Dances With Wolves

In 1863, 1st Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, serving with the Union army, is wounded in a stalemated battle at St. David's Field in Tennessee. The surgeon intends to amputate his leg. Choosing death in battle instead, Dunbar steals a horse and rides in front of Confederate lines unarmed, but miraculously survives his suicide attempt. Union troops take advantage of the distraction to mount a successful attack. Dunbar is given medical care that saves his leg and is awarded "Cisco", the horse he rode during his suicide attempt, along with his choice of posting. He requests a transfer to the American frontier to see it before it disappears. Dunbar arrives at Fort Hays, where its commander, Major Fambrough, assigns him to the furthest outpost under his jurisdiction, Fort Sedgwick. Fambrough, who is mentally ill, fails to inform anyone where Dunbar is going and kills himself after Dunbar departs. Dunbar travels with Timmons, a foul-mouthed mule-wagon provisioner, and finds the fort deserted. He decides to rebuild the fort, recording his observations in his diary. Timmons is killed by a band of Pawnee while returning to Fort Hays. The deaths of Timmons and Fambrough leave the army unaware of Dunbar's assignment, so no other soldiers arrive to reinforce the post. Dunbar encounters his Sioux neighbors when they attempt to steal his horse and intimidate him. Wanting to make peace, he seeks out the Sioux camp. En route, he comes across Stands With A Fist, a white Sioux woman who was adopted as a girl by the tribe's medicine man, Kicking Bird, after Pawnee killed her family. She is mutilating herself in mourning for her late Sioux husband. Dunbar brings her back to the Sioux to recover. Though the Sioux are initially hostile, Dunbar gradually establishes a rapport with them, notably Kicking Bird, the Sioux fighter Wind In His Hair, and the youth Smiles A Lot. Stands With A Fist acts as an interpreter, speaking Lakota and English. Dunbar comes to respect and appreciate the Sioux. He is accepted into their group after he tells them of a migrating herd of buffalo and participates in the hunt. He also befriends a wolf he dubs "Two Socks" for his white forepaws. Observing Dunbar and Two Socks chasing each other, he is given a name that translates as Dances With Wolves. Dunbar learns the Lakota language, and he and Stands With A Fist grow close. He gives the Sioux firearms to help them defend against the Pawnee attack. He eventually earns Kicking Bird's approval to marry Stands With A Fist. Because of the threat of encroaching white settlers, Chief Ten Bears decides to move his group to its winter camp. Dunbar decides to accompany them but first attempts to retrieve his diary from Fort Sedgwick, as it would help the U.S. Army locate the group at its new location. When he arrives, he finds the fort reoccupied by the army. Because of his Sioux clothing, the soldiers open fire, killing Cisco, and capture Dunbar. He cannot prove his story, as one of the soldiers had stolen his diary. Refusing to help the army hunt down the Sioux, he is charged with desertion, and the soldiers begin to transport him back east as a prisoner. Two Socks attempts to follow Dunbar but is shot dead by the soldiers. Dunbar's Sioux friends track and attack the convoy, killing the soldiers and freeing Dunbar. They meet the others at the winter camp. Dunbar leaves with Stands With A Fist because his presence would endanger the group. As they leave, Dunbar and Kicking Bird exchange parting gifts. Smiles A Lot returns the diary he recovered during Dunbar's rescue, and Wind In His Hair proclaims his everlasting friendship to Dunbar. U.S. troops search the mountains but cannot locate Dunbar or the Sioux. The film's epilogue text states that the last of the free Sioux would surrender at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, 13 years later. ==Cast==

• Kevin Costner as Lt. John J. Dunbar/Dances With Wolves (Lakota: Šuŋgmánitu Tȟáŋka Ób Wačhí) • Mary McDonnell as Stands With A Fist (Napépȟeča Nážiŋ Wiŋ)/Christine Gunther • Annie Costner (Costner's real-life daughter) plays young Christine Gunther • Graham Greene as Kicking Bird (Ziŋtká Nagwáka) • Rodney A. Grant as Wind In His Hair (Pȟehíŋ Otȟáte) • Floyd Westerman as Chief Ten Bears (Matȟó Wikčémna) • Tantoo Cardinal as Black Shawl (Šiná Sápa Wiŋ) • Jimmy Herman as Stone Calf (Íŋyaŋ Ptehíŋčala) • Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse as Smiles A Lot (Iȟá S'a) • Michael Spears as Otter (Ptáŋ) • Jason R. Lone Hill as Worm (Waglúla) • Charles Rocket as Lt. Elgin • Robert Pastorelli as Timmons • Tony Pierce as Spivey • Larry Joshua as Bauer • Kirk Baltz as Edwards • Tom Everett as Sergeant Pepper • Maury Chaykin as Major Fambrough • Wes Studi as Toughest Pawnee • Wayne Grace as the Major • Michael Horton as Captain Cargill (extended version) • Doris Leader Charge as Pretty Shield, Chief Ten Bears' wife (also credited as Lakota translator and dialogue coach) • Donald Hotton as General Tide • Frank P. Costanza as Tucker • Otakuye Conroy as Kicking Bird's daughter • Jim Wilson as Doctor (uncredited) ==Production==

