Dances With Wolves 1990

The Film:

And so we enter the 90s with another epic historical drama. One that I vaguely remember half-watching a while back and never really having any desire to go back to. Probably mainly because of its length - it's another 3 hour historical epic!

I'm not much of a fan of Kevin Costner, and this has Costner all over it. I've also never really been that interested in frontiersmen and pioneering and all of that sort of American history. Although I think, slightly older and wiser, I'm probably more up for it now than I was in my 20s.

This is definitely not a "cowboys and indians" film - it's a soldiers and Native Americans film. So I've never been entirely sure if it's really a Western (in the way that Cimarron and Unforgiven are) or not. IMDb reckons it's a Western, and cites it as the largest grossing Western of all time, but different lists categorize it differently

Now that the film is nearly 30 years old, it's already seen as more than slightly dated in referring to the Sioux people as "indians" (not just in the narrative, but in the whole production) - however this is generally still outweighed by the overall respect that is given to the Native Americans throughout the film - which led to Costner being officially accepted as an honorary Sioux.

The Ceremony:

March 25th 1991 at the Shrine Auditorium - and we get Billy Crystal again, as we are going to have for most of this decade. He definitely brings an updated and very much needed style to the whole proceedings - this is definitely a nineties show, unlike the eighties shows that came before. When it was announced that Crystal would be presenting again, he joked that he would try and bring the whole thing in in under nine hours. It actually ran for a reasonably modest three and a half.

The ceremony had the theme of "100 Years of Film", celebrating the centenary of Edison's Kinetoscope and Kodak celluloid film. Reviews were mixed, but it got the highest ratings since 1984. The whole thing is out there on Youtube - I've picked a nice little item where Bob Hope introduces the first movie memories of several other stars. Fabulously nostalgic!

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Dances With Wolves took seven awards - including two for Kevin Costner, but not for his acting. The acting awards went to four different films: Reversal of Fortune (Jeremy Irons), Misery (Kathy Bates), Goodfellas (Joe Pesci) and Ghost (Whoopi Goldberg).

From a UK point of view, as well as Jeremy Irons (who was first seen, by those of us of a certain age, singing children's songs with Brian Cant!), the big winner was Nick Park who got his first Oscar this year - not for Wallace and Gromit (although they were also nominated) but for Creature Comforts. We'd already seen this on Channel 4 and we also had versions of it turned into TV ads. It still holds up today, amid all the technological advances of the last three decades!

Best Song:

One of only a couple of winners this decade that aren't from animated films - and the first of two to be sung by Madonna. The actual Oscar went to Stephen Sondheim. It's a classy song, and her performance on the night is worth watching:

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Kevin Costner is gonna get whacked!

Whilst I can see why the Academy went for Costner and his sweeping plains of buffalo, it's really not my kind of film and - up until this challenge - was the only one of this year's nominees that I didn't already know. Among the others are Ghost (fun, but overrated and not really Oscar material), Awakenings (one of few films to have me blubbing like a baby all the way through the end credits), The Godfather III (only mediocre when set against its predecessors - otherwise a great film, apart from the helicopters and Sofia's death scene!). Any one of Reversal of Fortune, The Grifters or Misery should have taken Ghost's place. But my winner would have been the other nominee, Goodfellas. It's better than Godfather III, and holds up against the other two. A great film!

Our Verdict:

Sorry Costner fans, but it's a nope from me.

It's a while now since we watched this one so I apologise if my review is a little hazy. For a film that lasted three hours, not a great deal really happened that has stuck in my memory, so very little has changed in terms of my initial opinion. It's a film that I can appreciate and I would even go as far as to say that I'm glad it was made - but it's not really my thing.

Buffalo. Many buffalo.

As with Out of Africa a few years ago, the film looks good and sounds good. The cinematography is excellent - sweeping plains and herds of buffalo, beautiful sunsets for Costner to gaze out upon. The John Barry score (same as Out of Africa!) is also impressive and gives the film the sense of respectful grandeur it deserves.

The story itself is fairly slight for the time it takes to tell it. Costner is John Dunbar, a Civil War hero who is sent to a remote outpost where he firstly befriends a wolf and then a Sioux tribe. Among them is a white woman (Mary McDonnell) who has been raised by the tribe - which serves to set up the idea that they are open to outsiders and to provide a love interest for Dunbar.

Buddy movie - exhibit A

The first half hour or so really put me off - there's a battle with lots of horses running about and then some nonsense with an insane Major (which felt like it had come straight from Tom Jones, and didn't really fit at all). However, once he meets the wolf I could see what all the fuss is about. If I'd really got into the film I would probably waxing very lyrical indeed about what the film says about insiders/outsiders, communities, belonging, sense of place, the evil that men do etc etc. I can see that it's all there, from the relationship between Dunbar and Two Socks (the wolf he dances with) through the relationships with Kicking Bird (Graham Greene) and Stands With a Fist (the love interest - who's name I'd completely forgotten and had to look up!) and in the big set pieces throughout the film.

Buddy movie - exhibit B

The epic scenes with the herds of buffalo are genuinely impressive and, although I never really got to grips with Mary McDonnell and her dreadful wig, I really like the way the relationship and trust between Dunbar and Kicking Bird develops throughout the film.

It's a good film and I'm glad I watched it. If it had been released a year earlier, it would have been a lot lower on the 80s list than I think it's going to be on the 90s!