Dances with Wolves (1990)

'Dances with Wolves' is a good example of how far a simple story can go. This slow-burning, low-key Western is a heartwarming tale of friendship and loyalty. It's a film with a purpose and a big heart. The focus on plot and character development is always refreshing to see and the stunning scenery and cinematography make it a pleasure to watch.While the film has a lot going for it, there are a few noticeable weak spots. I can't help but feel Kevin Costner is more comfortable behind the camera directing than on screen. While his performance in this film is okay, a better actor would have done Dunbar's character more justice. There's also the excessive running time, which is felt at times due to the slow nature of the film. That said, these are only minor points in what is a special and memorable film.

What in the world is with this 250 IMDb list ? I cannot believe DWW is excluded !The greatest western movie ever done, one of the most well directed movies ever made, a state of the art cinematography, a brilliant color and stunning decor, by far and it's not even close. This movie, believe it or not, was produced with only a $20MM budget- Costner had to guarantee his own house! Do you know how much John Carter cost ? Look it up.Dances with Wolves, is the material proof, that low budget movies are sometimes the best ever made. The story could not be more moving. Is does not encourage apologia of patriotism, courage, lakota natives or the United States. It's an elaborated think piece of an adventure through the struggles of segregation, the civil war, the conquest over the frontier, the last remaining tribes and the expansion of the northern federation, peace, friendship and nature. All characters play their role perfectly - there's not a single miscast. Costner incredibly displays as a rookie an epic voyage in the mid-west to find himself befriending a native-American tribe and their civilisation. The insight, the language, the manners and the buffalo hunt, are extremely rich and plastically breathtaking. The score is brilliant. Might be one of the best scores ever written. All along, the score simply corresponds perfectly with every scene that requires a matching music. You cannot deny that, whether you think there's not enough this or that, that Costner has delivered a colossal effort to offer us a movie that will go down as one of the greatest film pieces in cinema history. Never once do you get bored, look at the time, in fact, you wish this movie never ends, and when it does, you are not disappointed by the ending. The CGI are spectacular - you really believe that the buffalo hunt is real. I urge everyone to check the making of this movie. DWW follows the great traditions of westerns, simultaneously renovating the genre.

Kevin Costner's "Dances With Wolves" involves a union soldier named John Dunbar (Costner), his leg wounded and ravaged, consciously chooses to die on the confederate line than suffer amputation. He purposely rides his horse along the enemies sideline trying to get shot. He survives and is awarded for his act of "bravery." With his leg fully healed, he relocates to a western fort in total solitude. Other soldiers unaware of his exact posting, he is left to fend for himself. As Dunbar rebuilds his new fort, he encounters nearby Sioux members. With no intentions of intimidation, Dunbar seeks out this indigenous tribe. He soon meets Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman who was raised by this tribe. She mutilates herself while mourning for her lost husband. He returns her to the Sioux people and tries to communicate with them, after discovering the language barrier is too great Stands With A Fist translates between Dunbar and the Sioux. Thus beginning a relationship between white man and the Indians. Dunbar adapts to the culture and learns the language while romancing Stands With A Fist. Eventually Dunbar is given his nickname of "Dances With Wolves." After he helps the tribe defend themselves from a rival Pawnee attack, he marries Stands With A Fist and is fully integrated into the Sioux. Of course the tribe must relocate due to pressure of the white men, Dunbar of course says he will accompany them. When he returns to his fort, Dunbar is confronted by U.S army men and is arrested as a traitor. While he is transported, the Sioux track them down and kill the white soldiers and free Dunbar. Dunbar then makes the decision to leave the tribe with his new wife to prevent any further danger on the Sioux. The last shot of the film tells us that 13 years later, the last of the Sioux were subjugated to the American government.This was Costner's first film as director and for a debut, it is excellent. As far as strengths, the film has a soft, leisurely pace, which combined with a gorgeous score from John Barry, create a very lush canvas. Visually, "Dances" is strong, with compositions that are simple yet ethereal. The tone is also quite delectable. Almost poetic, as if Costner invites us to yearn for a more simpler time in American history to enjoy his tale.As far as it's flaws, the most obvious is probably the relationship between Dunbar and his wife (who is the "native" girl in the film). Although Costner handles their love scene very romantically, it's almost ridiculous the transfer of bodily fluids represents bringing two cultures together and all differences are virtually erased. This symbolism is rather stupid and has been used in several other films. More recently in James Cameron's "Avatar".8/10. For other westerns, see "Unforgiven", "Rio Bravo", or Sergio Leone's filmography. For a more unconventional western, see "McCabe and Mrs. Miller".

