Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbnewsj!ecl
From: leeper@mtgzy.att.com (Mark R. Leeper)
Subject: REVIEW: DANCES WITH WOLVES
Reply-To: leeper@mtgzy.att.com
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 90 22:06:56 GMT
Approved: ecl@cbnewsj.att.com
Message-ID: <1990Nov28.220656.8953@cbnewsj.att.com>
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies
Summary: r.a.m.r. #00853
Keywords: author=Leeper,xpost
Sender: ecl@cbnewsj.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Lines: 64

			      DANCES WITH WOLVES
		       A film review by Mark R. Leeper
			Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper

	  Capsule review:  Epic portrait of a Sioux tribal life as
     seen through the eyes of a Civil War officer.  American
     Indians have rarely or never been portrayed so believably and
     sympathetically.  Its biggest flaw is that the White Man does
     not seem as realistically portrayed.  The films resembles
     WHITE DAWN and FAREWELL TO THE KING in plot and spirit.
     Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4).

     I suspect that of all the films of 1989, the one that will be best
remembered will be GLORY.  It may not be the best film of 1989, but it has a
sort of timeless quality that will hold up for many years.  That was 1989.
This year I think we have an even better film that has that same timeless
quality.  There have been films in the past that have tried to give
sympathetic views of the American Indian.  It is not hard to be more
sympathetic than films like FORT APACHE.  LITTLE BIG MAN, unaccountably
popular, attempted to be sympathetic but gave the impression that the
writers knew nothing about American Indians.  (I do not know if the novel
was as bad or not.)  Other films such as CHEYENNE AUTUMN tried to speak of
injustices done to the Indians, but they too never got into the minds of
native Americans.  Perhaps DANCES WITH WOLVES, based on the novel by Michael
Blake, is no more authentic than is LITTLE BIG MAN, but it certainly feels
like the most authentic film ever made about American Indian culture.

     Kevin Costner directs and stars as John Dunbar, who is to have his leg
amputated due to wounds in a Civil War battle.  Not having the courage to
face his future, he attempts suicide and in doing so accidentally makes
himself a hero.  This not only wins him medical care sufficient to save his
leg, he is also given his choice of posting.  Wishing to see the Western
frontier before it is overrun by the white man, he requests a posting to an
isolated and deserted fort far out on the frontier.  His thoughts about
facing hostile animals and more hostile Sioux are overcome by his curiosity
and his willingness to accept and appreciate that which is alien to him.
The film picks up his enthusiasm to meet, understand, and befriend the very
alien culture of the neighboring Sioux.  He must first overcome their
distrust.  There the storyteller somewhat unrealistically contrives
circumstances in Dunbar's favor.  This is a long film and each stage of his
acceptance by the Sioux is shown and not overly glossed over.  In
particular, language problems are quite believably difficult and eventually
overcome by another contrivance.  Eventually Dunbar is accepted into the
Sioux society and Costner can show us how Sioux lived and thought.

     If the film has a major weakness it is that it exaggerates the
stupidity and strangeness (even if not the cruelty) of the hordes of
invading white men.  The positive view of the Sioux would be more believable
if the view of the White Man had more credibility.  There is a love story of
Dunbar with a white woman who has been Sioux since she was captured as a
child.  This subplot could have been a distraction from showing us the Sioux
lifestyle, but if so it was only a minor one.  Mary McDonnell, familiar from
MATEWAN, plays Dunbar's lover interest, Stands with a Fist.

     DANCES WITH WOLVES is told with a grace and humor that keeps the viewer
constantly entertained through its nearly three-hour length.  Costner is to
be congratulated for creating such an unorthodox film (about a quarter us in
Lakota, the Sioux language, and subtitled), and at the same time so
enjoyable a film his first time directing.  I give it a high +2 on the -4 to
+4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					att!mtgzy!leeper
					leeper@mtgzy.att.com
