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DVD Dances with Wolves (Special Extended Edition)
Kevin Costner's 1990 epic won a bundle of Oscars for a moving, engrossing story of a white soldier (Costner) who singlehandedly mans a post in the 1870 Dakotas, and becomes a part of the Lakota Sioux community who live nearby. The film may not be a masterpiece, but it is far more than the sum of good intentions. The characters are strong, the development of relationships is both ambitious and careful, the love story between Costner and Mary McDonnell's character is captivating. Only the third-act portrait of white intruders as morons feels overbearing, but even that leads to a terribly moving conclusion. Costner's direction is assured, the balance of action and intimacy is perfect--what more could anyone want outside of an unqualified masterpiece? --Tom Keogh
Review(s): DVD Dances with Wolves (Special Extended Edition)
Two Thumbs Up
Dances With Wolves is a excellent movie for anyone to view, whether it be for entertainment or film study. It's quirky humor would appeal to those watching for recreation, and the interesting twist of storyline from cowboys vs. indians to indians vs. cowboys is a topic for conversation and study alike. This movie is a showcase for Kevin Costner, and the gorgeous landscapes wideshots makes it a beautiful watch.
I would recommend this movie to all.
Great Exciting Western Tale: Caution Not Historically Accurate
I really enjoyed this highly photogenic western that has great individual characters that focuses on Costner and the primary members of the Sioux tribe that he encounters including his eventual love interest. The original screen adaptation is better in my opinion than this extended version primarily due to the beginning of Costner's assignment west. In the original, you see the abandoned fort as Costner sees it not knowing what happened to the former occupants. The extended version, follows the book, and shows the dysfunctional troop leaving the post by a different route than Costner took on his arrival. The former version pulls you into the mystery as Costner's Dunbar sees it, not knowing why the post had been abandoned. There are also extended scenes of Costner's assignment under the mad ranking officer that includes an additional scene with Charles Rocket who is only prominent at the end of the original. The extended scenes of the mad officer I think also takes away from his sudden suicide that was better left as a less than clear mystery adding to the complexity of Dunbar's assignment. The historical issues are in conflict in that the Sioux are portrayed somewhat innocently as a tribe picked upon by all other tribes and Whites when in reality they were the largest and strongest tribe (series of six or more tribal branches) on the plains and actually fought one sided battles against the Pawnee and Crow. In the latter part of the film, you do see Pawnee acting as scouts for the army and that is accurate as the Crow, Shoshone and Pawnee allied themselves with the army against their much stronger and aggressive enemy. The other negative is the US Army as a whole look like beastly nitwits except Rocket who oddly cannot remember Dunbar's assignment (extended version) or perhaps is afraid to tell his superiors. But this is an exciting film and the acting is excellent along with Rodney Grant (Geronimo) and Graham Greene (Thunderheart). Greene in particular is an actor worth watching particularly in Thunderheart where he maintains much of his historic culture within the modern world. If one can deal with the historical conflicts (Like Erol Flynn's Custer in "They Died with Their Boots on"), it's an exciting tale and movie. Sadly, actors Robert Pastorelli (Murphy Brown, Michael) who excellently played the uncouth Timmons and Charles Rockett (SNL) who played Lt. Elgin both died early deaths.
A magnificent tribute for a culture lost over time...
"Dances With Wolves" is another great period piece that I can watch at least once a year, never tiring of the western frontier against mesmerizing setting and John Barry's Oscar-winning stirring music...
The motion picture is told through the words and experiences of a civil war soldier, Lieutenant John Dunbar, and Costner makes it an intensely spiritual journey which challenges the individual in so many ways...
After his suicidal and successful ride on the battlefield, Lt. Dunbar accidentally leads Union troops to victory against the Confederates... He is allowed to select his own reassignment... John opts to retreat into the wilderness, to the furthest frontier, where both the Sioux and Pawnee Indians still rule...
The film perfectly captures the finest kind of American audacity when Costner rides out alone in the Lakota plains, wearing full dress uniform and holding the large American flag to formally introduce himself to his Sioux neighbors... and the worst of America, the cruelty exercised by the army when it's found he's a Yankee soldier turned Indian and arrested as a traitor...
But it's the gentle humor and intimate moments of the movie which give Costner's ambitious epic Western its special flavor: scenes with Dunbar and his wild wolf Two Socks not daring, at first, to eat from his hand; his funny first encounter with a peaceful man Kicking Bird (Graham Greene); his love story with a stolen white woman living with the tribe called Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell); his relationship with a fierce impulsive warrior Wind in His Hair (Rodney A. Grant); and many others as Black Shawl (Tantoo Cardinal) advising her husband on affairs of the heart...
With its share of bow-and-arrow fights, joyous buffalo hunts, and unprecedented tender feelings for the American Indians, "Dances With Wolves" remains an amazing accomplishment and a magnificent tribute for a culture lost over time...
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