Dances With Wolves is strikingly similar to the novel it is based on, yet multiple differences still separate them. Considered one of Costner’s best Western movies, Dances With Wolves was the first film the actor directed himself. While Dances With Wolves is a little controversial now for its portrayal of the Native American characters, it was a striking debut, winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Costner’s later movies never equaled Dances With Wolves, which has an 87% positive Rotten Tomatoes score.
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Dances With Wolves began as a script by the writer Michael Blake, a friend of Costner, who suggested it might do better as a novel. Blake rewrote it, Costner bought the rights so that he could direct it, and Dances With Wolves became one of Costner’s best movies. Costner plays John Dunbar, who finds that he sympathizes with the Lakota Sioux population he is supposed to be in conflict with, gaining the name “Dances With Wolves.” As Blake wrote the script for Dances With Wolves, the movie and book are similar, albeit not in every way.
10 The Movie Focuses Mostly On Dunbar’s Perspective
The Novel Is Told From Several Characters’ Perspectives
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As Costner is the main character and the most well-known of all the cast of Dances With Wolves, the movie is firmly centered on his perspective. This meant that while the story was told in a much clearer way for viewers, they also lost some of the insight that came from reading Blake’s original novel, which gave a voice to Stands With a Fist and the Native American characters.
The Dances With Wolves novel tells the story through the eyes of several characters, including Wind In His Hair, Stands With A Fist, and even Major Hatch. Changing this for the movie was understandable as Costner was the main draw, but may not have been the right choice, as the novel added insight into significant scenes, like Stands With a Fist’s powerful ritual mourning scene, which is told from her perspective.
9 The Book Explains Why Fort Sedgewick Was Abandoned
In The Dances With Wolves Movie, Dunbar Arrives And Gets A Shock
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The Dances With Wolves novel has a short section told from the perspective of Captain Cargill, who is miserable, losing teeth, and furious at the lack of supplies and repeated Comanche raids. In this scene, Cargill tells the men to pack up, and begins the march back to Fort Hays. The extended director’s cut of Dances With Wolves shows this scene from the book, but the theatrical cut does not.
In the theatrical version of Dances With Wolves, Dunbar arrives at Fort Sedgewick expecting a community full of supplies but is confused to find the post abandoned. It is surprising that the abandonment scene was cut, as it showed how unprepared the Union was for life on the Plains, and underlines the hopeless situation Dunbar walked into. While Dances With Wolves is not a true story, these Union bases did exist, and the men there struggled to adapt to their surroundings.
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8 The Book Is About The Comanche, While The Movie Is About The Sioux
This Was Due To Logistical Issues When Filming Dances With Wolves
While the novel and movie are much more similar than many book adaptations, one key difference is in the Native American population. The Dances With Wolves novel originally had Dunbar forming a relationship with the Comanche, while the movie changed this, with Dunbar joining the Lakota Sioux. This was due to a lack of buffalo in the planned filming area, and a shortage of Native American actors who spoke Comanche.
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Though Dances With Wolves is a product of its time, it was groundbreaking when it was made, for its nuanced portrayal of Native American characters, extensive attention to historical detail, Native American actors (rather than painted white actors), and a large portion of the movie spoken in Lakota. While its depiction of Native American people is not perfect, a historian praised Costner’s Western epic for its “reasonably accurate” portrayal of the Lakota Sioux.
7 Stands With A Fist Is 26 In The Book, But She Is Much Older In The Movie
Mary McDonnell Was 37 When She Appeared In Dances With Wolves
The book describes Stands With A Fist as having a “tough, tiny frame,” and a “wild” appearance. Her birth name was Christine, and she is thought to be based on the real-life Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by the Comanche Nation and grew up as a member of their community. Stands With A Fist is 26 in the book, which means that the Dances With Wolves movie had a very unusual Hollywood age gap.
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Mary McDonnell was 37 when she played Stands With A Fist in the movie adaptation of Dances With Wolves, making her older than Kevin Costner, who was 35 at the time. The vast majority of Hollywood romances feature a large age gap, with the male characters and actors often being over a decade older than their female co-stars. However, Costner had specifically wanted an older actress to play Stands With A Fist.
6 The Book Wasn’t Advertised While The Movie Had Two Different Advertising Campaigns
Dances With Wolves Had Trailers That Were Aimed At Male And Female Audiences
It is not always commonly known that Dances With Wolves was a book at all, and unlike many successful books, there were no large-scale advertising campaigns for the original novel. In fact, the novel only grew in popularity after Costner’s movie hit the theaters and the story of its production became known. However, the movie had an unusual and gendered advertising strategy, with two main trailers being released for different audiences.
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Trailers were released to appeal to different audiences, with the advertising team assuming that a female audience would prefer a romance while a male audience would enjoy the action aspects of the movie. One trailer emphasized the love story between Dunbar and Stands With A Fist, while another focused on the epic action scenes in Dances With Wolves. This strategy could have alienated both audiences, but it appeared to pay off, with Dances With Wolves becoming a box office success.
