The good old days. I am sure that we have all at one time hankered back for what we think were the Good Old Days. You know, when life was simpler, the food better and the music too. Perhaps even films? The funny thing about the good old days is that we sometimes look back at them through a filter and they are not really as good as we thought them to be. I was giving this subject some thought before I popped the subject of this review, Dances With Wolves, into the Blu-ray player.
I hadn’t seen this film since its initial theatrical release 20 year ago. I was very impressed by the film back then and can recall thinking “Wow!” as I left the theater. Would the film be as impressive as I remembered it to be with 20 years worth of perspective or would it be like the Good Old Days often are, not as good as we recall? Thankfully in this case, even given the expanded length of the film, it is every bit as good as I recall it being.
Film Image may be NSFW.
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I loved this film when I saw it the first time and found it to be just as pleasing on Blu-ray. The film included here is the extended cut and clocks in at nearly 4 hours and is almost an hour longer than the film I saw at the theater. A four hour running time is probably too long a time to sit in a theater to watch a film, so the ability to pause it and come back to finish it later one of the real benefits of home theater. For those of you who saw Avatar, you know the basic plot for Dances With Wolves.
Set in 1863, Dances With Wolves stars Kevin Costner as Lt. John J. Dunbar of the Union Army who, after an act of tremendous bravery (or an attempt at suicide depending on your point of view), is granted a transfer from the front lines to the frontier of the great plains. When asked at his new post why he would want a transfer to the no man’s land of the western frontier, he said so that he can see it before it is gone.
By the times he arrives at the small fort where he was stationed with a load of provisions, it had been deserted due to lack of support. All by himself, he repaired the fort and began to man it himself, hoping to get a look at buffalo and the great rolling plains. After awhile, a lone wolf comes near the fort for food and John Dunbar begins to feed it. It is after observations of him with the wolf that the local Sioux tribe gives him the name, Dances With Wolves.
A lone Sioux, eventually comes upon the fort and encounters Lt. Dunbar. He convinces the tribe to send others to feel Lt. Dunbar out, to see if he is a threat. After a slow start, the tribe welcomes him as one of their own and Lt. Dunbar weds Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman who the tribe adopted after the rest of her family was killed by a more violent local tribe. Unlike some of the other tribes in the frontier, The Sioux tribe is very peaceful, living in harmony with the land, wandering the plains looking for food and water and the buffalo, who are very important to their survival. They kill only as many buffalo as they need to feed their tribe. Lt. Dunbar is captivated by how they live in harmony with nature and wants to live with them.
After he weds, he returns to the fort which to his surprise, has now been fully staffed by soldiers who do not share his love for the Sioux. They view him in his indian garb as a traitor and place him in jail. When he refuses to turn on the tribe, he is beaten. When Danes With Wolves does not return, the tribe is concerned and sets out to rescue him to reunite him with the tribe and his new wife. In doing so, Danes With Wolves is forced to make a choice between his past or his new family in a fight for his own survival.
In addition to the lead role, Kevin Costner also directed the film which is based on a book of the same name by Michael Blake. The film won 7 Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, film editing, original score, directing and Best Picture. All of the awards were well deserved. Dances With Wolves is a captivating film and a true classic. It was a treat to experience the film in HD for the first time with an all new hi def transfer and a new 7. 1 audio track. Dances With Wolves is every bit as good as I recalled it to be and is very highly recommended.
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Dances With Wolves is filled with some great cinematography and looks superb on Blu-ray. Clearly, given the length of the film, great care went into the encode for this release and I could not detect much in the way of significant artifacts that would in any way spoil one’s enjoyment of the film. The early part of the film involving the Civil War battles looks quite good with bright and vivid greens and the bright red of blood the dominant colors in the color palette. When the film moves out west, those colors are replaced by the beautiful blue sky and the browns of the South Dakota landscape where the film was shot. The rolling hills of the plains look great and the film gives one a great look at how the landscape of the frontier may have looked in the mid 19th Century.
While the film does not have the inkiest of blacks, the blacks are more than acceptable and are consistent throughout the film. Some of the darker interior scenes do have a bit of black crush but are not really all that objectionable. As far as I know, that is just how the film was supposed to look. Details are quite good during close-ups but loss a bit on more distant shots which are a tad on the soft side. Film grain is apparent and it does not look like much in the way of digital noise reduction was applied to “clean” up the look of the film, which still has that film like look about it. All things considered, this is a fine encode of a fine looking film and is one that should more than please fans of the film. Well done Fox.
Audio Image may be NSFW.
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The same care that went into the encoding of the video for this release was also used for the audio which has been remixed into a 7.1 sound design. The overall fidelity of the audio is excellent, which can be described as smooth, full and rich although lacking the degree of transparency as the very best sounding films. The musical score sounds sensational. The dialogue track is always clear and front and center in the sound mix. I found large sections of the film to be a bit front heavy with the surrounds used for low ambient effects. However, when they are used more aggressively, they are used very well, for example the sounds of the wind whipping through the plains, the thundering buffalo herd and the various battle sequences.
Bass response is very good with gun shots having a believable sense of weight. The same can be said of the thundering buffalo herd which rumbles quite convincingly through your room although without the sheer room rattling bass of the very best sound mixes. The film is 20 year old after all. All in all, this is a fine audio encode and one that will also thrill fans of the film.
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Dances With Wolves is presented as a 2 disc set. The film is so long that the only extras on the first disc consist of audio commentaries featuring Kevin Costner and producer Jim Williams and a second featuring Director of Photography Dean Semler and Film Editor Neil Travis. The extras on the first film also contain two in movie experiences MIlitary Rank and Social Heirarchy Guide and Real History or Movie Make Believe?, both of which are entirely forgettable in this writer’s opinion.
The second disc contains the rest of the making of featurettes with only one in high definition and that is “A Day in the Life on the Western Frontier” which provides an historical look at what life was really like on the frontier. This one is certainly worth a look.
The rest appear to have been ported over from the prior DVD release. The other featurettes are the “Original Making With Wolves” and “The Creation of an Epic: A Perspective Documentary”, the latter of which is quite long and detailed, detailing every aspect of the making of the film and its reception by the film going public. Also included is a Dances Photo Montage with an introduction by photographer Phil Glass as well as the original trailer for the film. For a film this significant, I was expecting a bit more and some newer featurettes on the making of the film.
Final Thoughts Image may be NSFW.
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Dances With Wolves is another film which has stood the test of time. It features fine audio and video encodes that should more than please fans of the film. Do yourself a favor, if you have seen Avatar, check out Dances With Wolves and see just how much better this type of material can be handled. Very highly recommended.
