Dances With Wolves [1991] [DVD]

A beautiful film. Even if you are not a great fan of Westerns I think you can still get involved in John Dunbar’s journey and his relationship with the Lakota Indians. Kevin Costner plays him to perfection and as well as directing the movie does most of the stunts himself. Certainly deserved all the Oscar success

With the possible exception of Little Big Man, this film brings to life the uniqueness of an indian culture - the Sioux - with a sensitivity and intelligence that is without equal. Not only that, but the film aged extremely well and did not in the slightest feel outdated. Given the quirkiness of the Kostner character, who is not by any means some kind of noble hero, and absolutely first-rate acting, and you have a masterpiece. The films starts during the Civil War, when an injured Kostner makes a gesture of despair and hope, to gain access to the officers' surgeon to save his wounded leg. Offered whatever assignment he desires, he chooses the frontier, to witness it before it disappears. So starts a journey in which he joins a Sioux tribe and achieves the status of warrior. It is a success that I have not found in any other cinematic experience - utterly convincing, painfully intimate, full of mistakes, and ultimately sad. It is a spiritual journey to find his true identity and completely believable, even with the ambiguity of the ending. I believe it is Kostner's best work. As he gets to know the tribe, the individual personalities emerge with wonderful clarity, but it is the portrait of the tribe as a whole, the culture, that was by far the most beautiful for me. There is grace, love, camaraderie, the sacred, and brutality all rolled into one. Little Big Man did the same for the Cheyenne, but there was always an element of parody and tall tale to the film that I felt was aimed at children. This film is adult, with realistically awful violence next to the beauty. Indeed, it has inspired me to research Sioux culture more deeply. My only criticisms include how crude the white interlopers appear. It makes you cheer when they are killed, though there is a good captain. Also, when becoming part of the tribe, Kostner supplies them with guns to fight another tribe, which I think is a profound violation of his duty as an army officer. Finally, the bit with the wolf is stretched to the point of the truly maudlin. Warmly recommended. My wife and I had seen this shortly after she moved with me to the US, so it was an introduction to American history for her, a European. Now, we watched it with our kids (in our European home) and they were utterly absorbed by it and full of questions, to the point that they will want to learn more. What more could you want?

What can one say - arguably one of the best films ever made, certainly in my top ten.

Good overall movie, great casting and very well portrayed by all the actors

Thought I would give my view of this Blu-ray and maybe dispell any buyer apprehensions, in the process. My b-ray came today, taking nine days to arrive, from Momox Germany. There is a little confusion here, as regards the feature running times as printed on the two included discs. If you zoom examine the posted photographs of the discs - the 'director's cut' disc is printed as 134 min - BUT it actually runs for 181:04 mins ( 3 hrs 4minutes ). This, I believe is the theatrical extended cut. The second disc running time is printed as 181 min - BUT - it actually runs for 236:39 mins ( 3hrs 56mins 39 seconds ) - which I believe is the FULL director's cut of the film. The Blu-ray quality of picture is excellent, with DTS 7.1 master audio on the full director's cut. If you are able to alter the viewing aspect ratio on your tv ( mine is a 55" LG ), you may have to retain a black bar on the bottom of the film, rather than zoom to full cinema screen aspect, as the sub titles ( which can be configured in English ) appear slightly lower than the actual displayed film (which is widescreen ) and take up a second dialogue line on the bottom black bar itself. So maybe its better to watch in its original 16:9 aspect - but that's a matter of personal preference. Why couldn't we get an English blu-ray release of the longest cut, If the Germans could? Hope this helps someone else in debate of this foreign release.

Arrived in good condition. A good film.

Forget the naysayers - for those of us who don't live in our parents basements surrounded by Cheetos and spend our lives on internet forums, this Dances With Wolves BluRay will answer the prayers of all fans of this underrated film; a strange notion as it is a best picture winner. Yes, it is the "shorter" version. It is also the theatrical version. Dances With Wolves happens to be my favourite movie, but even I top out at 3 hours, so really... the 40 or so minutes that comprise the so-called "Extended/Director's Cut" isn't such a loss. Most importantly, we have a great movie on a great-looking BluRay. The picture quality is superb, the sound excellent, and with better equiped home cinemas than ever before, people will be discovering this fine film all over again and fully appreciate the scope, depth and astonishing cinematography that those initial audiences would have experienced in cinemas. Don't whine about it, just buy it. Films like this are why BluRay was created.

Excellent firm

Très émouvant et juste. Un hommage à la nature et au peuple autochtone.

Wow que gran pelicula, hace años la vi por primera vez y me gustó, ahora después de tanto tiempo me pareció una joya, casi 4 horas que se te hacen poco. Referente a las características de la Versión en Blu-ray Edición de 25 aniversario, incluye un solo disco con la versión extendida, no incluye la Cinematográfica y solo un par de extras, no incluye tampoco ningun codigo para copia digital. Asi que pese a ser una Edición de Aniversario viene extremadamente sencilla, incluso la caja es de reciclaje, de esas con perforaciones interiores en ambas caras que la hacen muy pero muy endeble y no tiene Slipcover, afortunadamente llegó en buen estado y como siempre antes de tiempo. Imagine que estarían disponibles las 2 versiones en esta presentación, el anuncio trae por ahí hay una dudosa descripción del contenido al momento de hacer la compra y te hace pensar que incluye 2 discos, pero después de leer y releer no hay nada que diga que incluye las dos versiones ni los dos discos. (Equivocación mia). Aún así, la película es Maravillosa que es todo lo que verdaderamente importa, es todo belleza y cuenta con una producción impactante de las de antaño, con cero CGI como las de ahora; La imagen es extraordinaria y el sonido más que decente para una película de estas características. Esta presentación no trae doblaje al Español, únicamente Subtitulos que para mi en lo particular esta bien con el sonido Original. Estoy más que satisfecho con la compra. Lo que si, como uno de mis nuevos tesoros en mi colección, le cambiaré el estuche. Quizás más adelante adquiera la Edición del 20 Aniversario que creo sólo incluye la versión cinematográfica para hacer la comparación de ambas. La Edición Steelbook incluye las 2 versiones es cierto, además de ser mil veces mas bonita, pero la versión extendida en esa presentación tengo entendido no incluye subtitulos en Español.

When you buy blueray disc on swedish amazon you assume it is with the region-code for europe, but no…..

『ショーシャンクの空に』とともに、外国映画の中で特に好きな映画である。通常版では伝わり切れない部分があったが、4時間が短く感じるほどのディレクターズカットであった。かつて『Uボート』も、テレビ版を見てやっとその物語が理解できた経験から、どうしてもこれが欲しかったのだ。この度、ほぼ新品といえる状態の商品を入手でき、感謝に堪えない。それにしても『蹴る鳥』にオスカーが・・・これだけは残念だ。

A good movie. Never gets old. Good to watch with someone who hasn't seen it before. Especially a woman. Thank you.