PG13

Jim Wilson

Kevin Costner

Michael Blake

Original Music by John Barry

Dean Semler (director of photography)

William Hoy

Chip Masamitsu

Steve Potter (as Stephen Potter)

Neil Travis

Orion

USA

English

Lakota

Pawnee

Badlands National Park, Interior South Dakota - (Fort Hays to Fort Sedgewick Wagon journey)

Belle Fourche River, South Dakota, USA

Black Hills, South Dakota, USA - (winter camp)

Fort Pierre, South Dakota, USA - (buffalo scenes)

Interior, South Dakota, USA - (Fort Hays to Fort Sedgewick Wagon journey)

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA - (2nd unit photography - landscape)

Jackson, Wyoming, USA - (2nd unit photography - landscape)

Pierre, South Dakota, USA - (near) (buffalo scenes)

Rapid City, South Dakota, USA

Sage Creek Wilderness Area, Badlands National Park, Interior, South Dakota, USA - (Fort Hays to Fort Sedgewick Wagon journey)

Spearfish Canyon, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA - (winter camp)

Tomahawk Drive, Fort Hays, Kansas, USA

Triple U Standing Butte Ranch - 26314 Tatanka Road, Fort Pierre, South Dakota, USA

Academy Awards


1991 Won Oscar Best Cinematography Dean Semler

1991 Best Director Kevin Costner

1991 Best Film Editing Neil Travis

1991 Best Music, Original Score John Barry

1991 Best Picture Jim Wilson,Kevin Costner

1991 Best Sound Russell Williams II,Jeffrey Perkins,Bill W. Benton,Gregory H. Watkins

1991 Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium,Michael Blake

1991 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role Kevin Costner

1991 Best Actor in a Supporting Role Graham Greene

1991 Best Actress in a Supporting Role Mary McDonnell

1991 Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Jeffrey Beecroft Lisa Dean

1991 Best Costume Design Elsa Zamparelli


American Cinema Editors, USA


1991 Won Eddie Best Edited Feature Film Neil Travis


American Society of Cinematographers


1991 Won ASC Award Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases Dean Semler


Awards of the Japanese Academy


1992 Won Award of the Japanese Academy Best Foreign Film


BAFTA Awards


1992 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Actor Kevin Costner

Best Cinematography Dean Semler

Best Direction Kevin Costner

Best Editing Neil Travis

Best Film Kevin Costner Jim Wilson

Best Make Up Artist Francisco X. Pérez

Best Original Film Score John Barry

Best Screenplay - Adapted Michael Blake

Best Sound Jeffrey Perkins,Bill W. Benton,Gregory H. Watkins,Russell Williams II


BMI Film & TV Awards


1991 Won BMI Film Music Award John Barry


Berlin International Film Festival


1991 Won Silver Berlin Bear Outstanding Single Achievement Kevin Costner For producing/directing/starring the movie.

1991 Nominated Golden Berlin Bear Kevin Costner


British Society of Cinematographers


1991 Nominated Best Cinematography Award Dean Semler


Casting Society of America


1991 Won Artios Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama Elisabeth Leustig


Chicago Film Critics Association Awards


1991 Won CFCA Award Best Cinematography Dean Semler


César Awards, France


1992 Nominated César Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger) Kevin Costner


Directors Guild of America


1991 Won DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Kevin Costner,Derek Kavanagh (unit production manager) (plaque),Doug Metzger (first assistant director) (plaque),Stephen P. Dunn (second assistant director) (plaque)


Environmental Media Awards, USA


1991 Won EMA Award Feature Film


Golden Globe Awards


1991 Won Golden Globe Best Director - Motion Picture Kevin Costner

1991 Won Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Drama

1991 Won Golden Globe Best Screenplay - Motion Picture Michael Blake

1991 Nominated Golden Globe Best Original Score - Motion Picture John Barry

1991 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama Kevin Costner

1991 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Mary McDonnell


Golden Screen, Germany


1992 Won Golden Screen with 1 Star

1991 Won Golden Screen


The Grammy Awards


1992 Won Grammy Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television John Barry


Guild of German Art House Cinemas


1992 Won Guild Film Award - Gold Foreign Film (Ausländischer Film) Kevin Costner


Kinema Junpo Awards


1992 Won Kinema Junpo Award Best Foreign Language Film Kevin Costner

1992 Won Readers' Choice Award Best Foreign Language Film Kevin Costner


Mainichi Film Concours


1992 Won Mainichi Film Concours Best Foreign Language Film Kevin Costner


National Board of Review, USA


1990 Won NBR Award Best Director Kevin Costner

1990 Won NBR Award Best Film - English Language


National Film Preservation Board, USA


2007 National Film Registry


Nikkan Sports Film Awards


1991 Won Nikkan Sports Film Award Best Foreign Film


PGA Awards


1991 Won Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award Jim Wilson,Kevin Costner


Political Film Society, USA


1991 Won PFS Award Peace


Robert Festival


1992 Won Robert Best Foreign Film (Årets udenlandske spillefilm) Kevin Costner (director)


Western Heritage Awards


1991 Won Bronze Wrangler Theatrical Motion Picture Kevin Costner (director/actor),Jim Wilson (producer),Rodney A. Grant (actor)


