Dances With Wolves

There was a time going all the way back to the beginning of television when Westerns were amongst the most popular genre of show. Shows like The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Rawhide and Bonanza dominated in the ratings and John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart dominated on the silver screen. Then, during the seventies, this started to change. Western films started making less and less money and the industry started making less and less of them. People had moved on from the romanticization of the old west. Occasionally a film like Silverado or Young Guns would break through and turn a profit but, while these films were somewhat profitable they didn’t sway the critics enough to garner any real recognition come awards season. 

Then came Kevin Costner, an actor who was known for his dry acting performances. Costner was in 1985’s Silverado and was good friends with author Michael Blake so, when Blake penned the 1988 novel Dances With Wolves, Costner expressed interest in adapting it to the screen. With a relatively small budget and a script co-written by Blake himself the film went into production. The end result was a movie that was epic in scale and painted the Native Americans, specifically the Sioux tribe, as intelligent and caring people not much different than any other group of people. The characters were diversified and complex with a myriad of opinions and personalities. It was a very forward looking film and struck a chord with audiences and critics alike becoming just the second Western film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar. Years later, Kevin Costner revisited the film, re-editing it to a mammoth four-hour epic that turned out to be polarizing with some loving the expanded palette while others finding it overtly padded and excessively slow paced. For this review I watched the extended cut of the film. It was my first time revisiting Dances With Wolves since the early nineties but I thought I knew it particularly well. I was surprised with how little I did remember.

The year is 1863 and 1st Lieutenant John J. Dunbar (Kevin Costner), serving in the Union Army, is wounded in battle and is expected to lose his leg. Choosing death instead he steals a horse and rides out in front of the confederate lines. They repeatedly fire at him but miss and the resulting distraction allows the union army to mount a successful attack against them. For his “bravery” he is given preferential medical treatment which saves his leg. He is also gifted the horse he stole and granted his choice of posting. He requests a transfer to the American Frontier, wishing to see it while it still exists. When he arrives at Fort Hays he is assigned to the furthest outpost under the commander’s jurisdiction, Fort Sedgwick. Dunbar finds Fort Sedgwick deserted and in serious disarray. He begins repairs and awaiting reinforcements that never arrive. Instead, he encounters a Sioux native who is attempting to steal his horse. Dunbar’s sudden appearance, still nude from a fresh swim in the nearby pond, startles the native who flees. 

Knowing that word will get back to the other Sioux Indians, Dunbar sets out to meet them and extend a hand for peaceful coexistence. On the way he comes across Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white adopted Sioux woman who is mutilating herself in mourning for her recently killed husband. He stops her and she tries to escape but faints from her wounds. He carries her unconscious body into the Sioux camp where the inhabitants are initially hostile but over time he is able to establish a rapport with them. With the help of Stands With a Fist, who still remembers some of her English language, he is able to communicate with them. Eventually he will learn to speak their language and gain their trust. But white soldiers will be coming through and he is reluctant to tell the truth about their numbers and intent, conflicted by his growing attachment to the Sioux and his loyalty to the Union Army. 

This is a movie, like Enemy Mine, about a man discovering that those he’s told are his enemy are actually not that different from him. Where they do differ is explored, too, though. The Sioux have been concerned that the buffalo are late coming through and resources are getting scarce. When the buffalo do come back a group of white men slaughter a large amount of them just for their hides, wasting all the meat. This leads to a war party catching up to the men and killing them all, scalping them and holding a large celebratory gathering over the deaths. Dunbar reflects on this, realizing that as much as he likes these people there are some things he cannot accept about them. He spends that night away from them because he cannot bring himself to sleep amongst them right after this massacre. Later, when they are being attacked by the Pawnee Indians he will dig up his hidden rifles and assist in defending the Sioux tribe, gunning down every Pawnee that came in to attack. His moral compass has no issues with killing for defense but not when it is done in cold blooded revenge. 

