Review of Dances with Wolves (1990) by Jackson W — 02 Apr 2014

Well, it's not a bad movie, but I didn't really buy into the hype about "Dances with Wolves". It could be entertaining, but it could have been more so. It was decently acted, but it could have had a better draw. Diving right into the story, it follows Lt. John Dunbar, a Civil War soldier who goes on an adventure in the deserted wilderness inhabited by Sioux Indians. When they first meet, there is hostility, of course, over race-related issues. The indians fear that the white man is coming and Dunbar warns them about it. All while being welcomed into their tribe, falling in love with a white woman known as Stands with a Fist, and developing a relationship with nature.

All right, a couple of problems right off the bat. This story is absolutely nothing new, I've seen it before. Hollywood's inability to tell a fleshed out well-developed story revolving around race is surprising. It's always the innocent tribe and the greedy white man wanting to take over. There's no real explanation to this, only because they look different they are natural enemies. I'm sure actual historical accounts of this had a deeper meaning, but like other films that do this, it's just "They look different, so we don't like them". Second, Costner isn't bad, but his character isn't really that interesting. I'll get to the positives later, but he just seems sort of bland and a big chunk of the movie is just hearing him write in his diary with not so memorable lines. The third thing I want to bring up is that the film is much too long. And it's rare that I say that because it's just how movies work. It takes a while for the plot, scenery, and characters to fully come into place while also being entertaining. But is there really any need to make this 3 hours long? It's a pretty simple story with most of the characters not having that much intrigue, it could have been at least a little shorter. On top of that, it really had nothing to do with the Civil War, which to me was a disappointment.

Now onto the positive aspects, one character that is interesting is Stands With a Fist. The film should really be about her, she's the one with a tragic back story of losing her family and being raised by the tribe. And her existing in the Sioux world creates more drama between the two opposing sides. She's more interesting than the typical pretty girl love interest that is usually in these movies. Next, when the story does revolve around the survival of the Sioux tribe, it gets to be interesting. The scene in particular when they hunt the buffalo is fun to watch, and the insight to a lot of the other cultural rituals they have can look great too. Another notable scene is where Dunbar, or Dances with Wolves, dances around the fire earning him his nickname as the wolf Twosocks comes up. That's one symbolism I got into was his relationship with the wolf, which did point back to the rivalry that the film was about in symbolizing how best to handle the enemy. But those scenes were still entertaining.

It's not great, it's not terrible, it's just okay. I just really wanted to like this film more than I did, and for me it was kind of a mixed bag.