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Dances with Wolves

Dances with Wolves

List Price: $29.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another Best Picture Award for Mr. Costner
Review: I don't know how they managed to recover lost footage and intigrate it into the movie; just like with the Star Wars Trilogy. Personally, I bought this movie to find what was left out. I like the idea of one man becoming more than himself and learning the truth about the frontier. My only problem is that it wasn't in Full Screen with the same captioning like the original- yellow letters for the Sioux and Pawnee words.

Buy it if you want a piece of movie history.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Dances with wolves
Review: Just one of the best movies I have ever seen.The scenery was just spectacular,as was the performance of Kevin Costner and the rest of the staff.I have owned this movie since it's first release date on vhs,I now have purchased this hard to find movie on dvd for an even more enhanced quality picture...... A truely great movie a must have.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Beware: This is not the ideal "Dances With Wolves"
Review: There is a reason why material is left on the cutting-room floor, and this DVD clearly demonstrates why. The whole extra hour (!) of footage is interesting to watch, but fatally detracts from the pacing and power of a film that was already three hours long. Now, if this two-DVD set included the option of watching the original theatrical version, then I would enthusiastically endorse it. But it doesn't, and those new to the film will spend four hours only to afterwards scratch their heads and wonder how "Dances With Wolves" received seven academy awards in the first place.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wonderful movie, but DVD quality so-so
Review: This is my all-time favorite film, and the other reviewers do an already fine job of reviewing the movie itself. I have owned four different versions of this release... two on VHS (the original and extended-length versions), and two on DVD (the original DTS version and this new release).

PICTURE: While some scenes on this new DVD are absolutely stunning visually, it appears to me that about 1/4 of the scenes have very lackluster color. This effect is very noticable. Spectacular blue skies and vibrant green grasses in some scenes are followed by others that appear as if someone turned down the colors on my television set (I am using a Denon 2800II DVD player and a Samsung HLN-507W DLP HDTV).

SOUND: The original DTS version of the film sounded better than this one. My reference scene (and the one I use to demo my home theater to friends) is of course the buffalo hunt. The DTS version sounded crisper and more detailed... I found this Dolby Digital version somewhat muddier.

This DVD is still a must-own for fans of the movie. I'm just disappointed that it didn't receive the video and audio treatments it deserved. Many DVDs are released in both the Dolby Digital and DTS audio formats... why wasn't this one?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Special Edition. WARNING: "flip disc"
Review: One of my all time favorite movies. It's nice to see an extended 3hrs 56 minute version(55 minutes of new footage) and to see all the behind the scenes footage, documentaries, etc. Definitely a must buy. Five stars for the movie itself and minus one star for making us, the dvd viewer, "flip" the disc during the movie...wasn't that done with years ago? guess not. It should have been a 3 disc set like MGM's recent re-release of "Windtalkers." Nobody likes "flip disc"! Stop it, movie companies!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: STUNNING REVISION TO AN EPIC MASTERPIECE
Review: When I first saw Dances With Wolves, I was touched by the stunning portrait of the frontier that Kevin Costner captured. It was a moving experience that inspired my own videography career to new heights.

With this new DVD version of the classic drama, I am moved once again by the additional one hour of scenes added to the film. The characters truly benefit the added scenes that make even four hours seem priceless and timeless.

And then the extras, the features about how the film was produced will simply send you on a cinematic and emotional trek. NEVER have I been so awed by the style, technique and commitment to a project, NEVER.

Kevin Costner, for all of his flops that followed this epic, deserves to be noted as a premiere filmmaker with Dances With Wolves. Never again I believe shall we see such heart, such gentle yet realistic portrayals of how this country once was. He will always be the master director and brilliant actor beyond the other movies he has made.

Thank you to Costner and the rest of the crew and the studio for updating this awesome film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: AMERICAN MASTERPIECE - FULLY RESTORED ON DVD
Review: "Dances With Wolves" is the epic, revisionist western directed by and starring Kevin Costner. In scope and size, this is one galliant, masterfully directed motion picture and the well-deserving recipient of 9 Academy Awards. PLOT: After surviving a suicide charge on the field of honor, Major John Dunbar travels to the west, establishing a life-long friendship with the Sioux Indians.
Originally running nearly three hours in theaters, a full hour of footage was excised to keep the already elephantine running time manageable. For years, on VHS and DVD, only the theatrical cut of this film has been made available, though Image laserdisc did release the full 3 hr. 58 min. version in a deluxe box set back in the mid-1990's. That fully restored running time is finally given the full digital treatment via this DVD release. Too lengthy to fit on one side of a DVD, MGM has spread the feature film over two sides on the first disc. Since no intermission was ever intended, the cut comes about midway through and is obtrusive to your viewing experience. However, as there is no other way to ensure the intregity of compression artifacts, this cut is, if not forgiveable, at least palpable.
MGM DVD has done a very nice job on remastering "Dances With Wolves". The original DVD from Image Entertainment had deeper contrast and black levels, but adjusting the contrast on one's television corrects the softer levels on this disc. Shadow delineation is beautifully rendered. Colors are vibrant, bold and accurate. Some minor edge enhancement occurs but shimmering and pixelization are at a bare minimum. The audio is 5.1 and pretty much the same mix as the original Image DVD.
EXTRAS: Audio commentaries that are, for the most part, interesting, an all-new production featurette, the original featurette and a host of other well-meaning, though rather lack luster extras that have merely been designed to fill up space on disc #2. I must also give MGM less than top marks for their packaging. After the handsomely bound "West Side Story" special edition I was perhaps expecting too much to think that, even though a leather bound case would be out of the question for "Dances With Wolves", at the very least we'd get something stronger in faux leather (like the "Pearl Harbor" disc packaging) than the flimsy, barely cardboard, shell we do get with its Velcro snapper. Taaa-cky!
BOTTOM LINE: This is the definitive version of "Dances With Wolves". It is the way Costner and his production team intended you to experience the movie and it is most definitely worth every penny to buy. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: what can u say?
Review: just add this one to my DVD collection. (over 300 titles now)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the experience
Review: when talking about art, in this case this movie, its abstract and stimulates our faculties beyond recognition, thats what this movie does for me, its a piece which takes me to a strange place i had never before visited, highly recommended

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Curious About This DVD? Read this...
Review: This is one of my most favorite movies, mostly because I connect with it in a very personal way. No, I haven't lived among native americans or anything like that, but I see this movie as a story about a man who discovers himself, something that every man is forced to do at some point in his life. Some complain that this movie is "slow." As for me, I love every minute of it. Plus, John Barry's score for the film contains music that makes you feel as if it came down from heaven itself. It's funny too because I'm not exactly a huge Kevin Costner fan. However this is film is such a triumph for him that even though many of his movies have flopped since then, you can't deny that for an actor to direct himself in a movie that no movie studios wanted to produce that ended up winning all those oscars is quite impressive.

The Downside -
This is the third time this DVD has been released in the U.S. And still, I'm not completely satisfied. This release has wonderful bonus features, interviews, etc. However the sound is not DTS and the picture quality isn't quite as good as previous releases. This makes no sense to me. The DTS version that went out of print sounded great, but it was on 2 discs. The THX version was on 1 convenient disc, but no DTS and .. no extras. This time around we finally get the extended version and other great extras, yet we don't get the best sound or picture quality. Alas... if only we could watch the extended version on one disc, with optimum picture quality and DTS sound, with all the bonus features on the second disc. Why not make a third disc with the original cut of the movie as well? It's frustrating!!


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