Movie #103 - Dances with Wolves

"Inside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered."

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1990, this marked one of the earlier films where Kevin Costner tried his hand at directing. Based on the novel and subsequent screenplay of Michael Blake, Costner and Blake also won Oscars for their directing and screenplay efforts - not to mention a nomination for Costner for acting.

Little did everyone know that Costner was at his pinnacle of success, a meteoric rise followed by a slow fall from grace to where he has produced nothing of significance and is now known for his biggest box office flop - Waterworld.

As a fellow Canadian, I am also proud to report that Graham Greene got an Oscar nod as Best Supporting Actor - better known in Canada for his roles as narrator of Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science or any U.S. or Canadian television cameo as a Native Canadian / American. He's had a successful niche market career and this role in Dances with Wolves helped catapult his relevance in the industry.

Personally, I haven't seen this movie since I was about 12 or 13 years old, so its been more than 10-15 years since I recall the plot and the storyline. However, I just remember that its a really long movie, with some stellar scenes and character development, but is definitely an epic style movie (meaning two VHS discs from back in the day) that does require patience. Like most epic movies... I actually think epic is the Hollywood buzz word for lengthy.

In the end, I want people to watch this to see what Costner's career was like pre-Waterworld and pre-Postman... he had a great deal of potential and was a good actor in his prime. Nowadays... he's playing second fiddle in action movies starring opposite Ashton Kutcher... too bad for Kevin... we'll always have Field of Dreams won't we.