity of the savagery that is shown towards Teonna in the name of white-washing homogenization is only a taste of the real life tragedy that befell so many First Nations’ children, and it cannot be stressed enough how important and powerful a storyline this is. It remains topical and poignant and the hope is, it is explored throughout the season. The young Neives should be applauded for bearing the weight of this plot, and having shown so much range in a relatively short amount of time. 

The small bits of variety 1923 offers will undoubtedly be one of the show’s greatest gifts as well. For the first time, Sheridan has taken the audience on a bit of a globetrotting adventure, as Spencer Dutton brings his family’s shadow of violence to the savannahs of Africa. Sheridan traded just a small piece of the mountainous Montana meadows for foreign sun-kissed grasslands. This storyline is quite intriguing – having a Dutton man bring his darkness to the colonial darkness of the continent is an interesting shift, but Spencer’s past is already the best developed this early in the show. Spencer served in WWI, and having survived the atrocities of that brutal war, he now tries to slay his own proverbial demons by hunting literal monsters, as he is a hired hunter, paid to kill man-killing lions and jaguars. Sklenar does extremely well to convey the inescapable gloom within all Duttons, yet the poetic irony that as far as the character may go, he remains an eternal companion to death is one a superbly written thematic device used by Sheridan.

However, not all characters have had a chance to shine just yet, and while curiosity will certainly be piqued, some audience members will have to be patient with other characters it would seem. While Mirren shines, Ford is relegated to an all too-familiar and predictable role in the premiere. Jacob has established himself as Livestock Commissioner, which of course, is a major part of the Dutton legacy, as his descendents would clench that position in their fist for generations to come. But predictably, a Dutton man in a position of power is bound to ruffle a few feathers. Or in the case of 1923 , ruffle some wool.

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A neighboring sheep-herder, Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) voices his displeasure that the shepherds are not treated as equals to the cowmen, and that as Commissioner, Jacob must step in. But, like any red-blooded Dutton, Jacob is focussed on his code, and Creighton broke that code, ravaging the land of a neighboring rancher. 

This is a thread that has been stretched to its absolute limits in the Yellowstone universe. Naturally, the show needs a rivalry. Naturally, it needs an opposing force to try and bring the Duttons down, only to be thwarted by our family of anti-heroes, but the subplot was extremely safe to say the least. The only intrigue sparked by this particular thread is merely to see more of the grizzled icon Ford and Game of Thrones fan-favorite Flynn face off against one another. 

1923 did extremely well with its premiere. The episode introduces a new time, new characters, and sets up some intrigue in those characters that viewers won’t lose interest in just one episode. The hope is that Sheridan continues to journey into the new and exciting valleys of the story that can bring variation and diversity, and justify this new chapter in the Dutton legacy. 

Michael Winn Johnson | @ReelSchool

Teacher and entertainment journalist based out of Toronto. Michael can talk forever about film, television and animation, and how often Toronto sports teams have made him…

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Aminah Nieves, Mo Brings Plenty on Why ‘1923’ Doesn’t Look Away: “We Have to Allow the Audience to Witness”

The actress, who plays Teonna Rainwater on the 'Yellowstone' prequel series, and Brings Plenty, an actor and cultural consultant on the franchise, speak to The Hollywood Reporter about capturing a horrifying history and bringing Native stars to the forefront in the megahit Taylor Sheridan franchise.

By Jackie Strause

Jackie Strause

Managing Editor, East Coast

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[This story contains spoilers to the 1923 season finale, “Nothing Left to Lose.”]

1923 has released its season finale and amid heartbreaking cliffhangers and treacherous uncertainty for many of the ensemble cast, the Yellowstone prequel series also delivered hope.

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When Nieves saw what Sheridan had in store for Teonna, she tells The Hollywood Reporter that she had doubts about the role. When viewers first meet the teenager of Crow descent, she is being physically, emotionally and sexually abused for her refusal to culturally assimilate, shining a bright light on the Indian boarding-school era when Native children were sent to government-funded schools run by the Catholic Church. Teonna murders the nuns who abused her and escapes, heading on foot through the wilderness where she contends with wolves and men sent on horseback to find and return her to the head priest.

“This is my first big role,” she says. “It is a lot to carry, and also I think it’s our duty to carry it. It’s our duty to tell these stories and to share these stories. I wanted to get it right.”

Nieves credits her mother for ultimately pushing her to tackle the role, which carries with it generations of trauma. But the actress says what she conjured up was something different: “It’s ancestors moving constantly one at a time, moving and doing it with me. And they wouldn’t have showed themselves if I didn’t feel grounded.”

Below, in conversation with THR , Nieves and Brings Plenty detail the care that went into bringing Teonna’s story to life, what they think about the promise of Teonna’s final scene (including her romance with the character played by Mo’s nephew, Cole Brings Plenty), what they know about season two, and why they say they have to look to the past in order to preserve their present.

Mo, what is your official title on 1923 ? And can you explain what it involves?

Mo Brings Plenty: I’m the American Indian coordinator consultant [on 1923 and Yellowstone ]. What I do is I make sure that we are accurate with the period and language. I go out and make sure that we have the right fluent language speakers of whatever tribe we’re representing.

Yellowstone viewers know Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Burningham), your character (Rainwater’s right-hand man) and the fictional Broken Rock tribe. Did the 1923 story of Teonna Rainwater stem from Taylor Sheridan wanting to show the origins of the Rainwater family and Broken Rock tribe?

