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My, what a difference a few years makes. Back in 1991, after
Dances with Wolves swept the Oscars, Kevin Costner was, to quote
a another famous Academy-Award winning director, "The King of
the World." Thought of merely as an actor up until the release
of his long-in-development labor of love, Costner's first directorial
outing silenced the legions of critics that had dogged him all
throughout the film's production. Dubbed "Kevin's Gate,"
few expected what was to come: a worldwide gross of over $300
million, six Oscars including Adapted Screenplay, Director and
Best Picture, and scores of Critics' Ten Best lists. Sweet revenge,
indeed.
But here we are in 1998, and time has not been so kind to Mr.
Costner. Weak films and weaker grosses all culminated in the big-budget
flop The Postman, which has subsequently tarnished the reputation
of Dances With Wolves as something of a fluke. Hailed at the time
as one of the best westerns ever made, if not the best,
many now question its validity as a true classic. Dances with
Wolves is a film that like so many modern blockbusters has suffered
from intense reevaluation, as if it took ten-odd years for the
backlash to finally mount. Perhaps that is simply because no one
likes Costner anymore (and if you suffered through such dreck
as Waterworld or 3,000 Miles to Graceland, you know the feeling),
or maybe because the unabashed sincerity and old-fashioned romanticism
of Wolves is simply out of step with today's preference for postmodern
cynicism.
And that's too bad, because there is still much to admire in
Dances with Wolves. It offers what is still painfully rare in
Hollywood cinema, the depiction of Native Americans as real three-dimensional
human beings (imagine that!), and it did single-handedly
revive the long-dormant western genre. (Would we have had Clint
Eastwood's Unforgiven or Michael Mann's The Last Of The Mohicans
without Kevin Costner? Not likely.) But what remains most impressive
about Costner's achievement is that he was able to usurp the conventions
and semantics of classical Westerns, which smartly still gave
the audience that required frission of familiarity, but turned
our expectations inside out, never once pandering to retro notions
of White-versus-Indian equals Good-versus-Bad. For that alone,
he deserves a Special Achievement Oscar.
Despite what some critics may now claim, Dances with Wolves is
far from the bloated, self-important "insta-epic" once expected.
The same critics who carp on Costner's irony-free, unabashedly
earnest ode to Americana are also the ones who hate films like
Titanic for their reduction of history into educational polemics
filled with obvious and manipulative narrative cliches, bland
dialogue and flat caricatures instead of characters. That maybe
so, but the film's narrative simplicity (and even Costner the
actor, often so smug and glum in lighter fare) are thankfully
free from pretension. His achievement is quite a feat: a well-crafted,
three-hour western that is emotionally complex and, so rare for
a mainstream movie today, one that takes it time with every scene.
It is indeed amazing - when was the last time you actually wanted
to sit in a theater for over three hours?
But as good as I think it is, the question remains: How will
Dances with Wolves be perceived five, ten fifteen years from now?
Who knows? I think it is a classic, a film so timeless and evocative
that one would be hard-pressed to know when it was made if it
wasn't for the date on the back of the box. So don't let the critics
fool you. This is one of the greats.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Image Entertainment, along with THX, has struck a new print
specifically for this release, and presents Dances with Wolves
in a new 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. The effort is worth it -
this easily head-and-shoulders above any previous video incarnation.
Black levels are dead on, colors strong and vibrant, and the extra
resolution afforded by the anamorphic enhancement adding a tremendous
sense of detail to the film's exemplary cinematography. I noticed
no compression artifacts, and even the layer change (the 180-minute
feature spread across two layers of an RSDL disc) was nearly undetectable.
However, I did feel that the image was must slightly too contrasted,
and that perhaps the colors were just a tad too saturated. But
no matter, it looks terrific, and those minor qualms aside (and
it just may be my monitor) and shouldn't disappoint.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
On par with the video is a brand-new 5.1 Dolby Digital remaster
that is wonderfully enveloping and forceful. From the quietest
ambient frontier sounds to the thunderous buffalo stampede, this
is an exemplary soundtrack and the perfect advertisement for 5.1
remasters. There isn't much fault to find here...bass is deep,
dialogue well-rendered and frequency range very expansive. I almost
feel guilty not finding anything to criticize, but there are really
no complaints I can think of! (Note: There is also a separate
DTS 2-disc set released with the same supplements. It is now discontinued.)
(Please note that about 30% of the film is spoken in Native American
dialect with subtitles, so there are actually two subtitle settings.
The disc defaults to subtitle stream 1, which contains English
subtitles for the Native American passages. Subtitle stream 2
also adds English subtitles to the entire film. So it is important
that you not deselect subtitles after the disc starts, or else
you may miss out on important dialogue, unless of course you can
speak the native language.)
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
Additional material on the disc is somewhat slim, and may disappoint
some fans of the film. First, a new screen-specific audio commentary
with Kevin Costner and Producer Jim Wilson has been produced for
this disc, and it is very informative and entertaining, with both
Mr. Costner and Mr. Wilson providing a lot of detail on the production
and decisions that went on throughout the film. A nice addition
to the disc. But, aside from the commentary, though, there are
no other extras aside from some brief cast biographies,
production notes printed in the foldout of the packaging,
and a very nice motion menu. No theatrical trailer is provided.
But probably the only disappointment fans of the film may find
with this disc is that it is not the extended cut that was released
a few years back on laserdisc. That disc featured about 45 minutes
of additional footage, bringing an already long film to nearly
4 hours. It also included a documentary, making-of book and lobby
cards. However, I've always preferred the theatrical version,
as does Kevin Costner himself, and the audio stems were not available
for the extended cut to produce a 5.1 remaster, so I personally
was not disappointed at all by this disc.
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc
in your PC?
No ROM extras have been included.
Parting Thoughts
If you are a fan of the film, I definitely recommend this find
new DVD, which easily offers the best presentation available on
home video. It is also certainly worth a rental if you have never
seen it, and don't let Kevin Costner's last few cinematic misgivings
sway you from seeing what I think is a wonderful film. Kudos go
to Image for taking the time to remaster this long-awaited title
in both anamorphic widescreen and 5.1, and for pricing well at
$29.95 retail. Definitely recommended.
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