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Dances with Wolves

Dances with Wolves on DVD

Kevin Costner’s epic was a big Oscar winner and deservedly so.

It’s a moving and engrossing story of a civil war veteran who as a reward for valor is allowed to choose his next assignment. He picks a remote outpost in the Dakotas, in a lovely rolling wilderness landscape populated by buffalo and Lakota Sioux.

Not the ugly American, John G. Dunbar (Costner) finds a special love and appreciation for the area and eventually makes good friends and has a trust-based relationship with the Sioux - a noble and decent people as worthy of his respect as he eventually proves to be to them.

He also falls in love with young widow Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman found on the prairie as a toddler after her family had been massacred by some natives who weren’t nearly as worthy of respect as the Lakota Sioux. And he becomes good friends with Kicking Bird (Graham Greene), a wise and curious elder who learns as much from Dunbar as Dunbar does from him.

The movie isn’t as politically correct as we’d remembered, fortunately - perhaps this is the result of the special edition’s extended length (it now runs just shy of four hours - though it never drags). In fact, for just about every jerk of a white man there’s a jerk of an Indian - showing that people are people and that one shouldn’t judge an entire race, or nation, by the actions of a few.

Costner is very good as Dunbar, and he heads an outstanding cast. The locations are lovely, John Barry’s musical score is wonderfully haunting, and the parts combine to form a whole that’s a remarkable and moving motion picture.

Dances With Wolves (which was Dunbar’s Indian name) won seven Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director (Kevin Costner), Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Music, Best Sound and Best Screenplay. Costner was nominated for Best Actor, Greene received a nomination as Best Supporting Actor and McDonnell for Best Supporting Actress.

Dances With Wolves is no slouch of a DVD, either. This extended special edition is a two disc set featuring an anamorphic widescreen transfer that’s clean and crisp and colorful - a treat for the eyes. And though the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio track doesn’t feature a lot of surround, the audio quality is excellent.

MGM has really piled on the extras, too. On disc one, along with the film itself, is a pair of running commentaries, one with Costner and producer Jim Wilson and one with the film’s director of photography and editor.

You also get the retrospective documentary “The Creation of an Epic,” an original “making of” featurette, a music video, photo montage, poster gallery, TV spots, trailer, liner essay, letter from Costner and Wilson, and more.

Dances With Wolves, the Special Edition, from MGM Home Video
236 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Starring Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Produced by Jim Wilson and Kevin Costner
Written by Michael Blake, directed by Kevin Costner

 

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