Brings Plenty: You can’t have a backstory of the Dutton families without having it include members from the Broken Rock reservation. So, yes. And, Rainwater is a great character.

Aminah, how familiar were you with Yellowstone when the role of Teonna Rainwater came to you?

Mo, were you involved in Aminah’s casting process? I’m curious about the process of finding Aminah and why was she right for it.

Brings Plenty: Taylor and the rest of the gang, they have great taste and they know what they’re looking for. So, I was not part of the casting process.

At what point did you two connect?

Nieves: We had conversations beforehand. It all happened so fast. I got the call and literally two weeks later, we were on our way to Montana. So I think about a week after I got the call is when I was introduced to Mo and [cultural adviser] Birdie Real Bird.

What were those early conversations like, were they welcoming you into the Yellowstone fold ? And, what questions did you have?

Nieves: It was a mix of both. It was a welcome … almost a welcome home, in a sense. It was a bridging of families and coming back together, and reuniting more than anything else. It was a reunion, for me personally. It felt so nice! And of course, questions were asked. Because for one, this is my first big role, pretty much of anything that anyone has seen me in. So there’s a lot of anxiety around that, and questions. I wanted to get it right. But more than anything else, there was just love and knowing they were there and had my back, and vice versa.

Nieves: My mom. My mom and, really, Spirit. I think after the second time I did the scene [for the audition] where I’m with Sister Mary [played by Jennifer Ehle] and I do, “Know I am the land. Know it is the land that is killing you. I am the land and I am killing you.” I did that scene in Crow on tape, and I think that’s when it all kind of hit me, and that it wasn’t really my decision anymore. Everything was flowing through me at once, and that’s when I knew I had to keep going. Not for me, but for everyone.

What did your mom say that impacted you?

Nieves: She kind of just broke down the first time I recorded that scene with her. She was in tears and said, “You have to do this.” Because I was still so hesitant. I didn’t know if I was mentally in the space to go there. But I was. And I am! She just kept encouraging me, saying, “You have to do this, Aminah. This isn’t just for you, this is for all of us. This is for all Indigenous communities. Do it for me.” I was like [ in an emotional tone ], “Are you kidding, Mom?!”

It’s a story that needs to be told, but that’s a lot to carry. Do you feel pressure?

There have been articles explaining the historical accuracy of the church-run boarding schools like the one Teonna escapes from in 1923 , and an audience who may not all know the history. Can you talk about how familiar you are with a story like Teonna’s and how that helped you tell this story?

Brings Plenty: I’m very familiar with the story. Like Aminah, I had my hesitations because I was revisiting different places and moments in my life, where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reopen those wounds. I remember the rulers. I can tell you what a bar of soap tastes like. I remember getting a haircut in third grade and going through that because that era and that moment didn’t just end when those boarding schools closed. The mentality carried through.

All of this is horrifying, it’s a horrifying story. But if even our own people don’t know the price that has been paid for us to maintain and have our languages and have our traditions, our culture, then we ourselves as American Indian people will not pick that up and walk with that dignity and humility and honor to carry it on and pass it on. Because today, no one is absolutely saying that we can’t be Indian except for ourselves. It’s a choice. And so I want to utilize the positivity of it.

And I look at what we have today. We have allies, we have support. Now the media is opening up to our existence. And now we have to be prepared to be able to share who our ancestors once were — not just then, but who we desire to be again in the whole process. So, I’m just really proud of Aminah and what she’s done because I was a little nervous as well. When I met her, I couldn’t tell [she was nervous]. She was calm and collected. And I was very excited because I’ve seen that inner strength within her, and I just wanted to be a good support and be able to be there in the moments when she had to allow herself to go down into that darkness. I wanted to be a light to remind her, “Hey, you’re doing great. Let’s come back. We’re still here.”

I agree with everything Mo said. But I think it’s also reopening the world to maybe go more in depth in conversations within Indigenous families to talk more about what has happened. Sometimes it can be a little scary to go there and to bring it up. But I’ve heard stories, personally. People reach out to me saying, “This has really helped me and my family talk about it more openly, and talk about it to our children.” And even that is so huge, to be able to read or hear that from someone else. And, it’s accurate.

My father does a really great job at sharing stories; he’s a storyteller, all my life. And not just our stories but all peoples’ stories. So I’ve known this has happened. But I set out to learn even more. Because truly, even when this ended, there was still so much going on. Like, “the Scoop” was happening still [when Indigenous children in Canada were forcibly separated from their families in the 1960s], and we don’t talk about that. So it’s relearning and continuing to share and be open about stories, and to broaden our knowledge.

You recently said your grandfather shared how he related to Teonna. How has 1923 sparked your own family to open up more?

Your scenes are powerful. You talk of the support you had, including from Mo. Did you have an intimacy coordinator to choreograph the violent scenes, and was there space when filming to pause if you needed a break?

Nieves: Yes, we have an intimacy coordinator for more of the tub stuff and [physical violence]. But we have an incredible stunt crew. They go through the action moments with us about 10 to 30 minutes before we go on. Really, the beautiful thing about this show and crew is, if we needed a moment, we could take as long as we needed. I felt so safe with everyone there, with Mo, with Birdie, with Ben [Richardson, director] that I could just go up to them and be like, “Hey, I need five minutes. I just need to catch my breath.” Or, “Hey, I think Leenah and I should have our own space that we could go to between setups.”

