Kevin Costner wowed everyone with his Civil War-era western epic back in 1990, and he's been riding the wave of its success ever since.
"Dances with Wolves" is a very good movie, beautifully filmed, beautifully scored, well acted. And it has noble intentions, for which I give it credit. But it's hard not to be sort of annoyed by it upon subsequent viewings, in the same way I'm annoyed by Steven Spielberg movies when he's trying to atone for his white guilt. In order to puncture stereotypes about a group of people these directors think their audiences don't know enough about (in Costner's case, native Americans), they resort to making caricatures out of the white people instead. Spielberg is a much worse offender than Costner (see "The Color Purple"), but Costner is guilty of it too. There's an air of condescension that turns me off.
But I will restate that the film has noble intentions, and Costner was taking quite a risk in bringing a three-hour film about native Americans to a mainstream audience and banking on mainstream audiences caring.
Grade: B+
"Dances with Wolves" is a very good movie, beautifully filmed, beautifully scored, well acted. And it has noble intentions, for which I give it credit. But it's hard not to be sort of annoyed by it upon subsequent viewings, in the same way I'm annoyed by Steven Spielberg movies when he's trying to atone for his white guilt. In order to puncture stereotypes about a group of people these directors think their audiences don't know enough about (in Costner's case, native Americans), they resort to making caricatures out of the white people instead. Spielberg is a much worse offender than Costner (see "The Color Purple"), but Costner is guilty of it too. There's an air of condescension that turns me off.
But I will restate that the film has noble intentions, and Costner was taking quite a risk in bringing a three-hour film about native Americans to a mainstream audience and banking on mainstream audiences caring.
Grade: B+