Kevin Costner had been a star for just three years when he persuaded Orion to put up $15 million so that he could direct and star in a Western.
At a time when that genre was moribund, Dances With Wolves would be three hours long, and 40 percent of its meagre dialogue would be in the Lakota dialect (subtitled). Orion initially released the film on just 14 prints, but the reviews were raves — Costner was compared to everybody from John Ford to Akira Kurosawa — and the movie went on to play for nearly a year, becoming one of the most commercially successful Westerns ever made, and beating out Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas for the Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards.
Sent from the Civil War to man a far-flung army outpost on the frontier, Costner’s Lt Dunbar finds himself left to his own devices — until he strikes up a relationship with the Sioux who are his only neighbours. Costner’s “regular guy epic” has spectacle and pays authentic respect to the land’s original occupants.
Staff Pick: Ingrid
Rich, lyrical, warm, full of unlooked-for laughs, heartbreaking and spectacularly cinematic… as enchanting a western as there ever was. The film’s eloquence and evocative beauty make it enduringly enjoyable.
Angie Errigo, 1001 Movies to See Before You Die
Media Partner
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner, Graham Greene, Mary McDonnell, Rodney A Grant, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Tantoo Cardinal, Maury Chaykin
USA
1990
In English and Lakota with English subtitles
7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Producer
Jim Wilson, Kevin Costner
Screenwriter
Michael Blake
Cinematography
Dean Semler
Editor
Neil Travis, William Hoy, Stephen Potter, Chip Masamitsu
Original Music
John Barry
Production Design
Jeffrey Beecroft
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