Review: ‘Dances With Wolves’
You never know when magic will happen. You tell a friend to go write a story. He goes and does his research, getting very excited by the prospects and writes. He reads to you the finished novel and it moves you in unexpected ways. Since you’re a film producer, you decide you want to adapt this to the screen. Somehow, you convince someone to publish the book while you go out and raise the $132 million you know in your heart it will take to make the film. Along the way, a third friend, equally moved by the book, convinces everyone that he not only wants to star in the film, but make his directorial debut. Everyone agrees and suddenly, you’re shooting in South Dakota. A year or so later, the movie tests through the roof. Audiences have responded with enthusiasm. Your peers honor you with twelve Academy Award nominations and you win seven. When you weren’t looking, you not only conjured up magic but you made an important film.
And that is what happened with [[[Dances With Wolves]]], the three-hour long story of John Jay Dunbar, a wounded Civil War veteran who asks for a remote assignment out in the frontier, noting he wants to see it before it’s all gone. While out in the wild, he slowly recognizes the beauty of America and the nobility of the Native Americans, many (including Wind in his Hair [Rodney A. Grant] and Kicking Bird [Graham Greene]) who cautiously befriends him. Dunbar also discovers a white woman, who was raised by the Lakota and renamed Stands with a Fist (Mary McDonnell). She serves as his guide to a world he falls in love with, making him unique among his fellow man.
Kevin Costner did a marvelous job taking his friend Michael Blake’s novel and turning it into a movie that reminded Americans of those who dwelt here first and still linger on their reservations. He let the story unfold slowly, with marvelous cinematography, making American the Beautiful once more. He filled the cast with many Native Americans, many who needed to relearn their native tongue. Coupled with John Barry’s stirring score, the movie transports you to another time and another way of life. When it was released 20 years ago, it also sparked a new dialogue over the plight of the Native Americans and just how cruel the settlers were. The Library of Congress thought it significant enough to add it in 2007 as one of the culturally significant films to be preserved.
In case you missed this excellent movie, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released it as a 20th Anniversary two-disc Blu-ray event. The first disc is an extended version of the film, now running 3:54 and frankly the extra 55 minutes Costner tucked back in doesn’t necessarily make it a better story. Instead, we are treated to lots of extended views of the land and the people moving across the land. It’s all beautiful but doesn’t necessarily add to our enjoyment of the story. The film is brilliantly transferred to high-definition with rich colors. The new DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 is also most welcome.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]] never was a ratings darling but it caught the cultural zeitgeist and was an important factor in pop culture during its seven season run (1997-2003). Thankfully, when the series ended, showrunner Joss Whedon felt the characters weren’t done yet and agreed to continue their story in the pages of the Dark Horse comic. Dubbed Season Eight, the 40 issue run completes its run this month with a ninth season on tap.
Movies and television shows have been created after something has caught the public’s imaginations be it a Twitter feed, a commercial, or a persona. Perhaps the best of the lot, though, is [[[Machete]]], inspired by a fake movie trailer. The film, now out on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, came about when director Robert Rodríguez fashioned a B-film trailer as part of [[[Grindhouse]]], the homage to trashy films of the past, made with Quentin Tarantino. Machete, with Danny Trejo in the lead, captured imaginations so Rodriguez and his brother Alvaro wrote a film to do the trailer justice.
George Lucas may never finish tinkering with his Star Wars series. At the Consumer Electronics Show today, the anticipated announcement was officially made that the six movies will be collected in a nine-disc box set. The original trilogy will be making their Blu-ray debut — but these are the special editions. Apparently, the original elements from the first releases are fragile and need to be recreated or cleaned to properly reproduce in high definition (yes, meaning another opportunity to sell us product).
When a show deviates too far from the source material, its fate is in the hands of the writing staff who can take the raw elements and run with them or spin their wheels and grind the freshness out of the subject matter. Much as [[[Smallville]]] ran out of steam six seasons back, its spiritual successor, the BBC’s [[[Merlin]]], quickly lost its way in the first season. The second season, out on DVD now from BBC Video, takes great legendary figures and turns them into maudlin soap characters. When the first season came to America, NBC tried it out and the low ratings relegated season two to SyFy where the mediocre can rule.
Back in the 1980s, as the emphasis switched from characters and editors to creators, it was inevitable that agents would arrive to help the new super-stars cut favorable deals. As a result, its a little surprising it took this long for a marketing agency to arrive to service the “geek culture”. The principals involved are certainly industry-tested and both are well liked. We wish them and their new endeavor well.
Personally, I could care less about 3-D movies let along 3-D television, but as this technology rolls out and we’ll be hearing more about 3-D TV during this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, expect more announcement such as the one below.
Aimed at readers 7-9, Missile Mouse is a cute, bright and colorful space adventure series. Jake Parker, who works at Blue Sky Studios, home to the [[[Ice Age]]] movies, certainly knows how to tell a story and create visually interesting worlds.
The French artist Nicolas De Crécy has been working in the field for some two decades and has been slowing gaining a following in the United States. His 2005 series, Salvatore, is finally translated for American readers courtesy of NBM and it is a most welcome volume. The book was released in 2005 as part of Expresso, Dupuis’ new imprint of full-color albums and here we get the first two volumes collected.
The original [[[Wall Street]]] was a reflection of the times, showing how enticing working in the financial sector can be and how the huge sums of money involved can blind people to depths they will sink to chase it. It was a story about seduction and about family. That it came out when the markets were in the headlines gave it additional strength coupled with Michael Dogulas’ winning performance as Gordon Gecko. His “Greed is Good” was the most overused catchphrase in America until “Show me the Money.”
