Union Army Officer Lieutenant John J. Dunbar (Kevin Costner) when Sioux named him Dance With Wolves with the wolf named Two Socks. He falls in love with a white woman named Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell) when the two even secretly have sex & get married. Dance With Wolves' wife accompanied him as Dances With Wolves Dunbar & Stands With A Fist leave camp.
It starts greatly as an beautiful movie about tolerance and respect. But then it starts to sound as just an excuse to all the atrocity the americans made to the indians.
What an amazing film this is. Very well directed by Kevin Costner. Has to be one of the best films of all time. The acting from Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene are brilliant. I looked on this website and it said that the Oscar Best Picture for 1990 should have gone to GoodFellas like Sense And Sensibility should have got the 1995 Oscar Best Picture instead of Braveheart. But I think Dances With Wolves deserved its Best Picture Oscar. The action is absolutely awesome. The art direction is probably the best because it is set in a large field and the sunsets are beautiful. The film is quite graphic in some places particularly the scenes with the buffalos and the Indians ravaging for food. The costume design is brilliant aswell. I could watch this film over and over again.
The film of a lifetime for Kevin Costner which shows that when he puts his mind to it, he can act. Beautiful viewing, beautiful cinematography and characters for everyone to care about.
Let me start off by saying that this film is a masterpiece. Almost every aspect of filmmaking is at its finest here. For a directorial debut, Costner did an excellent job. However, this film was too long for me. Almost 4 hours long! So I was bored in some of the film, but it was still a terrific film.
Ten Bears: [in Lakota] The white men who wore this came around the time of my grandfather's grandfather. Eventually we drove them out. Then the Mexicans came. But they do not come here any more. In my own time, the Texans. They have been like all the others. They take without asking. But I think you are right. I think they will keep coming. When I think of that, I look at this helmet. I don't know if we are ready for these people. Our country is all that we have, and we will fight to keep it.
I have to give Costner this. Out of all the horrible performances he's given, he never actually ruins a good movie. And surprisingly, he can make a decent movie as well. I'm not throughly convinced Costner can act his way out of a hat, unlike Nicholas Cage who has equally bad (if not worse) performances but still comes out with some incredible stuff like Adaptation, and it shows in this movie. I couldn't honestly tell you who would fit his role well, but it's definitely not him. Most of the scenes where the focus is on the Native Americans, or even on the beautiful landscapes Costner films, the film shines as something exceptional. But as it stands, the film has some serious flaws due to it's main reason for being, Kevin Costner.
Sincere, capable, at times moving, but overextended, this picture is seriously hampered by its tendency to linger over everything -- especially landscapes with silhouetted figures, and not excluding its own good intentions. Costner tends to look at something, whether it be the beautiful landscape or a filthy cup, and sometimes spend five minutes talking about it, paralleling it to situations or events that the audience just does not care about. Clocking in around four hours, you can see how this could become tiring.
The story revolves Lieutenant John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) who gets exiled to a remote western Civil War outpost after his eccentric behavior in the field of war. While there, Dunbar comes to realize the beauty and significance of the land the soldiers are taking from the Indian. He soon makes friends with one of the local tribes, after breaking the boundary of communication that would have stopped most other people from attempting to reach a common ground with the people. Dunbar finds help communicating with the leader, Ten Bears, through the use of a white settler turned Ponche, McDonnell's character, who he eventually falls in love with. Throughout most of the movie he develops a deep bond with the tribe members and helps them avoid the persecution of the army, at the risk of his own safety. By the end, Ten Bears comes to the realization that his tribes and the rest of the Native Americans will continue to run until there is no where left to run, as Dunbar and Mary ride off into the unknown future.
Costner's sincerity in making this film helps propel the film past an atrocity into something truly moving. The Indians like Ten Bears and Two Socks show a personal and humane approach to the way the peaceful tribes only strove to keep their land in an increasingly white, European dominated land. So the acting from the Indian actors are incredible, but what about the two main leads, Costner and Mary McDonnell? Well Costner has the same apathetic and pathetic style of acting as he has in every other movie, but manages to give some sort of enjoyment when he is around his Indian companions. McDonnell on the other hand, does the best with what she has and give a captivating performance as the confused white girl who was raised by Native Americans. Her journey's pretty incredible throughout the movie. She hasn't really been in much, except the phenomenal Battlestar Galactica, but she does great in what little she's in.
