Film Review: Dances With Wolves (1990)

Western has been pronounced dead many times, but mostly in 1980s, after the catastrophic flop of Michael Cimino’s bloated 1980 epic Heaven’s Gate. The same decade, however, had a number of commercially successful western. Yet, it took ten years after Cimino’s fiasco for western to be finally recognised as alive a well thanks to Dance With Wolves, another epic which ended not only as celebrated directorial debut of Kevin Costner, but also most commercially successful western of all times and one of only three films of such genres to win an Oscar for Best Picture.

The film is based on the novel by Michael Blake. Plot begins in Tennessee 1863, during US Civil War when a protagonist, Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, Union officer gets wounded in the leg and, faced with prospect of amputation and remaining cripple for life, choses alternative in form of heroic death. His suicidal horse charge doesn’t get him killed and instead inspires his men to overtake Confederate position and win the battle. For this feat Dunbar, who ultimately managed to fully recover, gets reward by having new assignment by his own choosing. He decides to go to Indian Frontier in the West, sparked by desire to see it before he is ultimately changed by inevitable white settlement. Major Farmbrough (played by Maury Chaykin), mentally unbalanced commander of Fort Hayes, orders Dunbar to bring supplies and take new post in remote US Army outpost called Fort Sedgwick. When he arrives there, Dunbar finds the outpost abandoned and surrounded by nothing but endless prairie. Dunbar nevertheless decides to take his mission seriously, works his best to repair facility and makes studious note about his surrounding. His loneliness is first interrupted by lone wolf he befriends and starts calling Two Socks. But he is also met by group of Lakota Indians who are at first fascinated by strange white man. While warrior Wind in His Hair (played by Roy A. Grant) wants to kill or at least chase away intruder, holy man Kicking Birds (played by Graham Greene). Dunbar is even more curious and he gradually wins Indians’ trust, learns of their custom and the language, the latter with the help of Stands with the Fist (played by Mary McDonnel), white woman who had been adopted by tribe as a child. As time goes by and Dunbar loses touch with his mission and old life, he begins to consider himself Lakota and adopts name Dances With Wolves. But his happy life is interrupted with Lakotas having to defend themselves from rival Pawnee tribe and, later, by US Army that took over Fort Sedgwick and considers Dunbar a traitor.

Success of Dances With Wolves can be best explained by Michael Blake’s script embracing something that would become major force in Hollywood in decades to come – political correctness. While Hollywood westerns have taken Indians’ side while depicting Old West, few did with such passion and conviction as Kevin Costner’s debut film. World of Lakotas is presented as near-utopian and their community, led by wise sage Ten Bears (played by Floyd Red Crow Westerman) as in almost perfect harmony with nature. Portrayal of Indians and noble and, consequently, white settlers and soldiers as barbaric intruders, corresponded well with environmentalism which began to fill ideological void created in America and Western world with the end of Cold War. Dances With Wolves was one of the first film to suggest that ecological disaster created by white men’s near-extermination of the buffalo played crucial part in disappearance or subjugation of Indians but depriving them of food and wrecking their traditional way of life. Dances With Wolves signals its strong pro-Indian stance also by striving for as much authenticity as possible; all Native American roles are played by Native American actors and the characters even speak authentic Lakota or Pawnee dialogues (subtitled for English speakers in the audience).

Yet, despite clear political message, Dances With Wolves functions well as a western and also represents a good epic. Kevin Costner handles action scenes with great confidence, but the most attractive segment of the film is in beautiful vistas of untamed nature in South Dakota and Wyoming, captured well by cinematography of Dean Semler. Those images are accompanied by music score by John Barry, one of the finest work of that talented and prolific composer whose theme adds both epic dimension and melancholic atmosphere to film. Costner is also good as an actor, convincingly showing transformation of protagonist from merely curious professional soldier into someone willing to fully embrace his new community. Costner, who was among top Hollywood stars at the time, was wise enough to admit that some of his acting abilities might not be in the first league and cleverly decided to show Dunbar’s inner thoughts through narration via character’s diary. The rest of the cast is also very good, especially Graham Greene with his regal presence of wise and resourceful man. Mary McDonnell was also chosen well for the role of obligatory white woman; somewhat cliched and potentially thankless role is made realistic by McDonnell being in her late 30s and having more experience to convincingly portray character of white woman who all but forgot her past life.

Despite countless accolades and truly impressive box office, Dances With Wolves isn’t without its flaws and many argue that the Oscar should have gone to Scorsese’s Goodfellas instead. While Costner did admirable job in his directorial debut, he was at times too much in love with his work. The beginning, in which he plays heroic figure, is drenched in unnecessary pathos. The bizarre character of Major Farmbrough appears not to belong to the film. While character of Stands of the Fist is well-played, its introduction looks like too much of a concession to Hollywood conventions and need to have some sort of romantic subplot in this kind of film. The ending is somewhat underwhelming and requires too much on end titles to put the story in broader historical context. Dances With Wolves also suffers from slow pace, although not as severe in original three-hour version than in 1991 special edition that added extra hour of material. Yet, despite that it is still impressive work that would entertain not only fans of the western but those yearning for old school larger-than-life epics Hollywood doesn’t make any more.

RATING: 7/10 (++)

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