Dances With Wolves

UK Release Date. 8 February 1991
Certification. 12
Running Time. 3 hours 1 mins
Director. Kevin Costner
Cast. Kevin Costner, Rodney A. Grant, Graham Greene, Mary McDonnell, Wes Studi.
Rating. 83%

Review.

At the 63rd Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards ceremony, Dances With Wolves won seven awards, including Best Picture. In doing so, Dances With Wolves became only the second western to ever win the Best Picture Award [following on from Cimarron in 1931]. When you consider the catalogue of formidable westerns that went before - Howard Hawks' Red River, Fred Zinnemann's High Noon, John Ford's The Searchers, Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West and George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid - this is, indeed surprising, and impressive. Perhaps even more impressive when you consider that Dances With Wolves was awarded the Best Picture Award ahead of Goodfellas. 

Dances With Wolves opens with a brief prologue in which Lieutenant John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) establishes himself as a war hero by inadvertently providing a diversion for a weakened band of Union soldiers to overrun an entrenched Confederate brigade. As a reward Dunbar is afforded a station anywhere he wants. He chooses the frontier, and soon is dispatched to the small South Dakota post of Fort Sedgewick.

For over a month, Dunbar is alone at Fort Sedgewick and these scenes where  Dunbar is the solitary member of the Fort Sedgewick garrison are some of the strongest in the film. There is an elegant cinematic patience in these scenes as the audience grows not only to learn about the man, but about the landscape itself. The first hour of Dances With Wolves serves almost entirely as exposition, but the refined visuals, sumptuous score and reflective tone are truly captivating.

Initially overawed by the vastness of his surroundings, Dunbar eventually attempts to make contact with the local Lakota population of Sioux. At first there is mutual distrust, but a sense of intrigue soon develops. Through time, Dunbar learns enough of their language and culture to find that he much prefers the Sioux way of life to his own, and starts to assimilate himself into the community.

Dances With Wolves is unapologetically romantic, and at times, unashamedly melodramatic. On reflection, the plot is perhaps a little too overtly sentimental, especially towards the conclusion of the film.  

Kevin Costner made Dances With Wolves when his star was very much in the ascendancy, following the release of The Untouchables, Bull Durham and Field Of Dreams. The actor, turned director, proves remarkably adept at translating Michael Blake's adapted screenplay of his own novel to the big screen. His instincts as a storyteller are largely spot on, and aided by veteran cinematographer, Dean Semler (of Mad Max 2 and Dead Calm), the majestic plains of South Dakota have never looked so good. The end result is one of the most ambitious and impressive debuts from any novice filmmaker of that period.

Dances With Wolves enthrals with its sweeping direction, gentle humour and lack of pretentiousness. The Native Americans are portrayed with unprecedented affection (the Sioux more so than the Pawnee). It would appear, like Dunbar, Costner's debut offering showcases an effort to understand a culture he was clearly deeply interested in. 

The film remains a befitting homage to the epic westerns of yesteryear.