Rating: 
Summary: 5 Stars And More - A Masterpiece
Review: A terrific video, a masterpiece. A wonderful 3 hour film. This is one of the ten best films of the last 15 years. I can not believe some of the low ratings given. I welcome the respect given for native americans and their native language. We learn of the culture of the Sioux.
This was the outstanding film of 1990 winning 7 academy awards including best picture, best director, best original score and best cinematography. Where most movies are 2 hours in length, this 3 hour film could not have been any shorter and does not in any way seem long.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Movie by far!!!!!
Review: Before I watched this movie I didnt really no if Indians were either the good or the bad. But as teh filmed reached its peak I finally learned the answer. The movie by far again its the greatest ive ever seen even compared to the movies of my generation. It has a beautiful script that no one should miss. I thought it was going to be a very boring movie but it is not. I was very surprised at the end of the movie and how it ended. Its also very sad and a great way to teach anybody about native americans and how much they suffered since the movie shows that. I dont want to kill how the movie is but it all starts with the protagonist John dealing with the flaws of soceity and how some white americans were destructive againts this great human beings the native Americans. It then shows the bad and good sides of how some people were with the native americans. John who matures as his odyssey goes through learns alot from the Indian people and is accepted by the Sioux people who care for him sicne they name him Dances with Wolves. You the reader would have to know why. I dont want to kill the movie anymore. So watch it and try to understand the history part of it cause its very important. Hope this helped. Thanks for reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Dances with Wolves Earns Lawrence Award
Review: Dances with Wolves easily earns a position among the all-time-greatest epic motion pictures. Its story and presentation are fresh, honest, real and breathtaking. "Epic" implies the film takes longer to tell its story than the average movie, and that it does. But consider that the correct measure of the length of any film is to track the number of visits your eyes make to your watch during the film. Thus a three-hour movie may seem shorter than a ninety-minute movie. The character development and interaction of this movie invites us to participate, to be there and feel as our hearts share the emotions of characters even as we feel the pleasure from the eye candy provided by the amazing cinematography that takes us across the massive Northern Plaines of the United States. The movie begins in a dramatic scene in which, Kevin Costner, a lieutenant in the Union Army, crawls off the battlefield surgeons table to save his badly injured leg or foot from amputation. Somewhat delirious he takes actions that lead to victory for his troops and ends a deadly stalemate between the two armies. As the hero of the battle the general's surgeon heals his leg and the lieutenant is offered any post he wants. He chooses the most remote post the army has because he wants to see the unspoiled land before it's too late, and the real story begins. A caution to those who think the white man was portrayed unfairly; read unbiased history, then watch the movie again. This movie undertakes allot and it succeeds. This exciting action, drama, western, love-story shows us a great example of a film that can be so absolutely entertaining and educational at the same time. Dances with Wolves entertains as it shows through historical example the importance and consequences of learning about our own preconceptions and learning the potential benefit we may enjoy from learning to respect and accept other beliefs or points of view, to just learning to understand all that we can before making decisions and drawing conclusions in any matter.
Dances with Wolves does all that any movie could be asked to do.
