Two Underrated Kevin Costner Titles On Netflix Every Fan Needs To See
If you’re a Kevin Costner fan, Netflix has added some solid entertainment for you to check out this week. Costner has been in plenty of classics over the years, but he also has some more underrated projects under his belt. Two of these are the 2019 film The Highwaymen and the History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, which are both streaming on Netflix right now.
Whether you’re more in the mood for a film or a TV series you can binge over a weekend, both of these Kevin Costner projects are well worth checking out. The Highwaymen is a Netflix film about two former Texas Rangers who work together to apprehend the notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde back in the 1930s. Meanwhile, Hatfields & McCoys is a scripted dramatization of the infamous feud between the two Appalachian families.
Kevin Costner’s The Highwaymen and Hatfields & McCoys are both streaming on Netflix.
Interestingly, The Highwaymen was a project that had been in development hell since 2005 and originally had Paul Newman and Robert Redford in mind for the lead roles. Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson would eventually get cast in the film when Netflix picked up the rights, and the results are solid. While the Newman and Redford version would have been undoubtedly amazing, Costner and Harrelson have an easy chemistry that makes the film enjoyable.
Along with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, The Highwaymen stars Kathy Bates, John Carroll Lynch, Kim Dickens, Thomas Mann, and William Sadler. The Netflix film is directed by John Lee Hancock with a script by John Fusco. The film got mixed reviews overall, but it tells an interesting based-on-true-events tale, and you can’t really go wrong with Costner and Harrelson.
However, if that film doesn’t sound like your thing, the entirety of Kevin Costner’s Hatfield & McCoys miniseries is also on Netflix and might be more what you’re looking for. This one is also based on true history as it depicts the feuding families, with Costner and Bill Paxton as the respective patriarchs of each family. Along with Costner and Paxton, the series starred Tom Berenger, Mare Winningham, Jena Malone, Boyd Holbrook, and Powers Boothe.
Hatfields & McCoys was the first scripted miniseries on History and earned Kevin Costner a Primetime Emmy.
Interestingly, Hatfields & McCoys was the first scripted miniseries to air on History Channel, and it ended up being quite the hit, no doubt in part thanks to its star-studded cast that included Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton. Part One of the three-part series brought in the largest-ever ratings for a History Channel program, and it ended up being one of the biggest in cable TV history. 13.9 million viewers tuned into the first of three parts, which also nabbed it the record for the most-watched single broadcast on ad-supported cable ever, excluding sports.
Hatfield & McCoys earned 16 Primetime Emmy nominations, and Kevin Costner took one home for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. Tom Berenger also earned one for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. If you missed this one when it came out, it’s definitely worth watching on Netflix now that it’s available.
Kevin Costner And Television Westerns Go Hand-in-Hand
Hatfield & McCoys was the first time that Kevin Costner led a TV series, as he has preferred to stick to movies for almost the entirety of his career. It just goes to show that Costner and TV shows are a good mix, because the next time he decided to lead a TV show, it would also become immensely popular. That TV show is the massive Taylor Sheridan-created hit Yellowstone, which already has multiple spin-offs of its own.
It’s a good thing that the Yellowstone universe has grown beyond Kevin Costner’s character since he will no longer be leading the flagship series. The show will end its fifth season with Season Five Part Two later this year, and it will be the last we see of Costner before he finishes his grand multi-film epic Horizon, which he produces, directs, writes, and stars in. Fortunately, Yellowstone fans have the other spin-offs from the franchise to enjoy, and hopefully, Costner’s new project will be worth the wait and the sacrifice of the flagship series.
While we wait for Kevin Costner to return to Yellowstone one last time, you can check out The Highwaymen on Netflix. Or you can check out Hatfield & McCoys if you want something a little more like Yellowstone. Either way, they’re both worth a watch.
