Dances with Wolves | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Kevin Costner |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by | Michael Blake |
Based on |
Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake |
Starring |
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Music by | John Barry |
Cinematography | Dean Semler |
Edited by | Neil Travis |
Production
companies |
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Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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181 minutes |
Country | United States |
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Budget | $22 million |
Box office | $424.2 million |
Dances with Wolves is a 1990 American epic Western film directed by, produced by, and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post and his dealings with a group of Lakota Indians.
Costner developed the film with an initial budget of $15 million. Dances with Wolves had high production values and won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Much of the dialogue is spoken in Lakota with English subtitles. It was shot in South Dakota and Wyoming, and translated by Albert White Hat, the chair of the Lakota Studies Department at Sinte Gleska University.
The film is credited as a leading influence for the revitalization of the Western genre of filmmaking in Hollywood. In 2007, Dances with Wolves was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 1863, First Lieutenant John J. Dunbar is wounded in battle at St. David's Field in Tennessee. Choosing death in battle over amputation of his leg, he takes a horse and rides up to and along the Confederate lines. Despite numerous pot shots, the Confederates fail to hit him, and while they are distracted, the Union Army successfully attack the line. Dunbar survives, receives a citation for bravery, and proper medical care. He recovers fully and is awarded Cisco, the horse who carried him, and his choice of posting. Dunbar requests a transfer to the western frontier so he can see it before it disappears.