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Dances with Wolves (Special Extended Edition) Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 64 Reviews)

It's a good flick, but...
The scenery, the directing, the acting, etc., are all very good and the movie is absolutely captivating. However, if you look underneath all of that, you've got to realize that Native Americans were not without their flaws and the White Man was not completely evil. "Dances with Wolves" lacks balance in the historical story telling of these two cultures. It's pretty one sided.

However, that said, it is true that Native Americans always had a deep abiding love of nature, much more so than the average white man. But so little mention is given as to how "Stands with a fist" ended up living amongst the Sioux.

I did enjoy the film and have watched it several times. Native Americans have been portrayed in Hollywood as "blood-thirsty savages" for so many decades and this film seeks to right that wrong. But rather than having this pendulum of public opinion swinging back and forth, we should find the truth which is somewhere in the middle.

"Dances with Wolves" is a good flick and I did thoroughly enjoy watching it again and again.

Impressive Costner Film, the only one!
A lot of you don't know this, but I genuinely don't like Kevin Costner! I don't think he's a good actor; I think he's wooden! This film, despite it being his directorial debut, is all about the Indians -- not him. I loved this movie, as love all epic films! (I loved BRAVEHEART, but hate Mel Gibson!)...

Now that that is out of my system as a regular viewer, I will play the unbiased critic.

First off, DANCES WITH WOLVES is a beautiful, passionate film that swept away the audience, critics, and the Academy Awards. (FYI: Something my film PRISONER OF WAR will do in the very near future.) It is a special tale of Sioux Indians and their culture clash with the Americans who raped, murdered, destroyed, and stole this land away from them. They are obvious stereotypes in this film, amongst them are the physical aspects of the American soldiers. They are fat, sweaty, loud, rude, thieving, and obnoxious; while the (Pawnee) Indians are portrayed as savage, blood-thirsty killers -- and maybe they were! Maybe the Sioux Indians were killers, or peaceful people. Who knows?

It begins with Lt. John J. Dunbar (Costner), a Union officer, in the battlefields during the Civil War in 1863. He is able to lead the charge against the Confederate soldiers and score a victory. He is then reassigned to another location out in the valleys of the Midwest. Eventually, he makes contact with a Sioux Indian. Soon, word gets back to the other Indians of the white man and they advance forward with their investigation. Dunbar is nervous at first, as are the Indians (though, skeptical would be a better word), but they eventually come around and celebrate the return of Tatanka (Sioux for buffalo).

The film is supported by a interesting cast including: Mary McDonnell as Stands With a Fist, an American woman who was adopted by the Sioux after her family was murdered by Pawnee Indians in a flashabck sequence. (In the book, she is referred to as Christine.) She eventually falls for Dunbar and they get married. Graham Greene (not the novelist) is Kicking Bird, the Indian to make contact with Dunbar, and the holy man of his tribe. The rest of the cast are regular character actors playing the Indians (yes, some of them speak perfect English) and the soldiers. But an extra point goes to Murphy Brown's Robert Pastorelli for his hilarious turn as the foul and foul-mouthed Timmons.

In the end, Dunbar changes his name to Dances With Wolves; he gets captured by the Union soldiers; and eventually is freed when the Sioux, his new family, come to rescue him. It is an excellent film created by a man I cannot stand to look at or watch on the screen. But, like I said about Gibson, my hat's off to Costner.

Winner of 7 Academy Awards in 1990 include: Best Picture - Jim Wilson & Kevin Costner; Best Director - Kevin Costner; Best Adapted Screenplay - Michael Blake, based on his own novel; Best Cinematography - Dean Semler; Best Sound - Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton, Greg Watkins, & Russell Williams II; Best Film Editing - Neil Travis; and Best Score - John Barry.

But, my film, PRISONER OF WAR, will be much better! Count on it.

Approximately: 3 HOURS, 3 MINUTES DVD: 3 HOURS, 57 MINUTES!

Dances with Wolves Earns Lawrence Award
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.

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