Dances with Wolves (Two-Disc 20th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]

If you like this movie you will love the complete uncut version! It's long but a great story with many scenes that goes into more detail and explains more of over all story! In my humble opinion its worth the extra time, just get a bigger bowl of popcorn!

Dances With Wolves is Kevin Costner's finest film to date, hands down. Nothing else comes close. While the actual story is a tad revisionistic, it is very entertaining. But before I get into this blu-ray release, I want to address an issue that I am surprised most critics did not catch onto. Dances With Wolves is the movie that James Cameron adapted to do Avatar. They are essentially the same stories, with the same character arcs and overall themes. I won't go blow for blow, but watch them back to back and tell me that Avatar is not a rip-off of Dances With Wolves. Now, this is not a review to bash Avatar, because I actually liked it. But I am surprised how much praise Cameron gets for the movie without acknowledging how much it owes to Dances With Wolves. Maybe he DID rip off Terminator from Harlon Ellison after all.Anyway, I am usually not a big fan of extended cuts recently, because they tend to tack on a couple of minutes of crappy outtakes that were edited out for a reason. Not so with Dances With Wolves. One of the biggest revelations of this cut is you find out what happened to the soldiers of Fort Sedgwick before Lt. Dunbar made it there. While the original theatrical cut works with an odd sense of mystery at the beginning, this is also an interesting addition adding an unnecessary, but fun cut that solves the mystery. The other big addition for me was the soliloquey that Dunbar makes in his journal after they find the slaughtered buffalo. He makes a mention that he could not sleep with them and there were no looks of blame. That never sat well with me until I saw this extended version which puts that scene into context. It turns out the scouts found the white guys who killed the buffalo, scalped and slaughtered them, and the dance you saw around the campfire was celebrating that. It was, to me, a very important piece of the puzzle and I finally understood what Costner meant in that scene. It is also a pivotal moment in Dunbar's development as he becomes separated from the Whahchichoo and becomes a different individual to the tribe and to himself. He is becoming a man who does not fit anywhere. This is a very key moment that, with this small addition in the film, makes the movie so much deeper and Dunbar's character arc much more compelling and real.This is one of the few movies that used their cut scenes to great effect, similar to the extended cuts of the Lord of the Rings. They are great for superfans, but also great for the regular viewer. Yes, most of the cuts were obviously cut out for a reason, and for the most part, are unnecessary to the core story. But if you like the story as much as I do, there are so many more delightful details to experience.

The winner of 7 Academy Awards, Kevin Costner's panoramic frontier epic DANCES WITH WOLVES is a rich and masterful blend of scenery, story, culture, personality, and friendship.Following an act of interpreted bravery in the Civil War, Lt. John Dunbar is restationed to a deserted and delapidated Army fort, somewhere in the vast expanse of the unsettled Dakotas. He soon encounters a local tribe of Sioux Indians. Though initially distrustful, both sides begin to work, however slowly, at conquering their fears and prejudices. As Dunbar grows closer to the community, he makes efforts to learn their ways: language and dress, buffalo hunts and bonfire dances. His developing romance with a tribal woman blossoms into marriage. The Sioux leaders fear, all the while, that more `whites' are coming, to take and drive them off their lands, and the society's holy man suspects that Dunbar himself knows as much. What is more, the U.S. Army has initiated pursuit of the former lieutenant, branding him a traitor. Eventually, Dunbar must choose between remaining with the Sioux ... or departing from their company, rerouting military parties in order to safeguard Sioux culture and life.The story is strong; the characters are distinctive and transparent; the script, smart and focused. The costumes, setting, transportation and tools-of-the-day all appear very authentic. Thus, it captures the time period (and location) extremely well. And here, it is all the better, because the movie is about those times, and what happened during them. The mood carefully shifts from a somber quality to soft cheeriness to cautious triumphant score, and back again. The film itself makes excellent use of cinematography, with grand, sweeping shots of the plains and hills, especially during the daytime buffalo chase. Unlike so many other Hollywood movies, first-hand acquaintance with "the girl" does not turn into romance in a few short days or hours. Nearly everything takes SOME time to develop, to change, to grow.Costner's depictions seem to be largely accurate: the Sioux and many other indigenous societies in the Midwest and elsewhere were being pushed west, captured, or wiped out. However, he does come close to generalizing the `whites' as senseless, brutal, and enormously characteristically savage, almost like a race of monsters. While in fact various numberless persons - at both common and political levels - perpetrated attrocities and relocation efforts that, sadly, came out of westward expansion's predominant attitude of callous disregard for the native peoples and ecosystems of central North America - it would be inaccurate, as well as unfair, to say that such actions (or even attitudes) constituted phenomena universal to the white settlers.Yet, on the whole, Costner has done a superb job of recreating the era, the peoples (generally), their ways of life, and the ideologies that motivated their actions. He has brought to life and memory the richness and humanity of a people all but forgotten ... and a partial portrayal of events which made, arguably, for the sadest chapter in the two-hundred-plus years of American history.This film ranks among the very best Westerns made.DVD Features: Audio Commentary (Kevin Costner, Jim Wilson), theatrical trailers, and scene selection.

LOVE LOVE LOVE! This is a MUST see video. It actually tells the story in whole. It has about 45 minutes EXTRA footage. TBH. Once you watch this, the shorter version is a weak story. Quite disappointing.Shipping was true time and no problems with items. YOU WILL THANK ME. TEL