Rating:
Summary: Dances With Wolves, Expanded 4-Hour VHS and DTS Versions
Review: I adore DANCES WITH WOLVES. It's my favorite film of all time, not only because it is a very moving story on many levels, but because it taught me something; it changed me. Our teachers lied in our high-school American History classes -- They fed us propaganda by representing us Americans as being the "good guys" and the Indians as the "bad guys." (And Columbus DIDN'T discover America!) Maybe I should have realized these things long before, but I hadn't really thought about them, and for that I am embarrassed. After seeing DANCES, I was ashamed, for the first time in my life, to be a European-descended white American.The Lakota Sioux were portrayed as being a clean, honorable, curious, reverent, and environmentally sensitive people, whereas the white soldiers were portrayed exactly the opposite. (The actor who played Spivey was perfectly cast -- he was so obnoxious that I could have strangled him with my own bare hands! ) Maybe that's what has captured so many who DID love this movie -- For once, someone (Kevin Costner) took a HUGE risk, bucked the Hollywood know-it-alls, and allowed the pendulum to swing the other way by depicting the Native Americans as being the antithesis of all the previous Hollywood portrayals (vicious murderers and plunderers of the whites). These outdated cliches are extremes, and maybe we needed a portrayal at the other extreme to bring our ideas of the Native Americans back toward center. As a result, we are left with a combination view that the Native Americans had their good sides AND their dark sides, which is probably more accurate anyway. DANCES wakes us all up to thinking about these issues in a new and non-Hollywood way. IT'S ABOUT TIME! And I applaud Michael Blake (author of the original book), Kevin Costner, Jim Wilson, TIG Productions, and Orion Pictures for bringing this story with its refreshing point of view to us. And it's a GREAT story, beautifully filmed -- movingly scored -- a Masterpiece! Who cares if it's not historically accurate! I am gratified for Kevin's sake that DANCES WITH WOLVES captured the 1990 Oscars that it so richly deserved. As for Kevin Costner himself, HE IS MY FAVORITE ACTOR, not because of his acting skills . . . (yes, he does have somewhat deadpan line-delivery habits, not enough variety in believable facial expression, and a vacuous stare when his character is mulling something over, but he is BRILLIANT on-screen in other ways, which I won't elaborate on here) . . . but because of his choices in the films he wants to do. This is a man who simply wants to tell great stories! His focus is not on delivering us any particular message . . . he's not trying to be politically correct . . . he's not into teaching us earth-shaking things or ramming new points of view down our throats . . . his viewpoint isn't even necessarily consistent from one film to another. He just knows a good story when he finds one and tries to bring it to us in the best way he can, using the considerable arsenal of movie-making talents that he has. THAT IS NOBLE! He is a very gifted storyteller! I have enjoyed nearly every one of his films, especially BULL DURHAM, FIELD OF DREAMS, TIN CUP, MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE, and FOR LOVE OF THE GAME. For me, these last two are close to the bone (due to sadnesses in my own life), and I have come to love this man (Costner) for what he has brought to me. It's a very personal thing! There's something in him that tells me he's a kindred spirit. Handsome? Definitely, but that's only skin deep. I would call him BEAUTIFUL, because that goes way deeper. THAT's why he's my favorite actor! If a character in a film attracts me, I find I'm attracted more to the person PORTRAYING the character than to the character him/herself. I wonder, "What is it about the ACTOR who brings something from him/herself to the role to make that character appealing to me?" Costner has strummed a deep personal chord in nearly every film he has done. I especially enjoy his sports movies, because he's naturally graceful and athletic -- he has excelled at baseball, golf, horseback riding, basketball, fishing, etc., in his own life. This gives him more credibility in such roles than perhaps any other actor in Hollywood. And I'm a sports nut in the very sports he likes to play. THAT's why he's my favorite actor! At the risk of sounding "over the top," I have studied Kevin Costner's life and career for the past 16-or-so years, ever since his FANDANGO days. I've dug in and read a lot. I know he has a hard-to-get-along-with reputation in Hollywood. He's even admitted he is "ferocious" when it comes to making movies. He's a purist, a perfectionist, and is just standing up for what he believes will make a great story FOR US ALL TO ENJOY. Who can help but appreciate a person who fights for our benefit like that! THAT's why he's my favorite actor! Before making any judgments about a person, I like to study his/her issues and try to get to the reasons why. If you take the time to find out about someone's motivations BEFORE you criticize, you might find out some interesting things about what he or she is trying to accomplish. Wouldn't you want to be treated the same way? SO . . . I will defend Kevin Costner, his ideas, his motivations, and the exceptional acting skills he DOES have, as well as his movie choices, to anyone who chooses to lambaste him! Kevin . . . if you're there . . . I don't know how to reach you, or even if I should try. But I hope you find this and read it! I hope it lifts your spirits whenever they are low.
