I thought it blew chunks! (Saw it last night on PAX TV)-Gawd-it was awful! Kevin Costner is a pretentious, stiff, stupid actor, who thinks he is a GREAT actor. Aside from the idiocy of the plot (cavalry officer survives Civil War, goes out west, is sent to mysterious Army post (where NOBODY is)! He is sent with enought rifles and ammo to equip an army, and his commanding officer FORGETS about him! Costner hangs out for 2 months, during which he makes friends with the local wolves…then the indians show up! I laughed so hard at the indian bull session in the sweat lodge, where the indian chiefs debate what to do about Costner…should they :
(a) killhim?
(b) steal his magic
© wait to see if “other palefacescome”
It was really hilarious, seeing those “indians” making their furrowed faces look so wise and dignified!
Anyhow, how did this abortion of a movie get so many awards? The muical score wasgood…but I found the plot simply unbelievable!
There is a fascinating story in Lovedeath by Dan Simmons on Lakota-speaking people and how some view this patronizing movie. It’s told from the point of view of a very old chief and his grandchildren who coerce him into seeing the movie, going into orgasmic spiels about how they “speak real Lakota!” in it. He wasn’t impressed, to say the least. Not only because the Lakota spoken had no expression or tone at all but was merely memorized sound, as he put it, but because it was so damn patronizing. He expressed it along the lines of it being preferable to be hated and feared than pitied and condescended.
As to your assessment, I heartily agree.
I should have previewed. It is told from the point of view of the old man giving an interview before his death. His grandchildren force him to see it, but they aren’t “in” the story and don’t “tell” it.
The part about the naming and wasting such a fabulously noble name on some asshat white man was really cool. Heh.
Did you watch the movie? His commanding officer kills himself. And the wagon driver (the only other person who knows where he is) is killed by the Indians before he returns.
Watch the 4-hour director’s cut. It really is a much better movie. It’s not the greatest movie ever, and Costner is a pompous ass, but it’s much better than the 2-hour (and Pax-ified) version.
Great? No. Don’t listen to your friends. But, enjoyable (to me, anyway) once you get past a number of points (as you and others have mentioned).
Should it have won all the awards? No, not really. So, try to watch it as one would watch a well-made B-film and forget all the nonsensical hype.
Sir Rhosis
It’s at least as good as Titanic :rolleyes:
Never forget that in Hollywood, a film’s quality is often defined by its box office gross.
Keep in mind also that at the time Hollywood was going through a dearth of decent movies aimed at “grown-ups.” There were at least 3 movies a year featuring John Candy in some form, and I think its big compitition for that season was “Home Alone.” Also, this was before everyone was hip to Kevin Costner being a blow-hard (that would happen a bit later with “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”) He just came off as an earnest guy wanting to make a movie that was DIFFERENT and good-looking, as opposed to about two guys making Bernie look alive for a weekend.
OK, you got me curious. Did PAX cut out enough violence that the wagon driver getting killed and the first post commander committing suicide are missing? That would explain ralph124c missing that story point.
It cracks me up when movies are editted for content to the point that they become unfollowable.
I disliked this movie after seeing it for the first time in the theater, particularly the ending—it didn’t end so much as it just sort of stopped. Never watched it again after that.
The PAX version showed the filthy wagon driver get scalped…that was good, the bum desrved it! The PAX version did not show the CO’s suicide…and the reason for sending Costner out to this remote army post (in the middle of nowhere) made no sense at all!
AS I said, the indians were caricatured- Chief “rain in the face” or whatever his name was , tried to look so solemn and dignified…to me it looked like he had just farted…and the other indians were in a hurry to get the hell OUT of the sweat lodge!
Costner alone at an abandoned army post…what the hell? He should have returned and made his report…of course, then he wouldn’t have made friends with those nifty wolves!
As opposed to now when “adult” movies like Elf, The Cat in the Hat, and The Haunted Mansion rule over the cinemas.
Also, it’s not like Dances With Wolves had any formidable competition for Best Picture that year since one of the movies it beat out was Scorsese’s Goodfellas (which should’ve got it instead).
It was one of the WORST movies ever made, and Kostner is one of the WORST actors ever (except for The Untouchables, but that’s another story.)
bradministrator wrote
I would rather scrape my eyes out with a rusty cheese grater, thank you very much. If they wanted to improve that abortion, they should have cut it down to one hour, not expanded it. It was the most boring movie I’ve ever watched at two hours (and I’ve seen a few), and the last thing I want to see is more of it.
Prancing with wolves?
PC formulaic, knee-jerk, trying hard and acheiving it Academy Award Winner.
Yes, it sucks big time.
I remember my mother dragging me to watch this terrible movie. I was 10. I haven’t seen it since, but I remember how the movie WOULD NOT END. Every time I thought it would be over, something would happen and it would be another hour.
It was the longest-movie I have ever seen in a theater
I remember years ago I once spent Thanksgiving (I think it was Thanksgiving) at the house of a friend’s parents. The father had rented this movie and wanted everyone to watch it. As I recall by the end of the movie only the father was still sitting in front of the TV. When it was over and we were passing through the room, he proclaimed that the movie was so astoudingly great, that from that year on, he was going to force everyone to view it and make it become a family tradition on that holiday every year until, probably, he gave up trying to make anyone care. I suspect his great new tradition didn’t make it til the next year. At least, for the sake of anyone related, I hope not.
I thought The Postman was cool, what with the having Tom Petty in it and all.
Of course, I liked Battlefield Earth…
And William’s poetry.
I draw the line at Barry Manilow.
I did not care for it. My primary complaint was that there were no decent white folk (aside from the estimable Mr. Costner’s character, who wishes he was not white) and no scummy Native American folk. Talk about a lack of balanced reporting. (Yeah, I know there’s no requirement for balance, but it would have made the movie better, IMHO). Nice landscape shots, though.
Thea, I’ll bet you like Treebeard’s poetry, too?
I have never suffered through the entire running time of this tedious bore. On 3 separate occasions I’ve sat down to watch it only to see around 45 mins of it. The first time I was distracted by beer and poker and the other 2 times I fell asleep.
I figure the 3 strikes law is applicable here and I shall never subject myself to this movie again.
I disliked it for the same kinds of reasons NoCoolUserName listed. The Indians were noble and wonderful and the white were all scummy. And the whole switch over to English suddenly jarred me terribly. Either be experimental and teach these people to speak some the Lakota with feeling OR DON’T even try. It just felt elistist and hypocritical to me.
Plus Costner just plain sucks.
Warning: if you didn’t like “Dances with Wolves,” avoid “the Last Samurai.”