Dances with Wolves

The film, "Dances with Wolves," was most definitely a western. The genre was simple to determine while watching the film due to the broad landscapes, wide shots, and the conflict between settlers Native Americans.

Music was used in nearly every scene throughout the film. At first I thought that the background music would be overbearing, but it was actually put together rather nicely. When the Indians finally found Dances with Wolves at the river with the soldiers, triumphant music played as the soldiers were slayed and Dances with Wolves was able to get away and go back to camp with the rest of the tribe. Prior to the soldiers transporting Dances with Wolves, Two Socks visited the fort. The audience was forced to watch in anguish, knowing as soon as the sad music start playing, that something bad was about to happen. And that it did. Within moments, soldiers shot and killed Two Socks.

Music is the keystone to sound design. An initial temp track is used in order to determine what music would best fit certain scenes. Then an initial track is composed and placed with what scene(s) in the film that the music would work best with. As the film editing continues, so does the fine tuning of the soundtrack. When the film is finally to its' final cut, the permanent sound track is added, making sure that exactly the proper music is placed with each scene now that no more editing of the film will take place.

The acting in Dances with Wolves could have been better, especially considering how I am not much of a Kevin Costner fan. His emotions felt bland and forced, making it difficult to truly relate to the character and what Dances with Wolves was going through.

While the directing of the film was fine, I felt as though they had a two hour story that needed to fill a four hour time slot. So essentially half of the film seemed to just be filler.

Music was a little different, however. Dances with Wolves seemed to have an eight hour soundtrack where none of the music was bad enough to get cut out, so they decided to play music in every scene. While the use of music was not particularly overbearing, it was definitely noticeable.

Overall, the movie was just too long. The plot was fine, the music was fine, and most of the movie was fine, it just wasn't worth sitting through for four hours. Had the movie of been shorter with the plot moving along faster, I would have enjoyed the film significantly more.

In all honesty, I have no idea why Dances with Wolves won the Oscar in 1991. The film was difficult for me to enjoy, however I do give props to the music. The soundtrack was very carefully crafted, and this was the first film I have ever seen that was almost constantly playing music. So if nothing else, I believe Dances with Wolves was worth winning the Oscar for the soundtrack.