Kevin Costner’s epic western “One of the best I’ve ever seen”

With Dances with Wolves, Kevin Costner entered film history in the early 1990s and established himself as a luminary of the Western genre, something the actor and director still demonstrates today in the series hit Yellowstone or his own epic Horizon.

Over 30 years later, Costner’s genre classic by an expert on the Wild West put through its paces ‒ with impressive results.

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For example, historian Michael Grauer, who considers himself an expert in the field of the Wild West, two scenes from Costner’s classic for insiders. The first scene depicts the iconic buffalo hunt of the Western, which Grauer classifies as realistic:

If we look at how the short bow is used to hunt the bison, which was the main source of food and crafting. A single shot would not have killed them. The same goes for the Henry rifle that Kevin Costner carries: He should have shot several timesto kill it. Because he’s on horseback. Those buffalo hunts were long, tiring events because the animals run for miles. For a movie, you have to compress time and space to get that on the screen.

The second scene that the historian looked at shows the moment when John Dunbar (Costner) is offered a piece of liver by the Lakota. Here too, Grauer considers the depiction to be authentic:

When you take something from that liver, you are also consuming the spirit of the animal. This is a form of gratitude, as practiced in the indigenous way of life. Offering it to this white soldier, played by Kevin Costner, is a form of incorporating him into that way of life. The attention to detail in how the Lakota and indigenous people in general are portrayed is crucial in this scene. She shows great sensitivity.

Overall, Grauer came to the following conclusion for the two scenes:

I would give this an 8 [von 10] The quick deaths are perhaps small losses, but overall the depiction of the buffalo hunt is with the best that I’ve ever seen on screen.

If you want to see Dances with Wolves for yourself, you can currently buy or rent Costner’s western classic from the video-on-demand providers Amazon, Apple TV and Google Play.

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The 8 Western highlights presented on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and MUBI include both absolute classics and lesser-known insider tips. There is something for every genre fan: Our recommendations cover a full 55 years of Western history between 1964 and 2019.