DANCES WITH WOLVES: 25th Anniversary Blu-ray (Orion Pictures 1990) MGM/Fox Home Video
A revisionist
western with enough expansive sweep and sun-drenched vistas for at least two
movies, Dances With Wolves (1990)
marks the memorable directorial debut of its star, Kevin Costner. In hindsight,
Costner’s movie career has always been one of minor regrets for yours truly.
After a few false starts in the 1980’s (most notably, having his scenes in The Big Chill, 1983 left on the cutting
room floor) Costner began anew, auspiciously billed as the scruffy, blue-jeaned,
mid-western stud muffin of two baseball classics; 1988’s Bull Durham and 1989’s Field
of Dreams. He also appeared to more awkward effect in Brian DePalma’s
compelling big screen revamp of the old TV G-man drama, The Untouchables (1987); in hindsight, a more noteworthy film for
Sean Connery’s Oscar-winning performance than Costner’s rather goony impression
of Elliot Ness. But then, Costner hit his stride. More than that, he sent
shock waves through the complacent film-making community with Dances With Wolves – made at a time
when the Hollywood western was considered box office poison. Indeed, the last
sprawling sagebrush saga had been Michael Cimino’s disastrous Heaven’s Gate (1980); a film that so
completely put the fear of God into this otherwise godless mecca by breaking
the venerable United Artists down to bedrock. The Hollywood press, never at a
loss to condemn any movie before it actually hits theaters, had already
sardonically dubbed Dances With Wolves,
‘Kevin’s
Gate’, even before the ink on Costner’s contract with Orion Pictures
had dried. And in the intervening months between its arduous gestation and lengthy
production shoot in Wyoming, the critic’s eagerness for another fiscal and
career-ending implosion could not be concealed.
While praise
was swift, it was not unanimous upon the movie’s debut, the critics again too quick
and too clever with their vitriol; perhaps because Dances With Wolves belied their naysaying by becoming an instant
smash hit with audiences, earning $424 million worldwide and taking home a slew
of little gold statuettes on Oscar night. Indeed, Dances With Wolves was the first western since 1931’s Cimarron (a commercial flop) to win the
coveted Best Picture Academy Award. As nothing breeds jealousy more than
success, so, invariably, has Dances With
Wolves been more heavily panned of late for its ethnocentricity; just a
story about a ‘white guy who saves the
day’, feeding into revisited clichés regarding ‘the noble savage’. Rubbish,
if you ask me. It is important to note Dances
With Wolves was – and still ought to be considered – a monumentally
progressive depiction of native Americans. The Lakota language employed
extensively throughout the film, though maligned for its periodic misuse of the
female-gendered spoken dialect, has not deterred the First Nations’ peoples
from embracing this movie as a part of their collective heritage. Costner was,
in fact, made an honorary member of the Sioux and, on Oscar night, was
sincerely touching in his extensive plaudits to all the indigenous peoples who
had helped shape and guide the integrity of his epic.
Dances With Wolves is impressive for other reasons
too. Michael Blake’s screenplay (based on his novel) is understated, yet
potent. Here is a writer unafraid to allow for the luxury of time to pass, to
enrich us with his even-paced reveal of our central character, Lieutenant John
Dunbar (Kevin Costner); an idealist with a misguided illusion about the
American west. Asked by his superior, the insane and suicidal Major
Fambrough (Maury Chaykin) why any man should so desire an assignment to Fort
Sedgwick, a forgotten outpost in the middle of this godless nowhere, Dunbar’s
optimistic reply of wanting to ‘see the
west before it’s gone’ immediately sets up our hero for a fall. The
cinematic landscape, impeccably lensed by cinematographer, Dean Semler, reveals
all the sumptuousness and breathtaking natural beauty any daydreamer like
Dunbar could hope for, much less imagine. But the wilderness is untamed, and
frequently inhospitable, and – of course – dangerous; particularly for the
white man.