Kevin Costner made many ill-received movies; some can even be labeled as "bad" despite their "good" intentions. It's only fair then to acknowledge that "Dances With Wolves" is not just Costner's finest hour, but a peak of excellence and significance reached by the Western genre. Get "Cat Ballou" off the American Film Institute's Top 10 Westerns and put "Dances With Wolves" where it belongs. Oh, and by the way, this comes from a "Goodfellas" fan.Indeed, we know the level of 'hatred' "Dances With Wolves" generated is inversely proportional to the popularity of Martin Scorsese's gangster epic. Well, "Goodfellas" is my all-time favorite film right after the two first "Godfather" and I saw the film perhaps five times more than Costner's masterpiece, but just because it lost the Best Picture, Best Director and other statuettes, doesn't mean that I should vent my anger on the winner, so give it a break and enjoy it, regardless of your opinion about "Goodfellas", it is possible to appreciate both films. Now, I close the "Goodfellas" chapter and get back to "Dances With Wolves" because there's a lot to say about it. Costner's best contributions to cinema were based on the two most American defining themes: baseball with "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams" and in "Dances", the vast plains of the frontier become the field of American lost dreams. As a fan of Gary Cooper and other Hollywood Western legends, Costner, along with Clint Eastwood, contributed to the resurrection of a dying genre in America's land. Although I'm not sure Clint Eastwood would have focused on a native-themed movie (his films centered on solitary characters carrying the burden of a haunting past), "Dances with Wolves" is about a young Civil War officer, Lieutenant John Dunbar, who seizes the opportunity of a promotion to get exiled in a remote outpost near the frontier, before it belongs to History.The heroic deed that earns Dunbar this peaceful job is perhaps the only moment that feels a bit Hollywood-like, after that, the story immediately plunges us into a slow but meaningful journey where left on his own, Dunbar write his memories and shares his thoughts about the landscape, his loneliness and a mysterious wolf who comes to visit him on a regular basis. At that moment, Dunbar embodies the spirit of the frontiersmen who came to unexplored lands wondering whether they were hostile or not. It's a matter of time before his presence alerts the Natives, some of them are Pawnees but a lucky hazard make them meet the wrong man and he's savagely killed and scalped.It is interesting that the first Natives we meet incarnate the negative stereotype, but it also reveals something essential about the film, it doesn't apply the reverse racism consisting on sanctifying the minorities. The film doesn't find excuses, or alibis, every people are showed on an equal level of humanity, and also, sometimes, savagery, for even the White soldiers display the most brutal and inhumane acts and incarnate that "haunting past" America carries like an Eastwoodesque character. But there's a central piece in the film, that is magnificent, which is, the mutual discovery between the Sioux and Dunbar. It goes through a wide range of emotions: puzzlement, suspicion, and then curiosity takes the most of them and they just go for it. People complain that the film is too long, well, hell yes, it's as long as it needs to make dialogue possible. Because something happens when the Sioux discover Dunbar, the movie stops being shown from his perspective and we get a whole quarter of hour in the Sioux village. During this sequence, you see the sorcerer Kicking Bird (Graham Greene) sharing his thoughts with the wise Chief Ten Bears (Floyd Westerman) or the impetuous Wind in the Hair (Rodney Grant), together they discuss what kind of sign a naked White man could be: an omen? a blessing? How can they approach him, and a whole debate goes on about his hostility. That's the film's masterstroke, for one moment, Dunbar ceases to be the subject but the object of the Sioux' community, the roles are reversed and this is why "Dances With Wolves" is important. It humbles the American perspective and takes its time to make the first exchanges possible. This moment is also essential because it tells us that the path sometimes to hostility is paved by the very struggle of communication. Even with friendly intentions, you can't sometimes understand the words, the rituals and many of them seem 'barbaric' at first glance. That the film acknowledges these differences is also a credit to its intelligence and its respect to ours.The script manages to simplify the communication through the character of Standing-with-a-Fist, a White woman, played by Mary McDonnell, adopted by the Sioux after her family was killed by the Pawnees. Her English is rusty but understandable enough to offer a right bridge of communication and naturally, there's a genuine romance growing between Dunbar and her, and it's never thrown at our faces, it takes its time so it feels natural and realistic... although the film has a lot to borrow from Hollywood, from the inspirational score to the heart-pounding battles and buffaloes' hunts. Yet, that a film found such a balance between Hollywood tradition and a documentary-like immersion in Natives tradition, makes it the perfect link between John Ford and Arthur Penn.Penn directed the underrated "Little Big Man" and it's fair to mention the film in a review of "Dances With Wolves", Penn was the first to provide an inside look on the Natives' lives and to show what looked like a genocide on the Native population. "Dances With Wolves" doesn't need to, through this three-hour experience, we're able to face the value of the loss, for it's a swan song of the Native whose resonance is as haunting as a wolf's howl.