|
By
NICK ZEGARAC
"Dances with Wolves" is the epic, revisionist western directed by and starring Kevin Costner. In scope and size, this is one gallant, masterfully directed motion picture and the well-deserving recipient of 9 Academy Awards. After surviving a suicide charge on the battlefield of honor, Major John Dunbar (Costner) travels to the west and establishes a life-long friendship with the Sioux Indians.
Originally running nearly four hours, a full hour of footage was excised to keep the already elephantine running time manageable. For years, only this theatrical cut had been made available, though Image did release the full 3 hour 58 minute version in a deluxe laserdisc box set back in the mid-1990's. That fully restored running time is finally given the full digital treatment via a new MGM/UA 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 integrity of compression artifacts, this cut is, if not forgivable, at least palpable.
MGM DVD has done a very nice job of 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 include an audio commentary, 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. |
