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DVD Corner: ‘Dances With Wolves’ worthy of Oscars
Mac Olsen
for Spotlight
Rated 14A by Canadian Home Video Rating 3 hours, 56 minutes $21.95 for two-disc special edition available at www.columbiahouse.ca
Kevin Costner has had very few outstanding movies in his career, but ‘Dances With Wolves’ is among the best.
Costner directs and acts in this 1990 movie, which also stars Mary McDonnell as Stands With A Fist and Graham Greene as Kicking Bird.
The movie opens with Lt. John Dunbar (Costner) fighting as a Union soldier in the Civil War. But he’s suffering a crisis and sees no way out but death, so he heads out into the middle of a battlefield, hoping a Confederate soldier will find his mark.
However, it seems fate has intervened and Dunbar is treated as a hero for “rallying” the other Union soldiers to attack the Confederates. For his “valour,” he’s given his choice of assignments and decides to go to an outpost on the frontier. He wants to see it before it disappears, because of the westward migration of American settlers.
No one’s there when he arrives, so he sets about cleaning up the garbage and conducts patrols. Initially, the boredom is only alleviated by visits from a wolf.
But soon he encounters the Lakota Sioux, including Stands With A Fist. She’s distraught about the death of her Indian husband, to the point of attempting suicide. Dunbar takes her back to the tribe, well aware it could mean his death.
But Kicking Bird senses something special about Dunbar. They hold a series of meetings and, gradually, Dunbar forms a special bond with the Sioux. Kicking Bird even gives him his new name, Dances With Wolves, when he sees the soldier and the wolf playing together.
A bond also develops between Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist. Their relationship is uneasy at first, but they soon become intimate and a Sioux- style marriage is in the works.
For the first time in his life, Dunbar/Dan- ces With Wolves feels at peace with himself. He no longer desires to live in the white man’s world; he wants to live as a member of the Sioux tribe.
However, that hunter/gatherer lifestyle won’t last forever because civilization is pressing in from all sides. Also, Dunbar/ Dances With Wolves has one last encounter with his military comrades which could prove fateful.
This movie has many positives, including the cast. Costner, McDonnell and Greene delve deeply into their characters and what motivates them. They also explore the world of a tribal people in a way other Westerns before them didn’t. The stereotype of the “bad” Indian is no where to be found in their performances.
The production elements are also first rate, including the cinematography of the South Dakota prairie and the forests of Wyoming. Finally, there’s John Barry’s sweeping, upbeat music, especially during the scenes where Dunbar is crossing the prairies.
Overall, ‘Dances With Wolves’ deserves five stars out of five and is worthy of the seven Oscars it received.
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Dances with Wolves
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