In '1923', Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren Outshine Their Grand Setting
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By now, Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan clearly knows what his audience wants. Case in point: the opening scene of 1923, which shows Helen Mirren blasting a man with her shotgun. It’s a shocking first image for the latest entry in the grand Yellowstone canon. In 1923, which premiered on Paramount+ this Sunday night, get used to seeing actors in (or approaching) their 80s act like the most badass cowboys you’ve ever seen.
In 1923's first episode alone, Harrison Ford—who, yes, has also been Duttonified—holds up his pistol in a pose reminiscent of a little character named Han Solo. Pressing the six-piece shooter against a sheep herder's neck, he threatens him, asking where and when his livestock are allowed to graze in town. Like Kevin Costner’s John Dutton, Ford’s Jacob Dutton is as aggressively stubborn as he is selfish—proving that being a Dutton is fully transmutable no matter what year is in the title. You might as well have just put Costner in a time machine and sent him back a couple decades. And yet, if being Costner’s ancestor is all the role requires, then Ford seems like a perfect fit. As Ford told The New York Times earlier this month, “I don’t want to reinvent myself. I just want to work.”
If you’re not familiar with the larger Yellowstone extended universe, you may find yourself deep in Dutton family tree Wiki pages. (Get ready for House of the Dragon flashbacks.) 1923 is not only a Yellowstone prequel, but it’s a sequel to the previous spinoff, 1883. Does this matter? Not entirely! 1923 could simply be viewed as a period piece about the Montana cattle industry, but the similarities to Yellowstone are still striking. It can’t be a coincidence that both families are in the process of leaving their ranch to herd and brand cattle, while facing the financial restraints such an endeavor puts on the family business. In the 1920s, it was the Great Depression. And the Great Recession from the late aughts put us where we are now. Really, though, 1923’s first episode feels like Yellowstone without the stock market. Wondering what Paradise Valley looked like in cattle ranching’s heyday? Or just what it is that John Dutton tries so hard to preserve in Yellowstone? Well, that’s what 1923 hopes to show viewers—if disease and murder doesn’t get our central family first.
Aside from Ford and Mirren's heavyweight performances, 1923’s debut episode is all over the place. For a Yellowstone diehard, it may be easier to pick up—but otherwise the series offers a bunch of disjointed stories that will eventually coalesce in the future. You just may not know exactly what you’re looking at until we get there. Outside of the various Duttons spread out across Paradise Valley—in addition to Spencer Dutton, who is a troubled WWI vet out in Africa—there’s also a boarding school for Native American girls where a young Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) is forced into assimilation. The one common thread so far? Senseless violence. The family we follow may be corrupt, sure, but they’re seemingly good-intentioned. The Duttons love their children, care for the cowboys who work on their ranch, fight to protect nature from evil businessmen, and are (generally) non-discriminatory when it comes to race and gender. For all the talk of preserving Montana values, however, there’s a lot of murder and deep resentment—early on, a priest, a nun, and a young Native American woman all beat each other until they're scarred and bloody.
If there’s anything worth preserving in this Montana ranch, it’s what Paradise Valley is supposed to represent—hardly ever what humanity has made it become. If 1883 was the prequel that showed how humans mistreated each other at the expense of nature’s beauty, 1923 will most likely depict how the Duttons became killers in order to protect their piece of paradise. If there’s any throughline in this crazy town, it’s what Elsa Dutton says via voiceover at the very beginning of the episode: “Violence has always haunted this family… and it followed us here.” Spencer Dutton hunts dangerous game in Africa, Teonna Rainwater beats on the righteous whites who deny the Native population their culture, and Helen Mirren unloads shotgun rounds into some poor dude.
It isn’t all murder, though. I can certainly appreciate the natural chemistry of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren snuggling up in bed at night—even if it conflicts with my desire to watch the Dame mow down more guys, like 1923 is a video game. But if there’s anything I know after watching nearly five seasons of Yellowstone and its other prequel series, it’s that we can have it both ways.
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