Yar, you be here: Dances with Wolves (Special Extended Edition) > Customer Reviews

Dances with Wolves (Special Extended Edition) Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 64 Reviews)

Magnificent Film!!!
This truly is one of Kevin Costners best films to date. Thank you Mr. Costner for showing the beautiful culture of the Native people of this American tribe. This was a very moving picture; emotionally and mentally. I was deeply touched by the magesty of this film. Wonderful acting by some of the top Native American actors. Beautiful cinematography, costumes, sets, and musical score. I cant say enough about this film. See it, if you havent yet...

A'ho...

Dances With Wolves, Expanded 4-Hour VHS and DTS Versions
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 These outdated cliches are extremes, and maybe we needed a portrayal at the other extreme to bring our ideas of the Native Americans back toward center.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.

Dances with Costner
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.

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Next Page