Dunbar’s first
encounter with the Sioux’s fiery warrior, Wind In His Hair (Rodney A. Grant) is
hardly encouraging. Neither is Dunbar’s initial meet with Two Socks, the lone
wolf cautiously monitoring his every move. Perhaps a little too optimistically, things
begin to fall into place for the ambitious Dunbar, despite his isolation on the
plains. Depending on one’s point of view, Fambrough’s suicide and the murder of
uncouth and foul-smelling wagon train master, Timmons (Robert Pastorelli)
creates either a vacuum for this isolationism to ferment or the perfect storm
in which Dunbar can explore an unlikely friendship with Kicking Bird (Grahame
Greene) who is as curious about this pale-skinned stranger. Kicking Bird
encourages Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman reared from
childhood by the Sioux after her family was killed, to ‘make talk’ with Dunbar. This détente, predictably, is fraught with
immediate romantic underpinnings and overtones. As Dunbar’s appreciation for
the Sioux continues to evolve, so does his great admiration blossom into love
for this mediator who has brought them together. McDonnell is perfectly cast as
the marginally frightened, intensely passionate interpreter; her eyes even more
expressive than her wafer-thin whispers that build from inward shyness to
defiant resolve.
Interestingly,
Dances With Wolves began its life as a screenplay back in 1979. Alas,
Michael Blake could find no one to take an interest. Even after the property
was adapted as a novel by Blake - with Kevin Costner's encouragement - it
proved un-saleable with publishers until late 1988; almost a decade after it
was initially conceived for the screen. By then, however, Kevin Costner had
risen to prominence in the Hollywood community. He quickly snatched up the film
rights and thereafter set about courting interested parties to raise the $22
million necessary to produce it. In the end, Costner would fork out nearly $3
million of his own cash to complete Dances
With Wolves. Production delays were considerable, most attributed to South
Dakota’s temperamental weather; also owing to considerable difficulties in ‘wrangling
the various live wolves, and finally, due to the complexities in staging both
an all-out Indian battle and bison hunt sequences. Alas, the shooting of the
latter was not without incident. Employing domesticated bison from singer, Neil
Young’s ranch, Costner, who did most of his own horse riding, was T-boned during
the stampede, knocking him, full force, to the ground. Badly bruised, though
otherwise unharmed, Costner’s pride was likely the only true casualty of the
accident. But it just as easily could have broken his back or even paralyzed
him for life.
Our story
begins with one of the last standoffs between the Confederate and Union Armies
during the American Civil War. Awakening,
bloodied, on an operating table inside a gruesome makeshift hospital on the
front lines, where surgeons lop off limbs with savage and unclean utensils and
without the benefit of chloroform, Major John Dunbar discovers that his own
wounded leg is slated for amputation. In a moment of semi-lucidity, Dunbar hops
off the table and hobbles to his waiting horse, determined to go out in a blaze
of glory as a suicide rider between enemy lines. This stunt is repeated over
and over again, Dunbar’s audacity winning him mutual respect on both sides of
the battle line. He is afforded his General’s private surgeon, who operates and
saves Dunbar’s leg. Dunbar is also given his choice of commissions. He chooses Fort
Sedgwick, a frontier outpost in the middle of the wide open west. His motives
are fanciful. He wants to ‘see the west’ before it becomes overpopulated by
settlers.
Dunbar’s
initiation to this untamed wilderness is hardly welcoming. His superior, Maj.
Fambrough has lost his mind, signing Dunbar’s orders to proceed to Fort
Sedgwick before barricading himself in his office and declaring “to your journey…to my journey!” then,
blowing his brains out with a pistol. Dunbar is assigned a wagon master,
Timmons, to see him to Fort Sedgwick. Regrettably, the man is about as unkempt,
slovenly, ill-mannered and inarticulate as traveling companions can get. The
arrival at Sedgwick is even less assuring. Dunbar discovers the fort virtually
abandoned, the nearby sump full of carcasses of slaughtered animals and the
previous occupants, presumably either from fear or madness, having moved all
their supplies and living quarters to some man-made holes dug in the side of a
nearby hill. Dunbar elects to send Timmons back with a message, instructing for
military reserves to be sent at once. Alas, on the long journey Timmons is
pierced through the heart with an arrow by the marauding Pawnee, dying in the open
fields of tall waving grass. Although Dunbar does not realize it, he is now
completely isolated from civilization.
Electing to
proactively restore the fort, Dunbar spends his days cleaning out the sump,
burning the decomposing animal remains in a bonfire and making the most of what
limited repairs can be made to the fort itself. His industriousness attracts
the attentions of the neighboring Sioux, also a lone wolf whom Dunbar nicknames
‘Two Socks’ since the animal’s front paws are uniquely colored in white fur. Dunbar’s first encounter with Wind In His Hair
is eventful, the rider gallantly charging and shouting in his native tongue.
