Starring Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell & Graham Greene
Rating 10/10
Film
It’s 1863; the American Civil War is raging. Injured First Lieutenant John Dunbar (Costner) escapes the incompetent field surgery, choosing his own fate. He ends up doing something brave and, in return, he is offered any post he likes. He chooses to go West and ends up at the abandoned Fort Sedgwick.
In this lonely land, his only friends are his horse and a slightly wild wolf that visits him every day. Soon he encounters a Sioux tribe and decides to befriend them. He finds a Sioux woman, Stands With A Fist (McDonnell), bleeding and returns her to her tribe. Friendship is soon established with Kicking Bird (Greene). It is revealed that Stands With A Fist is actually a white woman who was rescued after her family was attacked by the Pawnee when she was a kid. Then there’s buffalo, battles, gross stuff, love and snow. The plot rocks so I won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t seen this masterpiece.
Review
Beautiful, historical, watchable, soulful, this film is a true Best Picture winner. It’s not often you get a great story with brilliant storytelling skills, especially from a first-time director. With minimal dialogue, Director, Kevin Costner and the gang use music, images and space in such a simple way to make a breathtakingly beautiful film.
I must admit, monotonal Costner was born to play this part. He’s a much better actor when he’s not talking so this was a perfect role for him. McDonnell gave a convincing performance as the Sioux convert. Her translation of Sioux into English was convincing and that hair! Don’t get me started on the hair.
However, the stars of this masterpiece would have to be the Native American actors in the beautiful Sioux community. None of the performances were awkward or forced. It just seemed real. Grahame Greene, Rodney A. Grant and Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse (and of course many others) portrayed a noble peaceful people, threatened by the influx of white people. In comparison, caucasian people appeared rough and cold hearted, blood thirsty and ignorant.
I cannot rave enough about this film. Though it is long, it is so watchable – I can’t wait to see the four hour version. It’s disturbing but not devastating, soulful but not sappy, minimalistic but not boring. It harks back to the Gone With the Wind films without all that OTT melodrama.
It is simply a masterpiece and if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do – with matching food, of course!
Food
Super-simple and as authentic as can be, Native American Fry Bread is a MUST-EAT snack for this incredible movie. Join John Dunbar as he transitions from his life in the army, in the violent world of the white man, into the beautiful community of his new Native American family. Whip up a batch of Traditional Indian Fry Bread with this recipe from Norine’s Nest.
Dances With Wolves trivia
- Budget – $22 million (worth every cent I tell ya!)
- It took only four months to film but they experienced delays due to unpredictable weather in South Dakota
- The buffalo scene had not CGI. There were very few animatronics. Most were real buffalo, during a real stampede.
- Costner was thrown off his horse during the stampede and almost broke his back
- The Sioux language has male/female gendered and the Sioux expert on the set was a woman, which meant that Costner was speaking female Sioux instead of male.
- Water was brought in to fill up the pond as there was a drought on the Fort Sedgwick location
- One of the wolves actually bit the trainer in the scene where Two Socks is being told to go home. When Costner is running away from him, he had to throw meat to the animal to keep him from nipping him too.
- The buffalo in the charging scene was actually running towards a pile of his favourite snack, Oreo Cookies. Go figure!
- With the film over budget, Costner had to kick in $3 million of his own money. But the film was so successful, he earned $40 million in return. A sound investment indeed.
- Costner’s six year old daughter plays the young Stands With a Fist
- McDonnell asked for the love scenes to be tamed down, as she wasn’t comfortable making tha lurve as explicitly as the script suggested.
FAQs
But not all Native Americans were happy with the film. Native activist Russell Means criticized the incorrect-gendered translation (see #4 below in trivia list). The Pawnee were troubled that they were depicted as vicious killers, when they felt that they were the tribe that had been savaged by the Lakota.
What products does Dunbar grind for the Native Americans? ›
Granted, Dunbar and the Sioux experience several misunderstandings, such as the scene where they are trying to communicate the word "buffalo," or when Dunbar is grinding coffee for his baffled Indian guests.
Are there subtitles for the Indians in Dances With Wolves? ›
Yes, the film is long — just more than three hours. Yes, a good portion of the dialogue is in the Native American language of Lakota (the Sioux Indian language) and employs subtitles. Nonetheless, “Dances With Wolves” is a film of which it truly can be said, I loved every hour of it.
