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Dances With Wolves

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Dances with Wolves
Directed byKevin Costner
Written byMichael Blake
Produced byJim Wilson
Kevin Costner
StarringKevin Costner
Mary McDonnell
Graham Greene
Rodney Grant
CinematographyDean Semler
Music byJohn Barry
Distributed byOrion Pictures
Release date
November 9 1990
Running time
181 Mins
(Theatrical)
236 Mins
Director's Cut
CountryU.S. U.S.
LanguagesEnglish, Lakota
BudgetUS$19,000,000 (estimated)
Box officeUS$184,208,848[1]

Dances with Wolves is an Academy award winning 1990 epic film which tells the story of a United States cavalry officer from the Civil War who travels alone into the frontier near a Sioux tribe.[1] Developed by director/star Kevin Costner over 5 years, the film (released 21 November 1990) has high production values[1] and won 7 Academy Awards (1990) and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama[2] Much of the dialogue is in the Lakota language with English subtitles, unusual for a film at the time of its release.

In 2007, Dances with Wolves was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Taglines

  • Inside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered.[2]
  • Lieutenant John Dunbar is about to discover the frontier...within himself.

Synopsis

The film opens during a lull in a battle of the US Civil War. Union Army Officer Lieutenant John J. Dunbar has learned that his injured leg is to be amputated. Seeing the plight of fellow soldiers with amputated legs, Dunbar decides to attempt suicide by riding a horse across the line of fire, between the opposing Union and Confederate positions. His action has the unexpected effect of rallying his comrades, who then storm the Confederate positions. After the ensuing battle, Dunbar is named a hero by his commanding officer, and his leg is saved by the general's surgeon, who is more experienced. He is offered his choice of next posting, and given Cisco, the horse who carried him.

Dunbar requests a transfer to the western frontier. After meeting with a major (Maury Chaykin) who has slipped into delusions of grandeur (He apparently thinks he is a king, and Dunbar a medieval knight.) he is paired with a Teamster named Timmons (Robert Pastorelli) who would take him to his post. He arrives with fresh post supplies at the desolate Fort Sedgewick, and finds it deserted except for a lone wolf, whom Dunbar befriends and dubs Two Socks, on account of the coloring of his front legs. Dunbar sets himself to clean up and set in order the deserted post, while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. Dunbar eventually encounters the local Sioux-Lakota American Indian tribe. (In the book, Dunbar interacts with the Comanche.) Some Sioux youths hear that Dunbar is at the old fort and attempt to capture Cisco in order to become heroes. Dunbar's horse escapes by pulling off the rider holding onto his bridle, and returns to the post. This happens again later when several adult members of the tribe try to take the horse, but the man holding the horse's reins is again pulled off and the horse escapes.

Dunbar now believes that his wait was for nothing and decides to go to the Sioux village to talk but discovers an injured European American woman named Stands With A Fist, who is wearing Indian clothing, and speaking only the Lakota language. When she was a child (initially called Christine), her family was slaughtered by Pawnee Indians but she was later rescued by the medicine man Kicking Bird. Incidentally, she earned her name in her youth when she punched out a tormentor and challenged any comers. Dunbar returns the woman to the tribe for treatment. Initially the Sioux are suspicious and wary, but begin to accept Dunbar after they visit the fort and begin simple communication. Eventually a dialogue is opened when Kicking Bird asks Stands With A Fist to translate between himself and Dunbar.

Meanwhile, the teamster Timmons, while returning to the point of departure, is ambushed by Pawnee Indians and scalped.

Dunbar finds himself more and more drawn to the lifestyle and customs of his Indian neighbors. He becomes a hero among the Sioux, and is accepted as an honorary member of the tribe after he helps the Sioux to locate a large migrating herd of buffalo, upon which they are dependent as a source of nourishment, supplies, and clothing. Dunbar also helps defend the settlement against a Pawnee raiding party, providing the Sioux warriors with surplus rifles and ammunition from the fort. He eventually is accepted as a full member of the tribe, and is named Shu-mani-tu-tonka Ob' Wa-chi (the eponymous "Dances with Wolves"), after the scouts witnessed him frolicking with Two Socks, the wolf that follows Dunbar. He then marries Stands With A Fist and spends more time communing with the tribe than manning his post at Fort Sedgwick.

Dunbar's idyll ends when he must tell Kicking Bird that white men will continue to invade their land in numbers like the stars. They tell Chief Ten Bears, who decides it is time to move the village to its winter camp. As the final packing finishes, Dunbar realizes that his journal, left behind at the deserted fort, is a blueprint for finding the Sioux. It also reveals that he knows far too much about their ways. He returns to retrieve it, but finds Fort Sedgwick is re-occupied by reinforcing Army troops, who arrest and beat him as a deserter. Afterwards he is escorted by Army Officers and troopers away from Sedgwick. They happen upon Two Socks and the soldiers start taking pot shots at him (which Dunbar tries to prevent) eventually killing him when he wouldn't leave because he is faithful to Dunbar. Soon after a rescue party attacks the column of men. He is rescued by Wind In His Hair and other warriors from the tribe, as well as Smiles A Lot who later finds Dunbar's journal floating away in a stream. After returning to the winter camp Dunbar realizes that as a deserter and fugitive, if he stays with the Sioux he will continue to draw the unwelcome attention of the Army, and endanger the welfare of the tribe. Dunbar decides that he must leave the tribe, saying he must speak to those who would listen. His new wife accompanies him.

As Dunbar/Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist leave the camp they hear Wind In His Hair cry out that Dances with Wolves will always be his friend. A short time later a column of cavalry and Indian scouts arrive to find the camp site empty.