Rating: 
Summary: A good tool for learning the Lakota language
Review: I am a teacher of Lakota language. While this film is flawed in its accuracy of Lakota culture in many ways, which is why I deducted a star from the rating, and while to the trained ear the Lakota is not spoken well because none of the principle cast was a Lakota speaker, this film..especially the long version..remains one of my best teaching tools for my students. I give Costner a great deal of credit for insisting on using the actual Lakota language rather than having the film all in English as he was pressured to do by Hollywood. Lakota, like many Native languages, is in danger of extinction if more young Lakotas don't take the initiative to learn their language, and this film put that language in the ears of the world. I can nit-pick on the cultural inaccuracies in DWW, but I'd rather concentrate on the fact that this film presented this beautiful language to the world and for that, I am grateful. Wowahwa na wopila. (Peace, and thanks). Cait
Rating: 
Summary: not a PG-13
Review: I can appreciate the idea that "Dances with Wolves" is an example of cinematic revisionist history, if not an outright case of affirmative action that instantiates the idea of the "noble savage" that once held sway among the European settlers of the New World. But Hollywood has been reinterpreting the Old West in light of changing socio-political beliefs for decades. Just look at the changing story of Custer at the Little Big Horn from "Them Died With Their Boots On" to "Little Big Man" to "Son of the Morning Star." With Kevin Costner's film the Western was elevated to a level that hitherto had not been approached in American cinema.
It is "Little Big Man," along with "A Man Called Horse," that are clearly the cinematic ancestors of "Dances with Wolves." All three deal with a white man who finds a home among a Native American tribe, but where this 1990 film differs is that it is also an epic, at which point we are talking "How the West Was Won" and "Once Upon a Time in the West." Yet "Dances With Wolves" is a significant step beyond all of those films. "Little Big Man" was a black comedy and not an epic, "A Man Called Horse" was about an English aristocrat and not an American soldier, "How the West Was Won" was about Manifest Destiny and not the destruction of an indigenous culture, and "Once Upon a Time in the West" was operatic and not grounded in history, albiet a romanticized one.
Michael Blake's screenplay is based on his novel, and it is the film's prologue that I find most problematic. The idea is to establish Costner's John Dunbar as being someone special from the start, so that the Union soldier who could survive a hail of Confederate bullets becomes the man that could befriend a wild wolf on the Plains. It is also establishes Dunbar as a man who is searching for something, and not merely an alternative to the horrors of war but more importantly a reason for living. Whereas the rest of the film takes its time to develop things this initial part is relatively rushed, but the excuse for putting Dunbar in the middle of the Dakotas on a deserted military post is secondary to what happens once he is there.
The greatest strength of "Dances with Wolves" is that Dunbar's interactions with the Sioux (really the Lakotas, but the film uses the more familiar but erroneous name for these Native Americans), are defined by a series of relationships with clearly defined characters. Although his romance with Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell) is a major plot line, and her being a white woman raised by the tribe a useful contrivance for allowing the two sides to communicate, the relationship that really stands out is between Dunbar and Kicking Bird (Graham Greene). This is because the two are kindred spirits, each willing to be open to the other and committed to understanding the other on his own terms. The opposite position is taken by Wind In His Hair (Rodney A. Grant), but even he forges a relationship with the man who is given the Sioux name Dances With Wolves.
Then there are the relationships with both the tribal elders, such as Chief Ten Bears (Floyd Red Crow Westerman), and the youngsters, including Smiles a Lot (Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse). What makes these characters so compelling is that they are utterly devoid of caricature and that the performances seem so real and provide such a sense of dignity. There are moments of warmth and humor throughout the film, both springing from this same source. It is ironic that while the film won seven Oscars, none of them were for acting (Costner, Greene, and McDonnell were all nominated).
Because Dunbar is all alone at his post, he begins keeping a journal. This simple device allows the film to take advantage of Dunbar's narration to advance both the story and the message. What would seem stilted as a monologue works perfectly well in the context of a written journal entry. In the last act of the film the journal becomes part of the story as well, not only as a symbol of the disdain most white men have for the Indians and their culture, but as a testament to what is being lost. Dunbar decides to come West because he wants to see it before it is gone (even though the time frame here is the 1860s and the Civil War), and the final point of the film is that the Sioux were only years away from being herded to reservations. One of the great ironies of the story is that it is Dunbar, the only white man the Sioux have ever known, who gives them their death sentence when he tells them that as many white as there are stars in the sky are coming.