5 Kevin Costner Looked Drastically Different To Dunbar In The Novel
Costner’s Mullet Was A Product Of Its Time (As Was Mary McDonnell’s Hair)
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Not all the historical elements in Dances With Wolves were praised, with one historian explaining “it’s just not true” in its depiction of the Civil War. While Dunbar’s uniform was based on real Civil War-era uniforms, one aspect of the styling in Dances With Wolves has been heavily ridiculed. The book barely describes Dunbar’s physical appearance other than a few basic details, so it can be assumed that he resembled most other Civil War soldiers, who the Native American characters call “hair-mouths” for their beards.
Costner’s flowing mullet and clean-shaven face stuck out as looking more fitting for the 1980s than for 1863 when Dances With Wolves was set. Mary McDonnell’s hairstyle was also different from the book character in that it was a Hollywood attempt at the “wild, tangled hair” described in the book. Her bangs and backcombing may not have been noticed when the movie was released, but modern viewers notice the 1980s “big hair” look.
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4 Dances With Wolves Claims His Name In The Movie
His Famous Line To Lieutenant Elgin Is Not Included In The Book
When Dunbar is captured toward the end of the movie, Lieutenant Elgin tries to talk with him, as his men are unsure whether Dunbar is white or Native American. However, the bloodied and beaten Dunbar first reveals himself to be white and English-speaking, but then speaks in Lakota, telling Elgin “My name is Dances With Wolves. I have nothing to say to you. You are not worth talking to.”
This scene is one of the most powerful in the movie, as Dunbar has turned his back on the kind of men that he once belonged to, and claimed his new name. But while Costner’s character was captured in the book, the scene does not include this dialogue or Lieutenant Elgin, and instead says that every time they asked him a question, “he answered them with a killing glare and spat out a long string of Comanche insults.”
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3 Dances With Wolves Leaves For A Different Reason In The Movie
He Offers To Leave To Protect The Comanche In The Book
Both the Dances With Wolves book and movie share a significant plot point, in which Dunbar (now known as Dances With Wolves) plans to leave the Lakota Sioux with Stands With A Fist, who he has married. However, the two versions offer different reasons for this. In the novel, he offers to leave to protect the Comanche, because the white soldiers will hunt him as a traitor. The Comanche, though, have a different plan.
In the novel, the Comanche tell him that he is welcome to leave, but that they will hide and protect him if he stays. But in the movie, while Chief Ten Bears also tells him that he is part of their people and welcome to stay, Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist leave on a quest. The two intend to try and reach “those who would listen” and persuade the people in authority to leave the Lakota Sioux in peace.
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2 The Book Ends Quietly And Thoughtfully, While The Movie’s Ending Scene Is Visually Powerful
Wind In His Hair Gets A Final Emotional Moment
Dances With Wolves’ original ending may not have translated well to the screen, and this is one of the biggest changes that the movie made from the novel. The novel leaves Dances With Wolves and Chief Ten Bears smoking in his tent as a snowstorm rages outside, before moving on in the spring, with an ominous note that their time was running out. The movie’s ending scene, on the other hand, packed more of an emotional punch.
Dances With Wolves ending is one of the movie’s best and most iconic scenes, echoing an earlier scene in the movie. Wind In His Hair, played by Rodney A. Grant, sees Dunbar and threatens him, raising his spear and yelling “My name is Wind In His Hair, and I am not afraid of you.” Later, as Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist leave, Wind In His Hair appears on the ridge and calls down, “you will always be my friend.”
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1 The Dances With Wolves Novel Has A Sequel
A Movie Adaptation Appears To Be In Development Hell
In 2001, Blake published a sequel to Dances With Wolves called The Holy Road, which shows Dances With Wolves on a rescue mission after Stands With A Fist and their three children are captured by white rangers. Rumors of a movie adaptation have circulated for years, with the historical drama director Salvador Carrasco attached. But since it’s yet to happen after all these years, the movie may be in development hell and would need to happen without its main star.
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Kevin Costner told Roger Ebert”I’ll never make a sequel,” and so, while it is still possible that The Holy Road might one day be adapted into a movie, Costner will almost certainly not reprise his role as Dances With Wolves. Although the movie may be much more similar to its source material than other book-to-movie adaptations, the biggest difference between the Dances With Wolves book and movie may be that his story continues in one and not the other.
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Source: Roger Ebert
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19 8.7/10 Dances With Wolves PG-13
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*Availability in US Director Kevin Costner Release Date March 30, 1990 Writers Michael Blake Cast Kevin Costner , Mary McDonnell , Graham Greene , Rodney A. Grant , Floyd Westerman , Tantoo Cardinal