Mo, how do you find that line of showing the brutality but not being gratuitous or saying, is this too much violence?

Brings Plenty: You know, I live with the concept — I’m a realist — that if you do not witness something, then it can’t be true. So, we have to allow the audience to witness. The fine line is so fine that, at times, you have to double-check to make sure you’re near it. And do it in a tasteful manner and in a way that’s digestible, even for ourselves. Aminah was such a powerful actress that there were moments I had to walk away from the monitors and regather myself, or allow an emotion to flow. And to do it in private, away from the crew. But Ben, the crew, everyone was so amazing, that it was reassuring that we’re not in this alone. It wasn’t just about our ancestors, even though that was a given. But the people of today were there and supportive; it takes a village to bring to life a great story. I’m just so thankful to have shared that moment with Aminah and everyone.

I try to look at everything in a positive light, because we are still here. Life is still life. And if we have that life, then let’s utilize it as a gift and bring to light everything that we possibly can, because that’s where healing begins. And it was a healing phase for a lot of people. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback and it’s given me the opportunity to say, “Hey, just become what those children were told they can no longer be.”

Nieves: More than anything, it gave everyone a chance to see her as a child. And it gave her a chance for her child self to show. ( Gets emotional. ) That, for me, meant more than anything else. Because you don’t get to see her as a child. She doesn’t get to express being a child. And if she can have that one moment, that’s it. Yes, she’s getting away. But she could be herself for a second. And she could breathe. And she could hug someone who feels familiar. So yeah, let’s see what happens in season two!

And Mo, it’s your nephew, Cole Brings Plenty, who is playing Aminah’s love interest?

Brings Plenty: Yeah. ( Laughs .) We call him my mini-me. It’s my brother’s son, but I look to him as a son, too. And that had nothing to do with him getting the role, that’s all him!

Based on their finale romance and the Rainwater connection, what role do you think these two could have in the bloodline for the characters on Yellowstone ? Could this be Chief Rainwater’s grandmother and grandfather?

Nieves: I’ve got some theories, Mo. You ready for ‘em? My theory isn’t about Teonna. My one theory is about Cole’s character [Pete Plenty Clouds]. I wish, in a perfect world — hear me out, Mo — Cole is your grandfather. But, I have nothing to do with you.

Brings Plenty: ( Laughs .)

Nieves: It’s a loose-ended theory. But in my perfect world … yeah, it’s probably not going to work. ( Laughs .)

Do you two know anything yet about season two , have you had conversations with Taylor Sheridan about where your stories will go?

Nieves: No, and I wish that we did. I’m left in the dust over here. Nothing. Have you, Mo?

Brings Plenty: No. I’m just taking it day by day.

Is there a timeline of when you shoot season two?

Nieves: No. It’s been everywhere. People tell me April, and then I hear August. Then we come to March somehow, and then we go to July.

But, I imagine you are excited there will be a season two. To speculate some more, what do you want to see or explore?

Mo, since you have the experience of doing this on Yellowstone and have tackled many Native storylines on that show, what do you make of some in the community saying that certain customs aren’t for sharing on TV? What makes you want to tell these stories , even if it’s within a show that has white and nonwhite characters?

Brings Plenty: I always go to the concept that years ago, our way of prayer was banned. And so, everything went into secret. I think about the children and the importance of them at least having something that would give them some type of acknowledgment of their bloodlines and of their existence, but also maybe an inspiration to get involved in their cultural identity. And so I’m fond of doing what we have done, because Taylor understands. He fully understands our cultural ways. He’s participated in a lot of our ceremonies, and so he knows there’s a fine line in that we can reveal some things to give a general idea to the audience, but also continue to protect these ways.

I’m sure you’ve seen the reports about Yellowstone and Kevin Costner , and the situation there seems fluid. I’m curious if you have thoughts, or if you and Taylor have had conversations, of other Native stories you want to tell if and when Yellowstone ends, aside from 1923 ?

Brings Plenty: You know, I really haven’t been paying attention, because I’m so involved in so many other things in everyday life that I don’t have time to indulge myself with what’s going on in the media. So I have no answer for that. Honestly, I don’t. Right now, I’m just so focused on the finale of 1923, because it’s been such a great story. Every character in there is so amazing to follow, and just making sure we can maintain the spiritual capture that Aminah and others have brought to the screen. That’s where I’m at with all of it.

I’m also curious to hear your thoughts on the conversation around who can claim Native identity , and if you feel that 1923 has influenced that conversation as it’s been airing.

Brings Plenty: Well, as the show has been airing and when we talk about the continent, there is the Indigenous concept of tribal descendants from any tribe in this continent, whether it’s North America, Central or South America. But when it comes to the boundaries within the United States government, then we identify as American Indian people because we are tribally affiliated and it’s a tribe that’s recognized by the federal government.

If people really want to understand more of it, then look up the treaties. Look up what a tribal enrollment number is. But you have to go to the past to understand the true essence of what the meaning of an enrollment number is. I don’t like to try to pigeonhole everyone. We’re all human beings at the end of the day. Aminah is a great representative of us as the people — not just onscreen but offscreen as well. And I have a great deal of respect for her and people who take the time to represent us; it’s so vital and important.

Interview edited for clarity.

The first season of 1923 is now streaming on Paramount+. Head here to read THR ‘s interviews with Brandon Sklenar and Julia Schlaepfer on the season one finale.

