Any bets on how long we’ll have to wait to see this line in a “The Last Samurai” review?
“I liked this movie. I liked it even better when it was called Dances With Wolves.”
Hmmm…“Dances with Katana?”
It was. I was seven when both of them came out, and my cousin convinced my grandma to take us to “Dances With Wolves” instead of “Home Alone.” I was bored out of my little 2nd grade skull.
It’s not a horrible movie, though I hope “The Last Samurai” is better.
That’s ridiculous; Christ, I’m sick of people pronouncing every movie they didn’t think deserved an Oscar as “The worst movie ever made.” They release ten movies every MONTH that aren’t as good as “Dances With Wolves.” Or is anyone going to try to convince me that “Dances with Wolves” was worse than:
Battlefield Earth
Wild Wild West
The Cat in the Hat
Highlander II, III, etc.
Cool World
Star Trek V
The Golden Child
Dude, Where’s My Car?
Ecks vs. Sever
The Avengers
Speed 2: Cruise Control
It’s Pat!
The Specialist
Kazaam
Meet the Deedles
Gone Fishin’
Bio-Dome
etc. etc…
It was a good movie. Certainly not a classic, but like RickJay points out, there are plenty of movies out there that are much much worse.
One thing that I’ve learned is that very few movies age well. E.T. is an example of this. E.T. was a huge hit, and I loved it, but when they played it on TV recently I was quite disappointed. Viewed now, in 2003, it is unimpressive. Similarly, seeing Dances With Wolves now, for the first time, is not equivalent to seeing it back when it first came out. (Some of you might remember my thread about Pulp Fiction where we came to a similar conclusion.)
Also, NoCoolUserName complained that there were no scummy Native Americans. What about the Pawnee? They were presented as stereotypical savages.
Haha! Right on all counts.
RickJay wrote
Tell it to a doctor, infection boy. I said it was one of the worst movies ever made, and I stand by that statement.
Infection boy? HAHAHA! No offense to Rick, I have never heard that one. Ann Coulter called Al Franken “head injury boy” once though, and that was pretty funny too. Heh.
So that was YOU!! There have been rumors running rampant that there was one person who liked it and now it is confirmed. I need to e-mail Snopes so they can correct their story about the rumors of one person enjoying Battlefield Earth to be false.
To quote my wife, “If I hear Travolta say ‘man animal’ one more time, I am going to puke”
It’s not just you. In her review of the movie, the late, great Pauline Kael said Costner’s character should have been named “Plays With Cameras!”
I liked it but I agree with all the other esteemed dope-heads who proclaim it to be not exactly a classic and that Costner is a moron.
HATED it. Wouldn’t watch it again on a salary. Pauline Kael made me snort in her review of it, one of her nastiest ever. She renames it Plays with Camera and says Costner has “feathers in his hair and feathers in his head.”
I saw Dances With Wolves in the theater when it was first released. There wasn’t an empty seat. How long is the movie? Something like two and a half hours, but less than three if I remember right.
During that time, I did not see one person leave their seat. No one was saying distracting things. Everyone in the theater was captured by the cinematography and the story. I have never seen another movie do this to this extent. Not even the Fellowship of the Ring had that effect.
Say what you want about Costner. Hate the movie if you want. It still doesn’t change what I saw the movie do to a theater audience.
Well, I have to pipe up and say that I absolutely loved this movie when I saw it and am still quite fond of it. I can’t really defend this to all of you as you all are very passionate in your hatred of it. I’d be willing to answer any questions you may have of someone like me who must have such poor taste in movies. I loved the cinematography, loved the transformation of Costner’s characters, thought the Indians seemed very dignified and real to me. Loved the hunting scenes. I was about 12 when I saw it and I remember thinking it was the best movie I had seen up until that point and I remember crying at the end when Wind in His Hair was yelling to Costner, “Do you see that I am your friend!”
I should also say that I loved Legends of the Fall so maybe I’m just a sucker for the White Boy turns Indian movie genre.
I loved it too. . . so much in fact I just bought the extended cut, the 4 hour one. I wanted more of the story. Costner made a fantastic film. Haven’t had a chance to watch it with the Director’s Commentary yet, can’t wait.
I loved it then and I love it now.
It’s a Hollywood “Gosh, we feel bad about what happened to the Indians so we’ll make it up to them with this film” film. Big on warm fuzzies, short on plausibility.
Plus Costner just plain sucks.
Admittedly, there was some cool scenery. A pity about the people in it, though.
Okay, I will say this: any moment with Graham Greene on screen was worth seeing. YUMM!
I also loved it. I saw it 7 times in the theatres, if I recall correctly.
So Bill H., are you honestly, hand to God, telling us that of all the movies you’ve ever seen in your life, you’ve never seen one worse than Dances with Wolves? All I can say is… you must not go to many movies.
Eh. I remember thinking the movie was okay. Beautiful landscape shots, corny story. I’ve seen worse. But I haven’t seen it since it was in theaters.
Not too long after, we saw a Canadian movie called Black Robe, which had a similar theme, but which I enjoyed much more. There are no noble savages in this story, and, at least among the characters we get to know, no ignoble savages either. Just complex, ordinary people trying to make sense of a very complicated period of history. Nobody’s culture ends up smelling like a rose by the end of this movie. And oh yeah, the landscape shots aren’t half-bad either.