Cast

An Illustration -Kevin Costner

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Awards

Won:

Nominated:

Versions

Dances with Wolves has been released to DVD on five occasions. The first on 17 November 1998 on a single disc. The second on 16 February 1999 as a two disc set with a DTS Soundtrack. The third was released on 20 May 2003 as a two disc set (Special Extended Edition). The fourth was released on 25 May 2004 as a single disc in full frame. There is a "planned" three disc set with a 236 minute version on two discs and special features on the third, including a lengthy making-of documentary.[citation needed]

1998 Release (1 disc)

Disc 1: Movie

  • Format: anamorphic, closed-captioned, color, THX, wide screen, NTSC
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  • Run Time: 181 minutes
  • Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)

1999 Release (1 disc) (DTS)

Disc 1 & 2: Movie

  • Format: anamorphic, closed-captioned, color, wide screen, NTSC
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  • Run Time: 181 minutes
  • Audio Tracks: English (DTS), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • Commentary by: director Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson

2003 Release (2 discs) (Special Extended Edition)

Disc 1: (2 sided) Movie
Disc 2: Special Features

  • Format: anamorphic, closed-captioned, color, THX, wide screen, NTSC
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  • Run Time: 236 minutes
  • Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • Commentary by: Kevin Costner and producer Jim Wilson, director of photography Dean Semler and editor Neil Travis
  • New extended version with never-before-seen additional scenes (236 minutes)
  • New "The Creation of an Epic" retrospective documentary
  • Original making-of featurette
  • Original music video
  • New Dances photo montage with introduction by Ben Glass
  • New Poster gallery

2004 Release (1 disc)

Disc 1: Movie

  • Format: closed-captioned, color, NTSC
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Run Time: 181 minutes
  • Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)

2008 (?) Release (3 discs)

Disc 1 & 2: Movie
Disc 3: Special Features

  • Run Time: 236 minutes
  • Audio Tracks: English/Lakota
  • Director's commentary
  • New "The Creation of an Epic" retrospective documentary
  • Original making-of featurette
  • Original music video
  • New Dances photo montage with introduction by Ben Glass
  • New Poster gallery

Soundtrack

For more information: Dances with Wolves (soundtrack).

John Barry composed the Award-winning score, which became a very popular film score. Pope John Paul II once referred to it as among his favorite pieces of music.[3] It was issued in 1990 initially and again in 1995 with bonus tracks and in 2004 with the score "in its entirety."

Sequels

The Holy Road, a well-received sequel novel by Michael Blake, the author of both the original "Dances With Wolves" novel and the movie screenplay, was published in 2001. It picks up eleven years after "Dances With Wolves." John Dunbar is married to Stands With A Fist and they have three children. Stands With A Fist and one of the children are kidnapped by a party of white rangers and Dances With Wolves must mount a rescue mission. As of 2007 Blake was writing a film adaptation, although Kevin Costner was not yet attached to the project. See: Blake, Michael. The Holy Road, Random House. ISBN 0-375-76040-7

Trivia

  • Dances with Wolves became the highest grossing Western film of all time, with nearly $184 million in U.S. box office sales [1].
  • The film was often praised for its different portrayal of Native Americans, because it went beyond the typical Hollywood portrayal of either the 'noble' or the 'blood-thirsty savage'. For his effort, Costner was made an honorary member of the real-life Sioux people.[2]
  • The language spoken in the film is a fairly accurate, if simplified, version of the actual Lakota language. Lakota Sioux language instructor Doris Leader Charge (1931-2001) was the on-set Lakota dialogue coach and also portrayed Pretty Shield, wife of Chief Ten Bears, portrayed by Floyd Red Crow Westerman.
  • Because Lakota contains both masculine and feminine forms of speech, the filmmakers decided to simplify the language by using the feminine form for all Lakota speech in the film. Native speakers of Lakota were reportedly highly amused by hearing warriors and other men in the film speak as if they were women.
  • Despite portraying the adopted daughter of Graham Greene's character Kicking Bird, Mary McDonnell, then 37, was actually two months older than Greene, and less than two years younger than Tantoo Cardinal, the actress playing her adoptive mother.
  • Lt. John Dunbar's career trajectory, including his Indian Wars posting as reward for accidental heroism in the US Civil War, is nearly identical to Captain Wilton Parmenter's (Ken Berry) in the 1960s TV show "F Troop". Both enjoyed unusually chummy relationships with the local tribes.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Dances with Wolves: Overview" (plot/stars/gross, related films), allmovie, 2007, webpage: amovie12092.
  2. ^ a b "Dances with Wolves" (overview), IMDb, 2007, webpage: IMDb-99348.
  3. ^ Hollywoodland. David Wallace. 2003.

According to the Making Of documentary on the Special Edition Dances With Wolves DVD, not all of the buffalo were computer animated and/or puppets. In fact, Costner and crew employed the largest domestically owned buffalo ranch and used the herd for the hunting scene. The hunt chase was filmed live and Costner did his own stunts for the shots. The only computer animation and puppetry special effects that were used were for the shots of the buffalo falling.

References

  • Blake, Michael. Dances with Wolves, Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-449-00075-3.
  • Blake, Michael. The Holy Road, Random House. ISBN 0-375-76040-7.
  • Desobrie, Jean. "Rencontre avec des films remarquables" (Film Analysis - In French), Roger. ISBN 2-903880-03-4.
Awards
Preceded by Academy Award for Best Picture
1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Golden Globe for Best Picture - Drama
1990 		Succeeded by

Template:Americanfilms1990s

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