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‘1923 Review’: Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren’s New Show Won’t Be the Next ‘Yellowstone’

The new prequel to “Yellowstone” boasts great performances from Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, but is bogged down by the slow-burn politics of the Taylor Sheridan universe.

Nick Schager

Entertainment Critic

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Paramount+

Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone is rooted in the clash between the old and new worlds, and that conflict also rears its head in 1923 , his second prequel spin-off from his hit TV series. ( 1923 follows last year’s 1883. ) Premiering on Sunday on Paramount+, it’s another capable notch in the writer/director’s belt, albeit one that’s too conservative—narratively speaking—for its own good.

The prime selling point of 1923 is its headliners: Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren , here starring as the larger-than-life parental figures tasked with maintaining their frontier Montana clan’s power, influence, and health.

Ford is Jacob Dutton, the brother of 1883 ’s James Dutton ( Tim McGraw ) and the great-grand uncle of Yellowstone ’s John Dutton III ( Kevin Costner )—or, at least, that seems to be the lineage at play, since Sheridan doesn’t bother explaining the clan’s family tree. Regardless of such ties, however, Jacob is the head of the Yellowstone ranch, having taken it over with wife Cara (Mirren) and, in doing so, become the father figure to his nephews John Dutton Sr. (James Badge Dale), Jack (Darren Mann), and Spencer (Brandon Sklenar).

As embodied by Ford in the premiere (which was all that was provided to press), Jacob is a no-nonsense cowboy who carries himself like a bigwig—hence someone almost immediately yelling at him, “You’re no god, Jacob Dutton!” If he’s not the almighty, he’s definitely a man with clout, and 1923 illustrates that from the start via a brewing regional crisis: a swarm of locusts that have ruined the land, thereby putting everyone’s cattle in danger.

Further complicating this is Banner (Jerome Flynn), whose sheep herds are encroaching on neighboring leases. This leads to a meeting at a council overseen by Jacob during which there’s debate about whether men, or the mountains, own the grass—a dialogue that provides an insightful peek into the sorts of dilemmas faced by ranchers of the era, if hardly qualifies as gripping drama.

“The herd comes first,” says Cara later in 1923 , and though that sentiment pertains to Jacob’s issue with cattle and sheep, Cara states it in the context of a different issue: the impending wedding of Jack and Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph).

Jacob’s plan to save his cows involves moving them to higher ground, meaning that Jack’s nuptials must be postponed. Elizabeth finds this hard to stomach because, as Sheridan’s series explicates, a wedding is the only day in a 1920s woman’s life that’s just for her. Nonetheless, stomach it she must, since lady stuff comes second to manly concerns in this hard, rugged world—a truth, perhaps, but one that’s delivered with a clunkiness that engenders eye rolls.

It wouldn’t be a Sheridan Western without prolonged sequences of silhouetted cowboys riding horseback across the plains at dawn or hooting and hollering while rustling cattle. Unfortunately, director Ben Richardson’s wannabe-iconic images of the Old West are of a largely perfunctory nature, less a byproduct of inspiration than of obligation. Sheridan has, at this point, settled on a sturdy, unadventurous formula, and 1923 dutifully sticks to it. If you’ve seen one of his gruff, imposing patriarchs struggling to maintain control of his fiefdom and manage his kids’ problems, you’ve seen them all.

There are additional narrative threads in Sheridan’s latest, the first of which concerns Spencer, who’s not in Montana but, rather, in the wilds of Africa. There, along with two local comrades, he successfully stands his ground before a rampaging lion, killing the beast with a perfect shot. As flashbacks elucidate, Spencer is a hunky haunted veteran of World War I, and as in that battle, he doesn’t retreat from danger. He’s right at home in this far-away land because, as he tells a wealthy woman whom he’s hired to protect (along with her caravan) from a murderous leopard, he hails from a Montana that’s just “the mountain version of this place.” Think a broodier PTSD-afflicted Clint Eastwood, minus the charismatic steeliness.

1923 ’s maiden installment spends additional time detailing the horrific abuse suffered by defiant Native American girl Teonna (Aminah Nieves) at the hands of a tyrannical nun (Jennifer Ehle) at a religious school run by an even more violent headmaster (Sebastian Roché), who’s another uncompromising man in a show full of them (“I have compassion, but no mercy”). This storyline intriguingly expands the series’ scope, and unseen—but destined to also factor into this mix—are Jack’s mother Emma (Marley Shelton) and influential and ruthless businessman Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton).

They and others, such as Brian Geraghty’s Zane, will no doubt grapple with various romantic, financial and life-and-death predicaments throughout the course of this first season, even if they’re initially little more than minor variations on hackneyed types.

While Ford is asked to simply be dour, severe, and noble, Mirren serves as the tough, wounded heart of 1923 . Affecting an Irish brogue that calls as much attention to her acting as to her character’s origins, the Oscar winner seems more than a bit out of place in this environment, no matter how expertly she tosses hay into the horse pen or how mournfully she expresses her longing (in writing) for Spencer to return home.

A mysterious introductory passage depicts Cara hunting down a wounded gunman in the woods and, after a race between the two to reload their weapons, killing him in cold blood, at which point she screams to the heavens in anguish—a sign that she’s as formidable as her husband. For now, though, Mirren feels like the odd woman out.

