DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990) Starring Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Tantoo Cardinal, Robert Pastorelli, Charles Rocket, Maury Chaykin and Wes Studi. Music by John Barry. Director of photography Dean Semler. Written by Michael Blake. Directed by Kevin Costner.
DANCES WITH WOLVES (MGM Home Entertainment): Your feelings about this Oscar-winning epic is predicated upon your views of its star and director, Kevin Costner. Either it's a New Age PC revisionist look at Native Americans or it's a belated paean to a culture nearly eradicated by Caucasian greed and arrogance.
However, there is no denying that this two-disc DVD set does the movie justice. With additional footage, Wolves runs nearly four hours, yet the added scenes do not slow the film. Rather they reinforce and help explain the overall journey.
The bonus materials including various featurettes on the making of the film, including the spectacular "buffalo hunt" sequence, a retrospective looking back on the making of the film and its impact as well as two commentary tracks - one by Costner and producer Jim Wilson, the other by director of photography Dean Semler and editor Neil Travis.
What is evident throughout the various commentaries is the participants love and dedication not only to the project, but to their singular vision of what they wanted to achieve.
The transfer to DVD is brilliant. As you watch you can appreciate why Semler was honored with an Oscar. And John Barry's Oscar-winning score never sounded better.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on movies. Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com and at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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