Wolf Dancer

Very interesting edit. I am a big fan of Dances With Wolves. I remember the first time i seen this movie was when i bought the VHS from McDonald's. Yep McDonald's was doing some kind of special and had like 3 movies they were selling for a limited time. Crazy. Now i own the 4 hour version.

I really like this edit. I can't say that it will be my go to version, but i like the alternate take. I do think the movie is improved by taking out the voice overs. And most of the scenes taken out don't hurt the movie too much. While i do like the odd suicide attempt and the mad major, neither are required and possibly out of place anyway. And i'm glad you cut Spivey.

I only have a few minor items to discuss.

1. At first i found it kind of odd that you don't know why the Sioux kids are doing the random drive by at the soldier fort. It almost seemed out of place without seeing the scene cut out explaining it. I guess it didn't need explaining. And i do agree that not seeing the Sioux camp for a while adds more mystery to it. So i'm up in air on that one. I like and hate it.

2. I kind of liked the flashback scene with the Pawnee. I do agree it's not necessary but i liked it. Cool either way.

3. I did notice something minor. I'll have to watch it again just to make 100% sure. But without the voice over it is not explained why he calls the wolf 2 socks in the scene where he yells at the wolf to go home. Unless i missed something he didn't refer to the wolf by name anytime before this. So your wondering why he named it 2 socks. But maybe once again it didn't need to be explained.

Even with those small gripes i can still see myself watching this version from time to time to watch an alternate take on this classic. Great job.

February 13, 2010 @ 11:58 am

First review here…so what to say? Great concept, good editing choices and superb editing skills at work here. I do not believe that I will ever watch the original Dances with Wolves again. You may say that the intention isn’t to improve the original, but with this one I strongly feel that this is the case.

Some comments about the cut list…”removed all voice overs”, is really what stands out the most as the major change. And it really really works. The added emotional depth for the movie is great, just by saying less! Keeping the focus on Dunbar’s experience also helps us (me) to connect emotionally. The added arrival scene (repeat shot from first approaching the Lakota) was perhaps needed but I actually noticed it when watching (that it was a repeat). It might be possible that I was being very alert, looking for changes and how it was presented, and that a viewer in general wouldn’t catch this one. “cut entire journal mentioning in the soldier camp and later on”. Not entirely sure about this one, as the journal is his reason for going back. It makes movie sense for them to be talking about it, and I wondered later on what had become of it, since it was so important to him. But I’m sure you had good reasons for leaving it out. “removed “Stands With A Fist’s” flashback”. At first I was a little confused here, but thinking about it I agree that this version works a lot better, and we don’t see flashbacks in any other part of the movie.

As I said earlier, lots of other good editing choices.

I was also struck how much better this story is constructed and played out than the one in Avatar. Your editing has highlighted the best parts of that story. Thank you.
In total this recieves a 9/10 from me. Great version of a good movie, but it didn’t totally blow me away for a perfect 10. Though giving this a 9 makes me question some other 9s I might have given out :P