How historically accurate is Dances With Wolves? ›
Beyond the truth that Dances With Wolves is a fictitious account, many elements from Kevin Costner's masterpiece are based on reality. For example, although the movie was filmed in South Dakota and Wyoming, there were actual Union bases on the Kansas-Colorado border during that time.
Did they speak real Sioux in Dances With Wolves? ›
Some of the criticism of the film centered on the lack of authenticity of the Lakota language used in the film, as only one of the actors was a native speaker of the language. Oglala Lakota activist and actor Russell Means was critical of the film's lack of accuracy.
What are the inappropriate scenes in Dances With Wolves? ›
A man has sex with a woman; no nudity, but woman's bare back is shown as she undresses. A wife groping her husband, though this occurs just offscreen. The man squats while defecating. We see his bare hip and side of buttock.
Did the Dakota Indians dip their arrows in manure? ›
As the chief explained, the Lakota dip their arrows in manure, making a hit almost certainly fatal.
Was Two Socks a real wolf in Dances With Wolves? ›
Two Socks was performed by two different wolves originally owned by Michael Kane. One was called Buck and the other was called Teddy, and both were kept on set at all times.
Was the buffalo scene in Dances With Wolves real? ›
The production company went to great effort and expense to stage realistic animal scenes without harming the animals. There is a huge buffalo stampede and hunt, which was partially achieved with the use of fake and mechanical buffalos. The cost of construction of these 23 fake animals was $250,000.00.
Who is the female Indian in Dances With Wolves? ›
Mary McDonnell(I)
She later attended drama school and was accepted into the prestigious Long Wharf Theatre Company on the East Coast. Two decades later, she landed her breakthrough film role, in Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990), playing "Stands with a Fist", a white woman raised by the Sioux Indians.
The audio-visual text of this film -- which ends with the "spine-tingling howl" of a wolf framed by a "great, yellow full moon" and, then, Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist (played by Mary McDonnell) walking together up a canyon trail, away from the camera which "slowly pulls back" -- precedes the coda-like ...
Who was the Indian girl in Dances With Wolves? ›
WASHINGTON, D.C. In "Dances With Wolves," actress Mary McDonnell plays the "wicincala." The "winyan." You know, the "tehila" of Kevin Costner's life. But, playing the chick, if you will, in the film was no problem for the Obie Award-winning actress, whose stage credits are a mile long.
Was John Dunbar a real person? ›
While the character of John Dunbar is fictional, there was a real person with the same name who shared surprising similarities. The author of the novel borrowed the name without knowing about the real person, and there are other overlapping connections between the real Dunbar and the fiction.
Is LT John J Dunbar a real person? ›
Though John Dunbar was a fictional character in Dances With Wolves, a person with that name existed during the same time period as the movie, possessing a shocking number of similarities.
What are the criticisms of Dances with Wolves? ›
The portrayal of white cruelty, such as in the scene with rotting buffalo carcasses littering the prairie, invert the classic narrative, both in the genre of Westerns and in how history is often taught. The film identifies who the real savages were, and Kevin Costner should get a lot of credit for that.
Why are Dances With Wolves criticized? ›
Kevin Costner's character John Dunbar is seen as the hero and savior of the Lakota Sioux. This is problematic because it puts the white characters of the film on a pedestal. It shows the viewer that the band of Lakotas is unable to defend and protect themselves from colonizers' invasion.
What was false about the movie Dances With Wolves? ›
Historian Garry Adelman finds multiple inaccuracies in Dances with Wolves' portrayal of the Civil War, including the depiction of amputation and weaponry usage. Adelman believes that the movie fails to accurately represent the painkiller usage and precise medical techniques involved in Civil War amputations.
What cultures respect wolves? ›
The Tsitsista (Cheyenne), Lakota, Dakota, Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot), Assiniboine, Arikara, Arapaho, Osage, Shoshone, and Pawnee all tell stories of wolves as role models who taught people how to hunt. Many of the stories involve mutual support between people and wolves.
What is the Native American legend about wolves? ›
There is a Cherokee legend about an elderly brave who tells his grandson about life. “Son,” he says, “Within all of us there is a battle of two wolves. One is evil. He is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