There’s no predicting precisely where 1923 is headed during this initial eight-episode season, but on the basis of its opener, it’s likely not straying far from the path, earnestly espousing down-home values and the supremacy of the rural to the urban. In the most overt articulation of the material’s ethos, Cara informs despondent Elizabeth that she’ll have to accept that every aspect of her life comes second to cattle (and men), but that in return—as a frontier woman—“you will be free in a way that most people can barely conceive.” If only 1923 itself were freer of Sheridan’s trademark clichés.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, yellowstone prequel 1923 gets off to a slow trot.

It’s astonishing to see the grip Taylor Sheridan has on a specific subset of the American public, and I can’t say I blame them. His hit series, “Yellowstone,” is the backbone of Paramount’s TV network, rivaled only by the ever-expanding galaxy of “ Star Trek ” spinoffs that come out every other month. But where “Trek” appeals to nerds, “Yellowstone”’s revisionist Western trappings (mixed with old-school movie stars and prestige sheen) are catnip for Midwestern dads who want something that feels like what they grew up watching, but More Sophisticated. It’s a formula that works, which means more spinoffs charting the serpentine trail the Dutton family has blazed across the American West. 

Like the franchise’s previous prequel, the excellent “1883,” “1923” looks to fill in another chapter in the clan’s fragile attempts to build a new American empire in the hills of Montana and does so with some of the biggest stars the series has attracted yet. Here, the baton has been passed to Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren , two of the most venerated actors of their generation; it’s bizarre to see them here, in a spinoff of a spinoff of a streaming series. But they sink their teeth into the material they’re given, even if the little we’re given of them thus far offers scant indicators for how the rest of the show will fare.

Though its title scheme befits “1883,” “1923” is much more “Yellowstone” in tenor; where the former followed James Dutton ( Tim McGraw ) and his family on their way to what would become the Dutton ranch, “1923” sees it fully settled and thriving, with James’ brother Jacob (Ford) now in charge, with his wife Cara (Mirren) keeping everything running smoothly. 

But where Duttons make camp, violence and trouble always follow them: the land is beset by drought and locusts, and the cowboys and sheepherders that occupy the region are at each other’s throats for what few resources are left. In the show’s opening moments, we’re treated to Mirren chasing down an unnamed intruder with a double-barrel shotgun, unloading on him, and screaming into the air. “Violence has always haunted this family,” “1883” character Elsa (Isabel May) coos in voiceover; whether human or animal, we get plenty of that before the first episode is through. 

Over the premiere, we see how far that violence follows the Duttons, even halfway across the world. Sure, we spend the bulk of our time with Jacob and Cara, though hardly enough to let Ford do more than his signature late-life growling. (He cuts an imposing, iconic figure in Westerns, to be sure, but his stoic nature here hews close to stiffness.) Mirren’s far more dynamic, trading barbs with Jacob and offering sage advice for her grand-nephew’s fiancée (Michelle Randolph), forced to learn the secondary place women have in the lives of ranchers. “You have to want more than the boy,” she intones with an Irish lilt. “You have to want the life, too.”

But the premiere also throws us into two other major storylines, one of which is far more interesting than the other. In Africa, James’ younger son Spencer ( Brandon Sklenar ) hops around the continent, building a reputation as a big cat hunter; he occasionally thinks back to his time in the Great War and how it hollowed him out. He’s chasing a part of himself he lost and hopes to find it in the jungle, Hemingway-style. So far, it doesn’t impress, especially given the dodgy CG effects we see of the lions and leopards he hunts. 

The other plot thread offers more potential, following an Indigenous woman (Aminah Nieves) straining against the confines of the government-run religious school she’s forced to attend. She bristles against assimilation, enduring varying levels of torment from her sadistic teacher ( Jennifer Ehle ) and Father Renaud ( Sebastian Roché ), who wields his own kind of violent power against both women. All three performers are phenomenal, and these scenes are shot with an irresistibly potent tension. It just feels like it should be its own show.

And that’s the rub with evaluating “1923” by its pilot alone; so much real estate is spent setting up characters and juggling three seemingly distinct storylines that we don’t get a chance to know anyone or anything very well by the end. But there’s potential galore to be found in its place-setting, especially if you come to the series fully armed with a working knowledge of the Dutton family tree. 

Sheridan’s script continues his flair for blending the majesty of the American (or, here, occasionally Africa) wilderness with the horrific possibilities that await those who occupy it. Mirren tells her new young charge that, despite the loneliness of ranch life, she will “be free in ways most people are not.” What Sheridan, and the whole “Yellowstone” experiment, proposes is that this freedom comes at a violent cost. We’ll just have to see who’s left standing by the time the gunsmoke clears.

The first episode was screened for review. "1923" premieres on December 18th on Paramount+. 

Clint Worthington

Clint Worthington is a Chicago-based film/TV critic and podcaster. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of  The Spool , as well as a Senior Staff Writer for  Consequence . He is also a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and Critics Choice Association. You can also find his byline at RogerEbert.com, Vulture, The Companion, FOX Digital, and elsewhere. 

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• Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton; Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton; Brandon Sklenar as Spencer Dutton; Darren Mann as Jack Dutton; Michelle Randolph as Elizabeth Strafford; James Badge Dale as John Dutton Sr.; Marley Shelton as Emma Dutton; Brian Geraghty as Zane Davis; Aminah Nieves as Teonna; Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra; Jerome Flynn as Banner Creighton; Caleb Martin as Dennis; Brian Brown as Jasper; Sebastian Roché as Father Renaud; Kerry O’Malley as Sister Alice; Brian Konowal as Clyde; Leenah Robinson as Baapuxti; Jane Carlson as Lady Arthur, Countess of Sussex

TV Series Review

The Great Depression began in 1929. Unfortunately, no one told Montana to wait: The state’s gotten a head start.

