Dances With Wolves

Dances with Wolves (1990)

Runtime: I saw the 234 minute version

Directed by: Kevin Costner

Starring: Kevin Costner, Graham Greene, Mary McDonnell, Rodney A. Grant, Floyd Red Crow Westerman

From: Orion

I am glad I had enough free time to watch this all in the span of one night, on a Blu-ray that makes the picture and sound pretty tremendous. Even with the backlash some have against this, I do not agree with it. The Letterboxd review which I explain why is below.

(Note: The cut of the movie I am reviewing is the 234 minute version, known under several different names, from “Director's Cut” to “Special Edition” to “Final Cut')

In these modern times I have heard some criticisms of this movie, from it being centered around a “white savior” storyline to historical inaccuracies, down to its epic length. I understand all those complaints and also the big one of people feeling this “robbed” Goodfellas of all the awards it deserved. Now, Goodfellas is one of my all-time favorites and I do think it's the better film... yet I can still enjoy this film for what it is and I am even fine with it being almost 4 hours long. Besides, there have been far more egregious examples of the Oscars "getting it wrong" throughout its entire history.

The story isn't anything complex, but that's OK: John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) is unwittingly a Civil War hero so he was allowed to pick an assignment and he went out to the Plains because that was of interest to him. Through a series of circumstances he ends up alone in the middle of nowhere by himself and he gets to know the Sioux Indians and decides that's the life he prefers leading.

I thought the story was always interesting despite the epic length and its pacing being deliberate. It never seemed that long to me. The performances were all swell but I have to give the highest marks to the cinematography of beautiful rural South Dakota, the biggest scenes (the stampede of buffalo being the best one) and the great score from John Barry.

As for the fact that many of the “white people” in the film are portrayed as being really awful... I have no beef with that. Unfortunately Native Americans were treated that awfully back then so that seemed pretty authentic, as was the mature portrayal of the Sioux. While there likely will always be a backlash against it, I will always appreciate that a first time director/producer can star in a 3 hour Western back when both were pretty much never on the big screen and not only was it a hit but it still holds up pretty well 25 years later.