Dances With Wolves

Sometimes when you re-watch one of your favorite movies, it doesn't seem as great as your memory. While Dances With Wolves still holds its own as a great movie, watching it is still an effort in patience. This is amplified by the fact that this version is 52 minutes longer than the 3 hour and 4 minute original! And, in this age of multi-layered discs, it's weird having an "intermission" in the middle of the movie and having to flip it over!
What's great about this "Special Edition" DVD is how the documentaries and running commentaries (one with Kevin Costner and producer Jim Wilson, and one with director of photography, Dean Semler, and editor, Neil Travis ) explain and paint background for this epic drama. Seeing the sweeping wide open locations and hearing about their selection and various challenges is an interesting lesson in film making. Given that praise, it still would have been nice to have seen more documentaries that supported more in-depth details about the animals and the scenery. How spoiled we have become! But, with a nice price of about $20, this is a classic worth getting. [MGM / Doug Van Pelt]
Ratings:
Obscenities: 19
Graphic Violence: 04
Nude Scenes: 01
% Spiritual Relevancy: 31
This DVD review was not printed in ISSUE 103 of HM Magazine, and is thus an "online exclusive" of sorts.
DVD rating key:
Obscenities (fka: BL (Blue Language)) # of “blue” / cuss words.
Ideal rating = 0
Graphic Violence (fka: BG (Blood ‘n’ Guts)) # of scenes with graphic violence.
Acceptable rating = <50
SC (Spiritual Conversations) An arbitrary rating based on the ease of starting a conversation on spiritual things.
Ideal rating = 50+
Nude Scenes (fka: NP (Naked People)) # of nude scenes.
Ideal: 0 (A rating of less than 1 signifies questionable scenes)
©2003 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved.
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