Dances With Wolves [VHS] Best Review
My college-aged son had never seen Dances with Wolves, and I hadn't seen it since I saw in the theaters in 1990, so many years ago. DWW is still a howlingly good movie. Its sweeping vistas of pristine western landscapes and magnificent depiction of life among the Sioux give a reasonable portrayal of what life might have been like on the American Plains before whites took over the place. The story? Kevin Costner plays Colonel Dunbar, who as a reward for a questionable act of bravery during the Civil War, choses to live in the remotest "fort" he could find. The place is a devastated mess, with animal carcasses choking the waterway and signs of a desperation and flight everywhere. As Dunbar sets to bring some military order to the place, he encounters some of the local Sioux who live nearby. Gradually, he begins to learn their language, adopt their ways and learn to love them. And they him.
DWW is a real period piece - by which I mean that it depicts the way Americans were ready to view the "taming" of the West from the vantage of the late 20th century. The film's whites are often drunk, depraved, pointlessly violent and prodigiously wasteful. The Sioux are tough, but also intelligent, loving, resourceful and brave. That this revisionist view of history is not entirely accurate is beside the point. After decades portaying Native Americans as crazed, dirty and brutal, a sympathetic depiction of the continent's first inhabitants was long overdue. It's a measure of the degree to which the pendulum is swinging the other way that 20 years later, such sentimental views come across as cloying and naive. Even this film shows the tribe as a macho patriarchy where women are second class citizens
Still, the film's characters were strong and memorable. Stands With A Fist (a stunning the Mary McDonnell), taken into the tribe after a raid wiped out her family is the tribe's only white, and an obvious choice as a love interest for Dunbar. McDonnell's expertly depicted the difficulty of learning to speak a language that she hadn't spoken or heard for decades. Kicking Bird (Graham Greene) is Costner's mentor and protector and initiator into the ways of the Indians. Wind in his Hair is a tough fighter constantly tests and eventually befriends Dunbar. Ironically, only Costner's Dunbar seems bland and uninteresting in the midst of this wonderful cast. I couldn't help but to wonder whether Costner got an ego boost from playing the only white man in America whom the Sioux considered human.
My main beef with Dances with Wolves, now as in 1990, was the lame ending. Costner the director can't ignore the historical fact that these noble people were virtually exterminated shortly after the events depicted in the movie. The narrative arc that Costner follows - Dunbar's psychic voyage from meaningless carnage to harmonious unity -- thus collides with the reality that American history took another path. An explanatory graphic at the end lamely brings the movie to a close, interrupting the action inexplicably and leaving every story unfinished.
Nevertheless, DWW is a classic film, beautifully conceived, shot and acted. The fact that the actors who played the Sioux delivered their lines in Lakota both showed the film's respect for their culture and viewers understand the foreigness of the first encounters with them. Well worth a look, even as we reach for a more nuanced and balanced look at the colonization of the Americas.
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Dances With Wolves [VHS] Overview
Kevin Costner's 1990 epic won a bundle of Oscars for a moving, engrossing story of a white soldier (Costner) who singlehandedly mans a post in the 1870 Dakotas, and becomes a part of the Lakota Sioux community who live nearby. The film may not be a masterpiece, but it is far more than the sum of good intentions. The characters are strong, the development of relationships is both ambitious and careful, the love story between Costner and Mary McDonnell's character is captivating. Only the third-act portrait of white intruders as morons feels overbearing, but even that leads to a terribly moving conclusion. Costner's direction is assured, the balance of action and intimacy is perfect--what more could anyone want outside of an unqualified masterpiece? --Tom Keogh
Dances With Wolves [VHS] Specifications
Kevin Costner's 1990 epic won a bundle of Oscars for a moving, engrossing story of a white soldier (Costner) who singlehandedly mans a post in the 1870 Dakotas, and becomes a part of the Lakota Sioux community who live nearby. The film may not be a masterpiece, but it is far more than the sum of good intentions. The characters are strong, the development of relationships is both ambitious and careful, the love story between Costner and Mary McDonnell's character is captivating. Only the third-act portrait of white intruders as morons feels overbearing, but even that leads to a terribly moving conclusion. Costner's direction is assured, the balance of action and intimacy is perfect--what more could anyone want outside of an unqualified masterpiece? --Tom Keogh
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Customer Reviews
movie purchase - tchootchie - Smithville, OK
now that I have seen the extended version would not be happy watching the theatrical version
Good - Miss Emily -
movie arrived before schedule and was in great condition. definitely order from these guys again.
It's the official history now - Sirin - London, UK
There is a famous piece of educational research where a class of school students compare two films - the 1950s western 'Searchers', and this one, 'Dances With Wolves'. Nearly all of them believed Dances with Wolves to be the more historically accurate film even though it is about as accurate as Mel Gibson's roles in Braveheart, The Patriot (well just about any of his historical roles come to think of it).
This is not a dig at Costner, Hollywood studios or anyone else for producing such a PC pap romantic movie. Storytellers, filmmakers have always distorted history somewhat to tell a good story. The real sadness lies in our own failure of history education, leading to our ignorant credulity when hoards of us watch such films and believe they depict some kind of historical reality.
As H.L. Mencken so wisely put it. No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the general public.
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