There are two major action sequences in the film, the buffalo hunt and Pawnee attack, but they are really not the most impressive parts of the film. That Dunbar would be invited to go on the hunt or that he would organize the defense of the village, are ultimately more important in the film. Dunbar is heroic because he is, in the best meaning of the term, human. Costner won the Oscar for best director, but clearly his strength is in telling the story and keeping the characters real rather than in coming up with pretty pictures, althought Australian cinematographer Dean Semler comes up with plenty of those, especially when he takes advantage of a brilliant sunset as a backdrop. "Dances with Wolves" is epic in its scope, but it has an attention to detail that few Westerns can rival, which it why it was the first film since "Cimarron" in 1931 to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Recommended
Review: I have just finished watching Dances With Wolves for the first time, and I have to say it is one of my favorite movies of all time, after one viewing.
The movie absolutely captivated me with it's sense of wildness and freedom. I never imagined that I would feel this engrossed in a 3+ hour movie, but I indeed did sit there thru the entire thing, totally absorbed in the storyline.
The movie was packed with extraordinary scenery and a flawless portrayal of the horse people of the plains.
The ending was tragic, but true, and I feel even more for the native cultures that once peopled our land, and treated it as it should be treated.
I am sure most of the folks reading this review have already seen the movie at one time or another, so I must say that this long awaited DVD was worth the wait. The picture was excellent, as was the audio. There is one two sided disc for the movie and an additional disc for special features, which I have not had the chance to get into.
Rating:
Summary: Racist movie.
Review: I loved 'Dances with Wolves' when I was younger, but when I went back to watch it again recently, I turned it off half way through. First of all the movie is racist toward whites. Kevin Costner seems like the only white man who has sympathy for American Indians. Costner depicts whites as sloppy, drunk, and incompetent, while depicting the Native Americans as pure, noble, and peaceful. The settlers who came from Europe did horrible things to the American Indians, but that does not mean the American Indians were all pure at heart and the white man was all evil.
The war and genocide that occurred between the two groups is what almost always happens when two people of different race, religion, and ethnic groups conflict with each other. Costner was paying respect to the Native Americans and that was a good thing that he did. The American Indians deserve it up to a point. But don't go around thinking they were not deeply flawed and did not have darker side like other human beings.
Rating:
Summary: Dances with Costner
Review: It's hard not to get swept away by the production values in this film, they are truly wonderful. Costner not only plays the central role - Lt. John J. Dunbar, a Union soldier who chooses reassignment to the West in 1863 - he also makes a most impressive debut as the $18 million film's director, immersing us in the beauty of the country in a way that recalls the sweep of a David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia) epic. And while one can hardly fault the movie for giving the Sioux human dimensions and foibles, the film's identification with an alien culture is so complete, Whites ultimately seem little more than soulless, vulgar, neurotic intruders. It's this attitude that dooms the film. His White guide is, in Dunbar's words, "quite possibly the foulest man I have ever met," and we're not spared the reasons why he should think so. The other Whites are vicious, ignorant, destructive. Dances With Wolves is a politically correct counterculture Western that comes down firmly on the side of the Sioux and sees the White man as the Devil. Granted, the "natives" are not the noble wooden Indians of Cheyenne Autumn, but the Whites are portrayed as such barbarians and the Sioux as such noble humans that Dunbar never has moments of doubt. Why should he? In the end, it's a very, very well made film, but the one-sidedness is too great to overcome.
Rating: 
Summary: i saw this like 9 million times in school.
Review: ive seen about 10 billion movies about the indians in school.history classes are based entirely around them lightly flavored with the real news like the constitution and american revolution.so what?theyre neat.but man!how much credit do they really deserve.this movie should have been called beating a dead horse.this colonial adventurer type runs into some indians and hangs out with them for like 3 hours plus doing next to nothing.maybe they could call it isomnia cure.kevin costner is in it as the white guy.every movie but one hes ever been in suck.the postman being the really only exception.the kids will fall asleep too.i guess its supposed to be educational but weve had the indian thing shoved down out throat since kindergarten.we know it,already!shanghai noon is a billion times better!its got those cool type indians.it blows.save your money.no bartering either!ill give you something to be thankful for.quenten tarantino.his stuff gets into the type of movie oppisite of this one.that would be classic .
|