In fact, the state’s been in the grips of depression ever since World War I wrapped up. While the rest of the country enjoys the “Roaring Twenties,” the ranchers in Montana are struggling to survive. Drought and locust infestations have caused the little remaining grass to be dried up and eaten, leaving little left for the thousands of grazing animals still needing food. Disease plagues the cattle who do find their cud. And even if that weren’t the case, the demand for agricultural products has fallen, meaning there’s less money in ranching anyway.

It’s left a lot of ranchers in a desperate situation, including Jacob Dutton, the surviving brother of 1883 ’s James Dutton and current owner of Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. He’s the state’s livestock commissioner, and his decisions during these trying times aren’t leaving everyone happy ranchers—particularly, Banner Creighton and his fellow shepherds, who feel that their sheep are being overshadowed in favor of cattlemen. If their sheep don’t get the grass they need, they’ll certainly die.

But the Creightons aren’t the only threats. Plenty of other players think that the decade is the perfect time to pounce on all the Duttons hold dear.

It’s enough to set the stage for a range war.

Where the Deer and the Antelope Fight to the Death

Paramount+’s 1923 is the sequel to 1883 , both of which stand as prequels to Yellowstone . And two things remain constant throughout. First, the Dutton family owns its Montana ranch. And second, they’ll fight to the death for it.

For fans of the franchise, 1923 will be a welcome addition to their viewing repertoire—one that’ll give additional insight into the callous family business. The inclusion of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren will certainly draw the attention of others, too.

But if its first episode (and its older counterparts) are any indication, we can also expect more or less the same that we’ve seen before: violence, nudity and foul language.

But you’ve heard it all in our previous reviews. We expect the content issues won’t change until the cows come home.

Episode Reviews

Dec. 18, 2022 – s1, ep1: “1923”.

Tensions rise between ranchers as they try to find enough grass for their livestock in drought-plagued and locust-infested Montana. Spencer Dutton hunts dangerous animals in Africa.

A woman references a “wh-re house.” Girls at a Catholic boarding school for Native Americans bathe, and we briefly see part of a girl’s rear. Jacob and his wife make crude talk about sex. Jacob’s grandnephew Jack kisses his fiancé, Elizabeth, prompting Elizabeth’s father to be upset that the two are kissing before they’re married. Jacob responds that “in my experience, Bob, when the first baby comes, you don’t want to be too picky with your math and a calendar.” Spencer urinates on the side of a tent (and we see the stream), and a woman urinates in the wilderness (and nothing is shown).

A man is shot twice and killed. Before he is shot the second time, he begs the woman not to kill him, saying she’ll go to hell if she does. Soldiers are shot and killed on a World War I battlefield. In the battle, someone is stuck with a bayonet, and another person has their head bashed in with a helmet. A person is attacked and killed by a leopard, and we see the resulting blood on her neck. A fistfight breaks out in a town hall.

Spencer shoots and kills a lion and a leopard. The corpses of a dozen cattle are seen decaying and covered in fleas.

In the Catholic boarding school, a nun repeatedly smacks Native American Teonna’s knuckles with a ruler until they are raw. This prompts Teonna to punch the nun many times in the face. The two of them arrive at Father Renaud’s office, where he whips the nun’s knuckles and Teonna’s rear as punishment, saying that though he has compassion, he has no mercy. Father Renaud forces the nun to recite 1 Corinthians 13:1 while he beats her. We later see the bloody scars on Teonna’s upper thighs. A man tells Jacob that “God owns the grass, and you’re no god.” Jack exclaims that “God ain’t made” a horse that can knock Jack off its back.

Women advocate for prohibition. “Don’t drink that devil’s drink,” one yells. A woman drinks alcohol. A man smokes a cigar.

The f-word is used three times. “H—,” “b–ch” and “b–tard” are also used a number of times. God’s name is abused four times, including once in the form of “g-dd–n.” Jesus’ name is abused once. Furthermore, the slurs “m-ck,” “paddy” and “jock” are thrown around at Irish or Scottish men, respectively. “Wh-re” is used once.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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The 10 Best Movies of 1927, Ranked

You shouldn't keep quiet about these (mostly) silent classics.

As demonstrated in movies like 2022's Babylon and the 1952 classic musical Singin' in the Rain , the film industry's transition from silent movies to the so-called talkies was a dramatic one. 1927 was a key year for this transition, as though the majority of releases during said year were silent films, this was when sound started to get incorporated a little more for certain titles, and such a development changed cinema forever.

1927 was not the last year when great silent movies were released, as there were more that came out in the final two years of the 1920s, and certain filmmakers like Charlie Chaplin even made (mostly) silent movies into the 1930s . Yet it was a transitional year when silent movies were arguably at their peak, and, for better or worse, began to wane in popularity in the years that followed. As such, the most remarkable movies of 1927 are largely dialogue-free, and among the all-time best silent films , all ranked below from good to greatest.