The inclusion of Stands With a Fist can be looked at as a plot contrivance, added in to bridge the language gap. It does seem a bit too convenient that the Sioux would have a white woman, adopted when her family were slaughtered by the Pawnee, who, after decades still can speak English. It does allow for communication between Dunbar and the natives as well as help him learn to speak their language. On top of that it provides a love interest for him, one that the other natives not only understand but respect and approve of. Mary McDonnell does a credible job in this role, relegated in some scenes to just an interpreter, but still elevating the part. The two fall in love with each other and are permitted to marry. Her adoptive father, Kicking Bird (Graham Greene), is the heart and the mediator between Dunbar and the rest of the Sioux. He is the holy man of the tribe and is the first to reach out to Dunbar in friendship. 

As predicted the white soldiers eventually show up and the Sioux tribe is forced to disappear. John Dunbar, now rechristened by the Sioux as Dances With Wolves, feels that since the soldiers have learned of his existence they will continually hunt him down, putting the Sioux in danger. He must leave, taking his wife with him.  A Sioux warrior, Wind in His Hair (Rodney A. Grant), once an antagonist wishing to kill Dunbar, now stands up on a ridge and shouts his friendship for all to hear. It is almost word for word what he said when he first confronted him and shouted that he didn’t fear him. The words echo that of the other Sioux who have come to see him as one of their own and sorrow at the necessary parting. We are told in some pre-credit titles that the Sioux would evade those searching for them but that in just a few short years their culture, their very essence of being would be no more.  It is a harrowing epithet for a people that we’ve spent several hours getting to know and appreciate. It’s also condemning of what the settlers did as they expanded the Americas and ended centuries of native inhabitation. 

Dances With Wolves is a wonderfully realized historical epic, but it’s not a perfect film. It relies too heavily on voice over to get plot points, and Dunbar’s thoughts, across to the audience. Much like the voice over work Harrison Ford did for Blade Runner, Kevin Costner’s narration is dry and emotionless and never feels organic to the film. None of the other Union soldiers are depicted with the same humanity the Native Americans are given, either. When Dunbar gets captured towards the end of the film he is beaten unconscious, then tied up and beaten some more. His reception amongst the Sioux was met with a wide array of reactions, some hostile, some fearful and some more openly. From the white soldiers later, all there is is hostility and violence. It’s a level of shorthand that does the final act a bit of disservice and makes the soldiers too one dimensional. A single soldier that expressed some degree of discomfort in how Dunbar is being treated would have gone a long way towards remedying this.

This is a long movie. The director’s cut is even longer, yet it never feels too long even in that extended version. Nothing ground breaking was added to make it really worth seeking out the longer version unless you really want more of everything, though. Having not seen the original version since it first released on VHS in the early 90’s I didn’t notice any of the new scenes like I would have had I seen it more recently but watching this four hour film I was never once bored or felt the movie needed to hurry up and get to the point. That’s a testament to just how good of a film it is overall. Maybe the three hour cut is more taught and to the point but I didn’t feel like I needed the version I watched to be trimmed down at all. It was paced just fine and I found it to be a nearly perfect experience watching it again all these years later.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Jim Wilson and Kevin Costner (won)

Best Director: Kevin Costner (won)

Best Actor: Kevin Costner

Best Supporting Actor: Graham Greene

Best Supporting Actress: Mary McDonnell

Best Adapted Screenplay: Michael Blake (won)

Best Art Direction: Jeffrey Beecroft and Lisa Dean

Best Cinematography: Dean Semler (won)

Best Costume Design: Elsa Zamparelli

Best Film Editing: Neil Travis (won)

Best Original Score: John Barry (won)

Best Sound: Russell Williams, Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton and Gregory H. Watkins (won)

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Release Date: November 9, 1990

Running Time: 181 Minutes (236 Minutes Director’s Cut)

Rated PG-13

Starring: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene and Rodney Grant

Directed By: Kevin Costner