OK, so I went to see the new Kevin Costner movie, “Horizon.” I’ve enjoyed most of his films and am a huge fan of “Yellowstone,” so I went in with the expectation that I was going to love the movie. But boy, oh boy, I spent the majority of the movie confused as all get out and not enjoying it. (Though the cinematography was amazing!) 

The problem was the movie took us through four separate storylines with zero explanations. And, I must add, almost none of the characters even had a name. We start out with a random woman shooting some guy in a cabin. We don’t know why. Then as she’s leaving, she has a baby with her. Is it hers? Was it with her when she got there? No idea. Later in the movie, we see her in a town with a toddler, living with a no-named man. (Is he her husband? No idea.), and a prostitute (yup, every Western has to have one) named Marigold, or Mary for short. 

Then there are some brothers, the Sykes, in some snowy village. They are the Western version of a mafia family who are given orders by some elderly woman who looks severely constipated and like she never once smiled in her entire life, and tells these wolfskin-clad brothers to go retrieve the toddler. The brothers eventually meet up with the woman who had the baby and shoot the random guy and the unnamed guy she’s living with, sans toddler, and for an unknown reason, the younger brother beats the unnamed husband/boyfriend guy to death. Then, the older brother is left alone with the unnamed lady, and we never get back to that. No idea what happened. We assume something nefarious, but we don’t see her again.

Kevin Costner comes into this scenario (halfway through the move, by the way). He does have a name (Hayes). He runs off with the prostitute Mary and the toddler, whose name, I think, is Sam. They seem to form a relationship but wait, we have no idea how much time passes, and the next thing you see is that Mary is having “relations” with some unnamed guy who treats her really badly. But the next thing you know, she’s leaving the toddler with Chinese immigrants and taking off with the nasty man. And we have no idea where Kevin Costner goes. 

Then we have two factions of Apache Indigenous peoples, the peace-loving group and the let’s-kill-every-white-person-we-see group. 

Another storyline is we have the original settlers of the heavily marked non-existent town Horizon who get slaughtered by the “let’s-kill-every-white person” Apache group. We do get the names of a mother and daughter survivor duo who head to a military settlement. A love story grows between the now-widowed mom and a captain, so we assume a lot of time goes by. But, hey, I am only guessing. 

Oh, there is another storyline in which we have a wagon train led by actor Luke Wilson. He does not have a name. Where did all these wagons come from, and where are they going? I have no idea.

OK, there is a lot more, but my head is already exploding! At the end of this painfully long movie (and to answer your question, I stayed, hoping I would get some answers, which NEVER came), a 10-minute montage is shown. I believe this is a preview of part two. I have no idea. I do know that there is no way in H-E-double hockey sticks I am going to see part two! 

Now, what in the world has this got to do with long-term care and not just letting me rant about my poor movie choice? Because it’s exactly like what I have seen throughout my entire career randomly auditing nursing progress notes. I am left confused and unsure as to what happened, what the timeline is, where we are, and how this person got to the hospital (like did a hospital fairy come and pluck them up?). 

I mean, what happened? Did Kevin Costner write your notes for you? 

I guess what I am saying is, when you document, write it like a solid script, with a beginning, a middle and an end. What happened, what did you do about it, and what were the results? 

Don’t leave me hanging, wondering where Kevin Costner is. OK?

Just keeping it Real,

Nurse Jackie

The Real Nurse Jackie is written by Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC, Senior Director of Clinical Innovation and Education for Mission Health Communities, LLC, and an APEX Award of Excellence winner for Blog Writing. Vance is a real-life long-term care nurse. A nationally respected nurse educator and past national LTC Nurse Administrator of the Year, a 2024 McKnight’s VIP Woman of Distinction award winner, and an accomplished stand-up comedienne. The opinions supplied here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of her employer or her professional affiliates.

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