10 'The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog'

Directed by alfred hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock was a legendary and prolific filmmaker best known for the American films he made beginning in the early 1940s, but his earliest works were made in the U.K. Given he began directing in the 1920s, he's also a filmmaker who - perhaps surprisingly to some - made a handful of silent films, with 1927's The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog being the most well-known of these.

There's even an argument to be made that this mystery-heavy and atmospheric thriller was the first "great" Hitchcock movie , though it doesn't quite have the same impact as his later classics. Nevertheless, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is a compelling watch about a serial killer terrorizing London, and the way a young and mysterious man becomes a key suspect in this series of crimes. It's slow at times, but ultimately striking in its presentation, which works to keep the viewer engaged throughout.

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9 'The Jazz Singer'

Directed by alan crosland.

The Jazz Singer is one of those old, revered, yet controversial movies . Its legacy isn't quite as complicated as other troubling "landmark" films like The Birth of a Nation or Gone with the Wind , but it does have some content surrounding race that makes it harder to watch nowadays. It's also contested whether it should have the reputation for being the "very first sound movie," as much of it still plays out like a silent film and other movies released before it had experimented with sound .

Yet it does contain some musical numbers with sound synchronized to the visuals, and some limited dialogue here and there, including the immortal line that's likely helped give The Jazz Singer the reputation it has: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!" It's too perfect a line to allegedly herald in the dawn of the talkies to ignore, and though The Jazz Singer has some uncomfortable scenes and can be a little dull by modern standards, it's still, at the very least, an important part of cinema history.

The Jazz Singer

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8 'The Kid Brother'

Directed by ted wilde.

Harold Lloyd was a renowned actor and stuntman perhaps best known for the surprisingly thrilling 1923 comedy Safety Last! , which features his most noteworthy set piece: the climbing of a clock tower. Yet he had a series of films from the 1920s that remain worth checking out for fans of silent cinema, including The Kid Brother , which is a fairly enjoyable blend of comedy, romance, family drama, and a little action/adventure for good measure.

In The Kid Brother , Harold Lloyd plays a character called - appropriately enough - Harold, and he's the youngest son in a family where his older brothers are considerably stronger and more successful than him. The movie follows him as he tries to prove himself within his family while also trying to woo a young woman he's fallen in love with. It's all pretty simple stuff, but it's a breezy watch and a successful blend of genres, proving to be another winner within Lloyd's body of work.

7 'Berlin: Symphony of a Great City'

Directed by walter ruttmann.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City is sort of a documentary, and a very artistic and impressionistic one that's certainly differentiated from more modern approaches to the genre. It's most comparable to the more well-known 1929 documentary Man with a Movie Camera , which was about capturing life in the Soviet Union during the late 1920s in a visually dazzling and creative manner. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City does something similar, but for Berlin (obviously).

It's a movie that captures a day in the life, not for one person or even a group of people, but for the city as a whole, making Berlin the main character, effectively. While it doesn't quite have the same spectacular visuals and editing style as Man with a Movie Camera , it did come first and is still assembled quite ingeniously. Being a movie that's almost 100 years old, it's worth watching just to see how different life was back then, making Berlin: Symphony of a Great City an important historical document .

6 'Underworld'

Directed by josef von sternberg.

A film that shows audiences have been enjoying compelling crime movies for decades now, Underworld is one of many noteworthy titles within Josef von Sternberg's body of work. He succeeded both during the silent era and after the advent of the talkies, with Underworld falling into the former category. It's a movie about the troubled bond between a notorious gangster and his lawyer , with further complications ensuing after the gangster falls in love with the lawyer's girlfriend.

It's a drama, a crime film, and a romance movie fueled by a love triangle-related conflict at its center, and largely succeeds as an entertaining and well-constructed melodrama. Underworld was nominated for inclusion in the AFI's 10 Best Gangster Movies of All Time list, and is one of the best crime films of the 1920s (though it certainly shouldn't be mixed up with the action/horror-themed Underworld film series, which is an entirely different cinematic beast altogether).

5 'The Unknown'

Directed by tod browning.

Tod Browning's most well-known fusion of horror and drama came with the infamous (and impressive for its time) 1932 film Freaks , though 1927's The Unknown is arguably even stronger. The plot of The Unknown follows a crafty and dangerous criminal who's on the run from the law, and decides to hide from his pursuers by indoctrinating himself into a group of circus performers.

While the plot of going into hiding within an unexpected group was played for comedy in 1959's hilarious Some Like It Hot , in The Unknown , it's played for drama and horror, especially once the criminal becomes infatuated with the ringmaster's daughter. It's an unnerving movie that's still likely to have an impact on those who watch it all these decades after release, something which ultimately shows it's a remarkably effective piece of horror.

4 'Wings'

Directed by william a. wellman.

The first Oscars ceremony was held in 1929, and it was one where movies released in both 1927 and 1928 (at least the early months of the latter) were honored. It was an unusual ceremony, somewhat different from what the awards show later became, most notably because it effectively gave out two Best Picture awards . The award for "Outstanding Picture" went to Wings , while the soon-to-be-retired award of "Unique and Artistic Picture" went to Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans .

The latter might be better regarded today (so more on it in a bit), though the former winning Outstanding Picture makes it the closest to official first Best Picture winner. Thankfully, Wings still feels like a worthy winner, because it's a solidly made romance/drama film that's bolstered by some amazing scenes of aerial combat, thanks to the film revolving around fighter pilots and being set during World War I. The action holds up remarkably well, while the simple story still largely works , making Wings a very entertaining silent classic.