Western Writers of America


1991 Won Spur Award Best Motion Picture Michael Blake


Writers Guild of America


1991 Won WGA Award (Screen) Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Michael Blake


Young Artist Awards


1991 Won Young Artist Award Most Entertaining Family Youth Motion Picture - Drama

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Kevin Costner

Mary McDonnell

Graham Greene

Rodney A. Grant

Floyd Red Crow Westerman

Tantoo Cardinal

Jimmy Herman

Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse

Michael Spears

Jason R. Lone Hill

Charles Rocket

Robert Pastorelli

Larry Joshua

Tony Pierce

Kirk Baltz

Tom Everett

Maury Chaykin

Wes Studi

Wayne Grace

Doris Leader Charge

Donald Hotton

Annie Costner

Conor Duffy

Elisa Daniel

Percy White Plume

John Tail

Steve Reevis

Sheldon Peter Wolfchild

Buffalo Child

Clayton Big Eagle

If ever there was a motion picture that was a labor of love, Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves was it. Yes, Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves. For although the co-producer / director / star of this film would never have had the chutzpah to put his name above the title, by all rights it might easily have been so. This is a classic tour-de-force film, Costner’s dream fulfilled on celluloid.

Costner first met Jim Wilson, his future co-producer and Michael Blake, the writer of the film and the novel on which it is based, back in 1981 when the three were filming Costner’s first starring role in Stacy’s Knight’s. Five years later, Blake published a novel drawn from his love of the American frontier. It was called Dances with Wolves, but Costner and Wilson, who had encouraged Blake to write the book, saw it more as a first draft of a screenplay for the film they hoped to produce as a starring vehicle for Costner.

Dances with Wolves may be the most politically correct Western ever made. In a complete role reversal, the good guys are the Indians – in this case, the Sioux – while the white men of the American Cavalry are all depicted as brutish louts with no proper respect for the Native Americans. All, that is except Lt. John Dunbar, a Civil war veteran who heads west and ends up being adopted by the local natives (who name him “Dances with Wolves” referring to his taming and frolicking with a wild wolf of the planes).

In an unprecedented move, approximately one-third of the three-hour film’s dialogue is spoken in the Sioux’s native Lakota tongue, with English subtitles. A teacher from the local college on the Rosebud Reservation was hired to translate the screenplay into Lakota and to act as technical advisor. The Sioux nation couldn’t have been more pleased. Just prior to the film’s benefit premiere (for the Smithsonian’s new Museum of the American Indian), Kevin Costner, Jim Wilson and co-star Mary McDonnell were adopted as full tribal members.

Great care was taken not to harm any of the animals, including the 3,500 stampeding buffalo in one of the film’s highlights. The scenes were shot near the Triple U Ranch in South Dakota, with trained “stunt” buffalo used for the tricky shots and “articulated” (dummy) beasts portraying the falling and trampled animals.

The Academy at last had the kind of sweeping epic movie on which it loves to bestow multiple Oscar nominations. When the dust cleared from the buffalo, the 300 horses and the 42 period wagons, the first-time director was rewarded with seven Academy Awards, including Best Pictue and Best Director.

I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life, there are some that matter most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail, and it is good to see.

They were a people so eager to laugh, so devoted to family, so dedicated to each other. The only word that comes to mind is harmony.

Inside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered

When the Sioux and Dunbar are leaving for the buffalo hunt, one of the young boys riding a horse is wearing a pair of low-cut black converse Allstar sneakers. You can see it as they are riding away from the camera.

When the Sioux men come to steal Dunbar's horse, Dunbar jumps into waist-deep water as he runs toward the corral. As soon as he climbs the river bank, his pants are dry.

In the extended version of the film during the buffalo hunt, there is a shot of a buffalo making a turn and in the distant horizon, you can briefly see a modern radio tower on top of a hill.

During the buffalo hunt, where the buffalo turns to charge the fallen Indian, the buffalo has a nose ring used for leading domestic animals.

When Lt. Dunbar is preparing for his meeting with the Indians, you can see the rubber sole of his boot as he is putting it on. There is also a stamped logo on the boot heel. Rubber bottomed boots did not exist during the Civil War.

In an opening scene Kevin Costner is seen eating a Delicious Apple, a variety not created until after the Civil War