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Dances with Wolves
Orion Pictures


8.9

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 22 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13

Starring Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant, Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman, Tantoo Cardinal, and Robert Pastorelli

Rewarded for his heroism in the Civil War, Lt. Dunbar (Costner) wants to see the American frontier before it is gone. He is assigned to an adandoned fort, where a sioux tribe is his only neighbor. Overcoming the language barrier and their mutual fear and distrust, Dunbar and the proud Indians gradually become friends. Eventually, he falls in love with the beautiful Stands With a Fist (McDonnell), a white woman raised by the tribe. (MGM)

GENRE(S):	Western
WRITTEN BY:	Michael Blake (also novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Kevin Costner
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 15, 1998 Video: October 5, 1999 Theatrical: November 9, 1990
RUNNING TIME:	183 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

The film picked up seven Oscars at the 1991 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director (Costner).

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Washington Post Hal Hinson

A gigantic achievement, an endowment of riches.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This movie moves so confidently and looks so good it seems incredible that it's a directorial debut.

100

Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson

A clear-eyed vision. Authentic as an Edward Curtis photograph, lyrical as a George Catlin oil or a Karl Bodmer landscape, this is a film with a pure ring to it. It's impossible to call it anything but epic [9 Nov 1990, Calendar, p.F-1]

100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

While no one is going to place Costner alongside Laurence Olivier in the acting department, he brings a likability to Dunbar that many better performers might not have been able to match.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Costner (with Michael Blake's screenplay) creates a vision so childlike, so willfully romantic, it's hard to put up a fight.

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

Costner's directing style is fresh and assured. A sense of surprise and humor accompany Dunbar's adventures at every turn, twisting the narrative gently this way and that and making the journey a real pleasure.

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

A three-hour delight… The movie generates much of its power by being so life-affirming at a time when people feel nervous about the future. [9 Nov 1990, Friday, p.C]

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

The treatment of the Sioux is not only sympathetic, it's ethnographically exact. Neither Noble Savages nor Red Injuns, the natives in Dances With Wolves are differentiated human beings about to undergo cultural genocide.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The opening minutes in a Union Army camp are as good as anything in Glory; and the buffalo hunt, as edited by Travis, is a marvel. [10 Dec 1990, p.28]

Empire Angie Errigo

Of sentiment there is too much and the final sequence when the white men inevitably rear their heads and raise their rifles so fraught with tears and peril as to be exhaustingly melodramatic.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The film's politically correct repudiation of the familiar black-and-white characterizations of the white and red man is ultimately undermined, however, when the pendulum swings too far in the other direction.

USA Today Mike Clark

Ultimately, this film is more interesting than rousing; missing is a John Ford-ian wealth of idiosyncratic characters. [9 Nov 1990, Life, 4D]

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The picture moves slowly but never sluggishly, and it never grinds down. The measured pace shows real assurance on the part of Costner. [9 Nov 1990, Daily Datebook, p.E1]

Time Richard Schickel

It would be nice, for instance, to meet some white man, other than Dunbar [Costner], who is not a brutish lout. And it would not harm the film if there were one or two bad-natured Sioux visible in it. [12 Nov 1990, p.102]

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Smoothly directed by Kevin Costner, who also gives a sensitive performance in the leading role. The screenplay is often trite, however, and there's no reason for the picture's three-hour length. [9 Nov 1990, Arts, p.12]

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Sincere, capable, at times moving, but overextended, this picture is seriously hampered by its tendency to linger over everything--especially landscapes with silhouetted figures, and not excluding its own good intentions.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie is so busy turning the Sioux characters into photogenic saints that it never quite allows them the complications of human beings.

TV Guide Staff (Non Credited)

A western for people who are completely ignorant about the genre. Costner's direction is barely competent and frequently clumsy.

The New York Times Vincent Canby

Mr. Blake's screenplay and Mr. Costner's direction of it are, with the exception of three memorable sequences, commonplace. The film is painstakingly composed of small details of frontier and tribal life that should be riveting. Most of the time they aren't.

The New Yorker Pauline Kael

The movie is childishly naïve... like a New Age social-studies lesson. It isn't really revisionist; it's the old stuff toned down and sensitized. [17 Dec 1990]

The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

E C gave it a10:
A marvelous film. Many powerful sequences, some memorable characters, lush and evocative cinematography in the right places. Not too many movies leave you feeling enriched, but this one does.

Li gave it a4:
This grossly overrated film works only if you live in some strange reality where being extremely naive and foolhardy doesn't get you immediately killed and poo-pooed at. The protagonist evokes neither awe nor sympathy, just sad pity for a deluded has-been. However, the cinematography is admittedly beautiful (but not stunning).

Usman A. gave it a10:
its a briliant film. explains the civil war and how america split up because of slavery. 1 man changes from being a hero to being a traitor.

Jennifer M. gave it a9:
I think the film was very interesting. It had a wonderful story line. The acting was great, one of Kevin Costners greatest films ever.

Paul gave it a10:
My all time favorite movie.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
Beautiful and intresting. ONE OF THE BEST FILMS EVER!!!

Andrew M gave it an 8:
This is simply fine quality storytelling. It has a highly entertaining narrative coupled with scenes of visual splendour and populated throughout by authentic characters. Costner isn't much of an actor, but this role really wasn't too demanding - it's the handling of the film that is so impressive. Solid script and excellent directing style by Costner lift this film above the routine, seen one-seen 'em all historical westerns. It doesn't score greatly from an edifying point of view, and because it obviously attempted to it lowers the film's rating, but this is still a highly entertaining expose of American culture and technically it is very well done.

Dances with Wolves Orion Pictures

Dances with Wolves
Orion Pictures