DANCES WITH WOLVES

US, 1990, 180 minutes (Special Edition 233 minutes, Colour).
Kevin Costner, Mary Mc Donnell, Graham Green, Maury Chaykin, Tantoo Cardinal, Robert Pastorelli.
Directed by Kevin Costner.

Dances With Wolves won immediate acclaim as one of the best films of 1990. It is a strong step forward in the career of Kevin Costner (Silverado, Untouchables, No Way Out, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams). He co-produced and directed the film as well as starring in it.

The screenplay was written by Costner's friend Michael Blake from his own novel. It treats material seen in the early '70s in such films as Little Big Man, Soldier Blue. It also goes back to the presentation of Indians sympathetically in the big breakthrough film of 1950, Delmer Daves' Broken Arrow. However, this film is even more grand in its sweep, beautiful in its Panavision South Dakota location photography, running time of 3 hours. An authentic Indian cast plays the Indian roles and much of the dialogue is in the traditional Lakota language.

Costner gives a strong performance as the Civil War soldier who, despairing, wants to die but unwittingly leads an attack. As a hero, he is able to go where he wants and opts for the frontier before it disappears. Isolated in the lonely Dakota outpost, he befriends the Indians and learns their way of life and culture, becomes one with them. The Indians are presented in a sympathetic way, the details of their life presented. It is the military who are presented as the evil ones.

The film is enjoyable in its narrative, humane in its sweep, a significant piece of Americana in the cinema.

1. The acclaim for the film? The work of Kevin Costner and his associates?

2. American history, the Civil War, the frontier and the military, the forts, the Dakota frontiers? The reconstruction of the Indian way of life, language? Culture, battles? The buffalo hunts?

3. The beauty of the photography, the seasons, the landscapes? The staging of the Civil War battles? The musical score?

4. The scope of the screenplay: the United States in the 19th century, the impact of the Civil War; injury, death? The Indians and their way of life, the plains, the buffalo? The frontiers? Change and destruction? Indian dignity, life and language?

5. The portrait of the Indians, humanity, customs? The clash between the Sioux and the Pawnees? The buffalo hunt?

6. The white perspective, white storytelling for a white and mixed audience? Sympathy to the Indians? To the whites? Antagonism towards the whites?

7. Kevin Costner as John Dunbar: the voice-over, his writing the book and his drawings? His background, fighting for the Union, waking up and needing the amputation, his escape? Encountering the soldiers, his mad ride and praying to die, the heroics, applauded by both sides, the charge, the officer and his medical help, sending John to the frontier?

8. The portrait of the Civil War, both sides, in the fields, the ordinary men and their inexperience, the officers and their lack of experience, waiting, the heroics, injury, the medics, death?

9. The frontier and the fort, the eccentric commander, talking about myths and knighthood, his drinking, permits, jealousy of Dunbar, his being deranged, his killing himself?

10. Timmons and his wagon, accompanying Dunbar, Dunbar taking the horse, his eccentric behaviour, smelly, vulgar? The customs of the West? The trek, the vistas, the Dakotas? Finding the fort empty, the challenge, setting himself up? Timmons' return, trading, the attack by the Indians, his death and scalping?

11. Dunbar and his voice-over, his writing, drawing, keen observations, preparation of the fort, the water and the dead deer, the empty mines, his sense of duty and roster?

12. The wolf and its watching, White Sox, tame, the encounters with Dunbar, his being present, a mythic guardian figure, feeding the wolf, chasing the wolf and its playfulness, the Indians watching Dunbar and giving him the name Dances With Wolves? The solders killing the wolf - the end of an era, the death of the symbol?

13. The Indians and the raiding party, their antagonism towards the whites? Killing Timmons? The puzzle about Dunbar? The conferences - Kicking Bird and Wind In His Hair and their different points of view? Kicking Bird going to Dunbar and his washing in the water, coming naked and confronting Kicking Bird with the horse?

14. The Indians, the detail of village life, the council, interpreting Dunbar's behaviour, attitude towards the coming of white men? The threat? The confrontation with Dunbar? Watching, his communicating with them? The visits, the friendship with Wind In His Hair, the respect for Kicking Bird? Finding Stands With A Fist and her injury, her dead husband? Her fear, taking her back to the camp? The children, watching Dunbar, the raid and stealing the horse, falling off the horse? Their place in the camp?

15. The Bonds between Dunbar and the Indians, Ten Bears? Dunbar's happiness with the Indians, the loneliness of his return, wanting to go and visit, share? His joining in the buffalo hunt, the magnificent sweep of the buffalo rampaging, his hearing them, going to tell the Indians, joining them in the hunt, the killing of the buffalo for food? The irony of the discovery of the dead and skinned buffalo by the white traders?

16. The clash of the Sioux with the Pawnees, their fights, Dunbar wanting to join, the chief explaining that he must stay, taking care of his family? The battles with the Pawnee, their severity, the pursuit of the warriors and the killings?

17. Dunbar getting his Indian name, becoming part of the village life, his love for Stands With A Fist, wooing her, love, the permission for her to stop mourning, permission to marry, the wedding ceremony?

18. Stands With A Fist, the white woman with the Indians, the flashbacks to her story, little girl, the Indian attack, her being taken by them, growing with them? Her translating for Dunbar? Remembering her English? Communicating with him and helping him communicate with the Indians?

19. Kicking Bird, the holy man, his place in the village authority, his relationship with his wife? Wind In His Hair, the warrior and friendship? The young man who smiled? The children?

20. The capture of Dunbar by the soldiers, their accusations that he had gone Indian, the picture of the soldiers, crass, brutal, crude? Fighting? The interrogations, the soldier trying to steal the feathers, Dunbar's diary and using it for toilet paper? Orders? The treatment of Dunbar, the brutality? The Indians watching, the planum following the soldiers, the difficulties of travel, the raid, the battles, the death of the soldiers, the rescue? Dunbar and his fight with the soldiers, his brutal killing of his guard? His comment that it was just to kill this man?

21. Going back to the village, the threat from the soldiers, going on the move, the wintry season? Dunbar's decision to leave, the preparations, Wind In His Hair on the cliff? The farewell to Kicking Bird? The smiling boy returning the diary? Going with his wife? The wolf dead? The end of the season?

22. Dunbar and his experience of the frontier, looking at the frontier of the West, discovering the frontier of his soul?

23. The postscript, the Sioux Indians, their freedom, their surrender in Nebraska, the end of the plains culture?

24. The scope of the film, content, values, pictorial style? An achievement of 1990?