Originally written as a speculative script by Michael Blake, it went unsold in the mid-1980s. However, Kevin Costner had starred in Blake's only previous film, ''Stacy's Knights (1983) and encouraged Blake in early 1986 to turn the Western screenplay into a novel to improve its chances of being produced. The novel was rejected by numerous publishers, but finally was published in paperback in 1988. The rights were purchased by Costner, with an eye on directing it. Costner dropped out of The Hunt for Red October (1990) in favor of Dances of Wolves''. Costner and his producing partner, Jim Wilson, had difficulty in raising money for the film. The project was turned down by several studios due to the Western genre no longer being popular, following the disastrous box office of ''Heaven's Gate'' (1980), as well as the length of the script. After the project languished at both Nelson Entertainment and Island Pictures, Costner and Wilson sold the foreign rights in several countries and obtained enough money to go into pre-production. The two then made a deal with Orion Pictures, which gave Costner final cut rights. Actual production lasted from July 17 or 18 to November 21 or 23, 1989. Most of the movie was filmed on location in South Dakota, mainly on private ranches near Pierre and Rapid City, with a few scenes filmed in Wyoming. Specific locations included the Badlands National Park, the Black Hills, the Sage Creek Wilderness Area, and the Belle Fourche River area. The bison hunt scenes were filmed at the Triple U Buffalo Ranch outside Fort Pierre, South Dakota, as were the Fort Sedgewick scenes on a custom set. ==Reception==

, the film holds an approval rating of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 131 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Dances With Wolves suffers from a simplistic view of the culture it attempts to honor, but the end result remains a stirring western whose noble intentions are often matched by its epic grandeur." Metacritic gave the film a score of 72 out of 100 based on 20 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade. Dances With Wolves was named one of the top ten films of 1990 by over 115 critics and was named the best film of the year by 19 critics. Because of the film's popularity and lasting impact on the image of Native Americans, members of the Lakota Sioux Nation held a ceremony in Washington, D.C., "to honor Kevin [Costner] and Mary [McDonnell] and Jim [Wilson] on behalf of the Indian Lakota nation", explained Floyd Westerman (who plays Chief Ten Bears in the movie). Albert Whitehat, a Lakota elder who served as a cultural adviser on the film, adopted Costner into his family, and two other families adopted McDonnell and Wilson. Westerman continued, that this is so "They will all become part of one family." At the 63rd Academy Awards ceremony in 1991, Dances With Wolves earned 12 Academy Award nominations and won seven, including Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (Michael Blake), Best Director (Costner), and Best Picture. In 2007, the Library of Congress selected Dances With Wolves for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Some of the criticism of the film centered on the perceived lack of authenticity of the Lakota language used in the film, as only one of the actors was a native speaker of the language. Oglala Lakota activist and actor Russell Means was critical of the film's lack of accuracy. In 2009, he said: "Remember Lawrence of Arabia? That was Lawrence of the Plains. The odd thing about making that movie is that they had a woman teaching the actors the Lakota language, but Lakota has a male-gendered language and a female-gendered language. Some of the Natives and Kevin Costner were speaking in the feminine way. When I went to see it with a bunch of Lakota guys, we were laughing." Michael Smith (Sioux), the director of San Francisco's long-running annual American Indian Film Festival, said that despite criticisms, "there's a lot of good feeling about the film in the Native community, especially among the tribes. I think it's going to be very hard to top this one." Judith A. Boughter wrote, "The problem with Costner's approach is that all of the Sioux are heroic, while the Pawnees are portrayed as stereotypical villains. Most accounts of Sioux–Pawnee relations see the Pawnees, numbering only 4,000 at that time, as victims of the more powerful Sioux." Though promoted as a breakthrough in its use of an indigenous language, earlier English-language films, such as Eskimo (1933), Wagon Master (1950), and The White Dawn (1974) also have native dialogue. David Sirota of Salon referred to Dances With Wolves as a "white savior" film, as Dunbar "fully embeds himself in the Sioux tribe and quickly becomes its primary protector". He argued that its use of the "noble savage" character type "preemptively blunts criticism of the underlying White Savior story". Accolades In addition to becoming the first Western film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture since 1931's Cimarron, Dances With Wolves swept the Motion Picture Academy Awards that year, with a record, for the genre, of seven Oscars (including Best Picture), by far the most of any Western film in history. It also won a number of additional awards, making it one of the most honored films of 1990. Home media The film was released on home video in the United States in September 1991 by Orion Home Video and beat the rental record set by Ghost, at 649,000 units. The extended Special Edition was released on DVD on May 20, 2003, in a two-disc set. Dances With Wolves was then released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 11, 2011, and was re-released on Blu-ray on January 13, 2015, and again on November 13, 2018. ==Cancelled sequel==

The Holy Road, a sequel novel by Michael Blake, the author of both the original novel and the movie screenplay, was published in 2001. Salvador Carrasco was attached to direct the sequel, but the film was not realized. As of 2007, Blake was writing a film adaptation. However, Costner stated in a 2008 interview that he would "never make a sequel". ==Extended version==

One year after the original theatrical release of Dances With Wolves, a four-hour version of the film opened at select cinemas in London. This longer cut was titled Dances With Wolves: The Special Edition, and it restored nearly an hour's worth of scenes that had been removed to keep the original film's running time under three hours. In a letter to British film reviewers, Kevin Costner and producer Jim Wilson addressed their reasons for presenting a longer version of the film: Costner later stated that he did not work on the creation of the Special Edition at all. ==Soundtrack==

• John Barry composed the Oscar-winning score. It was issued in 1990, initially, and again in 1995 with bonus tracks and in 2004 with the score "in its entirety". • Peter Buffett scored the "Fire Dance" scene. ==See also==