I've owned this film for about two years now and it has taken me this long to watch it. I don't know exactly why, I had heard loads of good things about it but it just never really appealed to me. I thought i better review it now before I forget about it and it takes another year to get round to doing that. I realise now why people make such a fuss about it because it was a pretty good film. The only real thing I can pick at would be the length of the thing. Boy was this a very long film. It was worth every second but I really can't see myself watching it again any time soon. Kevin Costner has had some high and low points to his career and this was definatly a high point. His performance is outstanding. I'm not usually into epics but this one has something different about it. Very touching film. I did however, feel it should have ended sooner than it did. I didn't think the empty camp scene was necessary. A film not to be missed. Don't wait as long as I did to watch it.
Starring and directing? Fancy! But Costner does an outstanding job of both in this western about a Civil War Lt. making friends with Native Americans. The film isn't condescending or hateful towards indians like most westerns, but it's not quite patronizing, either; it's somewhere in between. John Barry's mesmerizing score puts the finishing touches on what was a rightfully deserved multiple-Oscar winning classic. Costner's definite masterpiece.
A terrific movie, but it had some flaws. Pacing for one. I can watch a really long movie, but the pace of this one was off. All in all a very good film though.
The second time I watched this, I was older. I knew to watch it in installments. It is very long, but a well told story. It is a classic. A great movie that I will remember forever. I recommend it to anyone who has never seen it.
Wooow. There's so much to say about this movie that I don't even know where to begin. This was pure astonishing and I'm very surprised I hadn't seen it sooner. Dances With Wolves was wonderful and it's now one of my favorites. <3
A true classic in the entire sense of the world: epic, moving, great acting, cinematography, script, story... all amazing. I first saw it when I was 9 and even then I was just blown away. Seeing as an adult just makes you appreciate it even more. It's definitely gonna stay with me forever.
Simple and complex at the same time. Kevin Costner brings to us one of the finest anti-westerns of the modern era, with such beautiful and touching moments throughout, and some lessons to learn.
It was better than I remembered it being, but it was a little meandering at times. The cinematography was beautiful though, and yeah, it was pretty sad when they killed Two Socks.
An engrossing western epic with intimate and poetical sensitivity and a wonderful score by John Barry. Kevin Costner is very good in his role and behind the cameras. Excellent directorial debut for this outstanding human drama.
So what's it about? Lt. John Dunbar, exiled to a remote western Civil War outpost, befriends wolves and Indians, making him an intolerable aberration in the military.
My thoughts on the movie? I don't believe that there is or ever will be a "Perfect film" because everyone has different tastes and there will never be a film that everyone loves however there can be films that a ideally suited to certain individuals tastes and therefore achieves perfection for them individuals. Dances With Wolves is the film that is most ideally suited to my tastes therefore I see it as the perfect movie to me and it doesn't matter if other people hate it or just thought it was average because to me it was ideal. I think this movie could become the best movie I have ever seen after I have watched it again because I have only seen it once so far so I think it would be unfair to my favourite movie of all time because I have seen that like five times. I made sure that I seen the 4 hour extended version of this movie and to be honest I really couldn't see how it could have been any shorter than that because there was not one thing I would take out of the movie. The acting was superb and the cinematography was absolutely stunning with some of the scenery at times being completely breathtaking in what was an astonishing directorial achievement from Kevin Costner. I would say Dances With Wolves is probably the most complete movie I have ever scene and there aren't really any words that I could use that would sum up how great this movie was so all I will say is that it is quite simply in the true sense of the word a Masterpiece.
Most memorable quote:"I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life there is one that matters most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail and it is good to see."
REALISM.. the native americans (Sioux) in this are stunningly gorgeous.. it shows how the two cultures clashed and why.. this film cant really be rated.
two years ago i would have given this film 2 stars coz we were made study it for english clss, but after all that i ave a greater respect for the film and the story it tells. beautifully directed and the cinematogropy is amazing, i wonder what my name would have been 'stands with a fryin pan ready to beat you' huh has a nice ring to it if you ask me.
MCT:July 2, 2008
MCT:June 23, 2008
MCT:June 23, 2008
MCT:June 18, 2008
MCT:June 10, 2008
MCT:May 24, 2008
