According to the AlloCiné editorial team, “Dances with Wolves”, the first film directed by Kevin Costner, is one of the 10 westerns to have seen in his life.
Warning, the article below reveals potential spoilers. If you do not wish to know its contents, please do not read what follows…
The AlloCiné editorial team has made this film a classic in its genre, to the point of ranking it among the 10 westerns to have seen in your life. Rated on average 4.3 out of 5 for more than 36,000 votes, it is clear that this feature film is also almost unanimously approved by AlloCiné spectators. And he’s played by Kevin Costner.
Kevin Costner and the western
Costner loves the American West. He is also preparing a series of films called “Horizon: An American Saga”, the first part of which will be presented out of competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. This “chapter 1” will be released in theaters on June 28 in the United States and the second part is announced on August 16. For the moment, no date has been communicated for France, but its reception at the Cannes Film Festival will perhaps help. If success is achieved, Costner has two additional aspects in mind.
During his career, he starred in the western Silverado (1985), Wyatt Earp (1994), Open Range (which he also directed in 2003), the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012) and of course the hit series Yellowstone, which needs no introduction. Above all, Costner made another western, Dances with Wolves, which is the one that concerns us today.
What is it about ?
Dances with Wolves begins during the Civil War. We follow John Dunbar, a soldier destined for certain death, accidentally carrying out a military exploit. Wounded, he was sent to scout the Dakota plains, where he met the Sioux people and became friends with this population of whom he knew nothing.
In its long version of 3h56 as in the “normal” version of 3h01, Dances with Wolves is a must-see of the genre. It perhaps represents Indian culture and its representatives like never before. The hero is certainly white, but we cannot deny the film a profoundly humanist and anti-colonialist desire.
Orion
The staging avoids the spectacular to instead explore the intimacy of the characters and show the complexity of a world, threatened and on the verge of being destroyed. Remember that this is Costner’s first directing, and that it will win 7 Oscars, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (adapted from Michael Blake by Michael Blake) and Best Cinematography (Dean Semler y sublimates nature).
