Review of Dances with Wolves (1990) by Nate W — 17 May 2010

Kevin Costner's epic revisionist Western is one of the best ever made. The untainted American frontier is delivered beautifully by Dean Selmer's wonderful widescreen compositions, but even more beautiful is the care taken in presenting the Sioux nation.

They're depicted neither as vicious savages nor exploited as omnipotent stereotypes as Native Americans so often were in classic Westerns, but as real people with real culture. Another triumph is how the film handles the language barrier between John Dunbar and his new Sioux friends.

This narrative isn't swept under the rug, but is explored at length as a long learning process for both parties, until mutual communication is achieved. The script brims with metaphor, and the performances are all terrific, with Mary McDonnell standing out as a white woman captured by the Sioux as a child and raised as one of their own.

Her performance is a lesson in acting. Clocking in at over three hours, it's a patient sit, but a rewarding one, with some dazzling action set pieces (especially the hair-raising buffalo hunt).