The spectacle is startling to Dunbar and witnessed at a distance by Kicking
Bird, who is more reticent and curious about this newly arrived stranger.
Returning to their encampment, Kicking Bird explains to his chief, Ten Bears (Floyd
Westerman) that perhaps their next line of recourse ought not be intimidation,
but a cautious extension of friendship. Soon, Kicking Bird returns with members
of the tribe. Dunbar attempts to make them feel at home, bartering for goods
and preparing coffee. But the language barrier between them is a stumbling
block that Kicking Bird attempts to rectify when he encourages Stands With A
Fist to ‘make talk’ with the white man.
Dunbar’s
initial introduction to Stands With A Fist, a white woman, captured as a child
after her entire family was slaughtered and raised by the Sioux (shades of
Natalie Wood in John Ford’s The
Searchers), is heartrending. She is uncommunicative and seemingly
inconsolable after the death of her husband, attempting to take her own life
with a knife. Dunbar prevents this suicide and returns her to
Kicking Bird, whom he later discovers has acted as her adopted father all these
many years. (Interestingly, Mary McDonnell was actually several months older
than both Grahame Green and Tantoo Cardinal, who plays her Sioux mother, Black
Shawl). Kicking Bird’s admiration for Dunbar is firmly established and Dunbar
is soon drawn into the tribe’s lifestyle. Stands With A Fist begins to teach
him the Lakota dialect, and Dunbar wins even more browning points with the
tribe when he helps locate a huge herd of bison for their annual hunt.
Forsaking his ambitions
for the fort, Dunbar becomes an honorary member of the Sioux, befriended as
something of an elder brother by Cisco (Justin). Dunbar is also rewarded with a
betrothal of marriage to Stands with a Fist after he helps smite the onset of a
village invasion from the rival Pawnee. Owing to these increased threats, Ten
Bears urges the tribe to relocate further west. Alas, Dunbar explains he must
first retrieve his diary from Fort Sedgwick, as it would provide proof of their
existence and thus, put the entire tribe in danger. Regrettably, Dunbar,
escorted by Cisco, discovers the Fort occupied by the U.S. Army. As he is dressed in native garb, Dunbar is
mistaken as Sioux. The military open fire, killing Cisco and taking Dunbar
hostage. Unable to prove his miraculous story, Dunbar is charged with desertion
and sentenced to be taken back east for a court martial. Soldiers of the escort
cruelly kill Two Socks after he attempts to follow Dunbar’s military escort.
Eventually, the Sioux track down the convoy, attack and kill the soldiers,
setting Dunbar free.
Reunited with
Kicking Bird and the rest of the tribe at their winter camp, Dunbar elects to
leave with Stands With A Fist for parts unknown. His presence, if he stays,
would only place the rest of the tribe in grave danger. In their bittersweet
farewells, Kicking Bird gives his blessing to the couple and a soulful Wind In
His Hair reminds Dunbar to never forget the loyalties of their friendship. In
the movie’s epilogue we hear the panged, echoing cry of a lone wolf and see the
U.S. military searching the mountain range for any sign of Dunbar. An epitaph
explains how a mere thirteen years into the future, the Sioux were all but
vanquished by the U.S. government’s forceful push into the western frontier.
Dances With Wolves’ finale is both sobering and sentimental;
a sort of ambiguous – if marginally flawed – attempt to reconcile the plight of
the Native culture, while basically reasserting the white male perspective at
the crux of its central narrative. There’s never any doubt about this. The film
belongs to Kevin Costner’s forthright man of integrity. Yet, we must recall Dunbar’s
willingness to ‘learn’ from the Sioux, as well as his embracement into the very
heart of their way of life as a Hollywoodized notion of history at best. Such
noble interactions, inbred with tolerance and mutual respect were hardly the
overriding altruistic motivations or principles on either side. The west was
conquered in bloodshed, not bittersweet tears, as Dances With Wolves’ finale erroneously suggests. There was
ignorance and arrogance on both sides. And Dunbar’s escape into the night with
Stands With a Fist at the end of this lengthy 236 minute director’s cut does
more than simply reinforce the reality of ‘civilizing’ the American west. It
returns the audience’s ethnocentric center of gravity to the Caucasian patriarchy;
an affirmation of those dyed in the wool policies that were to prove a hellish
expense to these indigenous custodians of the earth.