3 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans'

Directed by f. w. murnau.

As mentioned before, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans received a Best Picture trophy of sorts during the first Academy Awards ceremony and, like Wings , this 1927 film is a classic drama that still holds up extremely well. Appreciation for this movie, which centers on the tumultuous relationship between a farmer and his wife, has grown as the decades have gone on, to the point where Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is often held up as one of the very best movies of its decade .

It's an emotional love story featuring the drastic ups and downs experienced by two people who have an intense bond, and it's the universality of its core story/themes that helps Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans endure . It's one of the best silent movies to watch for people who are interested in the era yet haven't explored it yet, with its striking visuals and simple story making it an absolute classic of the 1920s.

2 'Napoleon'

Directed by abel gance.

Epic movies don't get much more epic than 1927's Napoleon , which runs for about five and a half hours while telling the story of Napoleon Bonaparte's early years. It's a great early biopic , but not a complete one, given filmmaker Abel Gance originally envisioned it as one of several movies that would form a series to tell Napoleon's entire life story.

While it's unfortunate these ambitious plans were never realized, this film is still one of the very best ever made about Napoleon . It has some truly ambitious sequences and visual flair for its time, with a sense of scale and technical proficiency that's still able to dazzle viewers close to a century on from its release. Napoleon is certainly a long film that may require a great deal of commitment to watch, but those willing to engage with it will be rewarded immensely, especially with the film's groundbreaking use of ultra-widescreen in the climax .

1 'Metropolis'

Directed by fritz lang.

Given Metropolis is one of the all-time greatest science fiction movies , it feels fitting to award it the title of 1927's best film. It's one of numerous masterpieces directed by the legendary Fritz Lang - arguably even his very best. It tells a timeless story about class division in a futuristic city, and what happens when the working-class population rebels against the upper class, deciding enough is enough and that the exploitation needs to end.

For the working class, the city's a dystopian one, while for the wealthy, it's a utopia. The thematic weight of this story still holds relevance to this day, yet beyond what the film has to say about humanity and society, Metropolis also works as a spectacular epic and an overall very entertaining watch. It's easy to admire the film's groundbreaking special effects and overall sense of scale , and its influence on the sci-fi genre as a whole can't be overstated.

NEXT: The Greatest Movies of 1942, Ranked

‘The Damned' Review: An Immersive Civil War Drama That Whisks Us Into America's Troubled Past

Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini's artfully crafted movies, which include such works as Stop the Pounding Heart , The Other Side and What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? , have always sat in a murky gray zone separating fiction from documentary.

Nonprofessional actors play themselves, or versions of themselves, in narratives that seem to have been crafted out of their own lives. And while the locations are always real places, with an emphasis on swaths of the American South - as his name suggests, Minervini is Italian, but he's lived in the U.S. since 2000 - the director transforms them into sublime backdrops for his gritty tales of poverty and abandon.

His latest film, The Damned , is not technically a documentary: It's set in 1862 at the height of the Civil War and follows a pack of Union soldiers treacherously exploring unmapped territories in the West. And yet, if it were possible to send a camera crew back into the past to capture such an event, the result would be something close to what Minervini delivers in this quietly intoxicating and existentially real war movie.

"Real" in the sense that there's not much action except for one long and deadly battle sequence, while the rest of the film mostly entails soldiers sitting around and killing time, which is what often happens in war. And real in that the cast consists of average men who look the part, especially dressed in those dark blue Union uniforms, but talk more or less like men talk today. So again, we're floating somewhere between reality and fiction, as if The Damned were a time capsule of the past that's been washed in the light of the present.

That light is certainly alluring, with cinematographer Carlos Alfonso Corral (who also composed the music) filming the troops in exquisite shallow-focus compositions where the breathtaking Montana backdrops are slightly blurred. The aesthetic brings to mind Terence Malick's The New World and Alejandro Iñarritu's The Revenant - both were shot by the great DP Emmanuel Lubezki - which combined historical realism with an enhanced naturalistic style, finding untold beauty in America's troubled and violent past.

In some ways, The Damned plays like a low-key, laconic version of those films, where weary men converse with one another about God, or more mundane things, as they wait for death to creep up out of nowhere and take them away. This happens about a half hour into the action, when the soldiers suddenly get ambushed in their encampment, resulting in a lengthy and mesmerizing rifle battle set during twilight. It may be one of the prettiest battle sequences in recent memory.

Who, exactly, is attacking the Union Army is never made clear, and Minervini seems less concerned with historical details than with capturing a certain state of loss and confusion among the troops. "We're killing other people, other Americans," one trooper complains to the others, reminding us - in the same vein as Alex Garland's Civil War , though much less bluntly - that we're currently living in a divided country.

Although there are no main characters for most of the story, the film eventually focuses on four soldiers who split off from the rest of the squad to scout a route through the mountains. Instead of perishing together in one final battle, they gradually drift away into the fog of a war they never manage to fully grasp, hoping that they're doing more good than evil, and that the Lord will deign to save them.

But as the title states, these soldiers may be damned from the get-go. When we cut back to the original camp at some point, there are only dead bodies left on the ground, in images reminiscent of Matthew Brady's stunning photographs of Civil War battlefields. Minervini leaves us feeling that, although the Union did of course win the war, their victory would lead America back to where it is now, on the brink of another major schism. As Faulkner famously wrote: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."  

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