Dances with Wolves (1990)

Too much of everything

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Dances With Wolves4 Out Of 5Dances With Wolves is a character driven feature of an all-lost man that is ready to survive and mold itself into any shape or form for one more chance. The chemistry and the relationship that is built-up among the characters is depicted form the scratch that helps the viewers too connect with the feature; a slick move by the makers. It is rich on technical aspects like costume design, sound department, background score, cinematography and editing. It is shot beautifully and the camera work is charming and makes it immensely pleasing to encounter with great locations and visuals. The writing is strong especially on character's perspective that is judged, accounted and balanced upon nicely. The adaptation by Michael Blake of his own novel, is smart and gripping and the primary reason why it works is his awareness of the characters image and the palpable environment offered to it, since the beginning. Kevin Costner; the director, is surprisingly good considering that it is his first project, as it shows a lot of potential since such character driven feature can easily come off as a dull and over-chewing feature if not executed accordingly. Kevin Costner as the protagonist is convincing in his performance along with his supporting cast like Marry McDonnell and Graham Greene. Dances With Wolves is a rhythmic beat that values its culture and rituals that binds it all to create something colossal out of a mere gesture.

Dances with Wolves. Hate to oversell things but forget it! It's an expertly directed movie with some truly beautiful shots, lots of gorgeous wides, the best shot of the movie IMO is at 1:34:46 of the directors cut. Kevin Costner gives his best performance of his career as do all the other actors, Graham Greene and Mary McDonnell give the best of the entire movie. It's also a movie with really good intentions portraying the Sioux with a great amount of respect. John Barry delivers his best soundtrack, Two Socks, Journey to Fort Sedgewick and the Love Theme are the best of the OST. It's also a movie that takes its time with nearly every aspect. All the characters, locations, themes (as in the emotional aspects) and scenes are all very well written, realised and developed perfectly, I guess since the movie is 4 hours long that was inevitable.I think what sets it apart from most other films is how peaceful and welcoming it is, it's a really optimistic and positive movie, a tone that is similar to the Shire scenes in the Middle Earth franchise. Also normally movies that deal with animals tend to end up feeling unconvincing. But this movie does a great job with the Wolves, the wolf trainer they got and the Costners directing merge really well to create some very believable scenes with the animals.The character of John Dunbar has an extremely optimistic view on the world he lives in. Dunbar is an every man, Costner usually portrays characters like that, a person who the audience can easily connect with and one that the audience feels comfortable going on an adventure with.The only real problem is that some people won't like hearing Kevin Costners voice for 4 hours straight and I guess it could be a bit longer.

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".

Dances with Wolves follows a soldier who is posted in a largely isolated outpost and ultimately befriends the natives living in the area. The actors are all pretty good in their roles. Kevin Costner does really well, although for the first 10 or so minutes he just wanders around with his mouth open as if confused. He sort of portrayed my feelings for the first bit. I had no idea what was going on until a little ways into the movie. Graham Greene and Rodney A. Grant were both quite good in their roles as well, as as much as Costner but pretty close. Mary McDonnell was kind of over-the-top in this role, and while her performance wasn't bad, it wasn't great either. She seemed to be trying to pull off some kind of overdone insanity performance, but it didn't work in the context of the movie or just as a performance overall. The characters are pretty interesting, and it's really cool to see their relationships develop over a long period of time. By the last 1/3 of the movie the audience feels really attached to the characters, and it becomes just that much more investing. And considering the last hour is the best, it gives it a much more effective ending. The movie is, however, 3 hours long, the first 2 of which are the development stages. While it isn't necessarily boring, it's very long and definitely on the slow side. It was needed for the last hour to have the effect that it did, but it probably could have been just a little more engaging, or shorter even. The romantic aspect wasn't something I was very fond of. It came off as very rushed and a little forced, like it was happening simply because that was the expectation for movies. It seems that filmmakers sometimes think that if it's worth seeing, it has a love interest. That seems to be the case a lot of the time, but that doesn't mean that it always works. And in this case it doesn't really. Overall Dances with Wolves is an engaging character study that suffers from being on the slow side for the majority of it's runtime and a forced romance. In the end I'd still recommend this movie.