Still, Dances With Wolves remains impressive
large scale film-making at a time when both the concept and the western genre
were considered box office poison. On set, Kevin Costner was an exacting
professional. When cost overruns threatened to shut down his production, and
Orion Pictures adamantly refused to put up one cent more to finish the picture,
Costner dipped into his personal finances to finish this passion project. His
stubborn faith in Dances With Wolves,
and his commitment to make it as true and respectful to both sides, remain
unbowed. Originally planned at a truly epic four hours
with intermission, a full hour of footage was excised shortly before the film’s
theatrical engagement at the insistence of Orion Pictures. Costner pruned his
opus magnum to the more manageable 180 minute general release; promised by
Orion the film would be seen in its entirety for its home video debut. Both
sides remained true to their word and in 1995 Dances With Wolves was afforded its first ‘complete’ release on
Image Laserdisc. Since that time, many things in Hollywood have changed;
chiefly, Orion’s financial ruin and the film coming under the acquisitions
banner of United Artists and then, MGM/Fox Home Entertainment.
In the
intervening decades only Costner’s director’s cut has survived the transition
to DVD and now Blu-ray. Fascinatingly, at 236 minutes we are never strained or
bored; the intensity and methodical pacing of Costner’s final cut remains a sumptuous
story-telling feast for the eyes. Dances
With Wolves was one of MGM/Fox’s first Blu-rays, the entire feature
compressed onto a single Blu-ray without intermission. In 2010, Dances With Wolves was afforded a
fairly lavish 2-disc 20th anniversary affair; the second disc
containing a wealth of vintage documentaries on the making of the film, a
history lesson about the actual American western frontier and some fairly
comprehensive featurettes dedicated to the movie’s production design and
Costner’s own recollections about creating what he undoubtedly – and rightfully
– has come to regard as his masterpiece.
In short, the
20th anniversary Blu-ray was a cause for celebration, with minor
caveats pertaining to compression-related artifacts on the actual feature film.
Actually, given the movie’s monumental run time, the hi-def image quality was
fairly startling. Rich, vibrant colors were evident throughout with very
natural looking flesh tones. Contrast seemed just a shay lighter than expected,
but not at negligible levels. Film grain had an overall highly pleasing
texture, surely not to disappoint. Although there remained instances of faint
and fleeting compression noise, the image quality was bar none a surplus of
tactile textures with virtually no untoward digital tampering and no
distracting DNR, edge enhancement or boosting.
The impressive
DTS 7.1 surround was equally startling in its clarity and depth with low-end
rumbles to give your subwoofer a real workout during the bison hunt; John Barry’s
glorious underscore rising to new levels. In short, there was nothing to
poo-poo about regarding the 20th anniversary. All of the above
accolades may be reapplied to this newly released 25th anniversary
of Dances With Wolves. What is
frankly, and bafflingly inexcusable is MGM/Fox Home Video’s decision to excise virtually
all of the aforementioned extra features. Not only this, but the 25th
anniversary is a single disc affair, with only a digital copy option to
recommend it. Ho-hum, how I am tiring of these lackluster reissues. Pointless,
just pointless!
We get the
same audio commentary; the first featuring Kevin Costner and producer, Jim
Wilson, the other an in-depth analysis of the creation of the movie’s visuals
by director of photography, Dean Semler and editor, Neil Travis. MGM/Fox has
given us two superfluous featurettes; Military Rank and Social Hierarchy Guide,
and, Real
History or Movie Make-Believe? Honestly, I think this is just a really
dumb money grab on the studio’s part. A real 25th anniversary might
have included both the theatrical and director’s cuts (on separate discs), and should have contained all of the
aforementioned extras from the 20th anniversary, plus the add-ons
from this outing.
Bottom line: Dances With Wolves deserves the deluxe
box set treatment a la a Lawrence of
Arabia or Gone With The Wind. Do I see a 30th anniversary on the horizon? Unlikely. MGM/Fox is not really into producing such sets. But their idea of swag on this
outing is, frankly, pathetic. If you own the 20th anniversary I can’t
think of a single reason to repurchase this time around. If you don’t, I would
strongly recommend you seek out the 20th anniversary instead, from
any number of online vendors as it contains far more detailed back stories on
the making of the movie than this meagerly appointed reissue. Bottom line:
pass.
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
4.5
EXTRAS
2
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