In 1990 the Western was, as usual, in need of resuscitation. With the oater’s perennial lifesaver Clint Eastwood still a couple of years off unleashing Unforgiven, first-time helmer Kevin Costner slipped in to the saddle with this tale of a traumatised war veteran befriended by a Sioux tribe and its medicine man, Kicking Bird (Graham Greene).
A mix of spectacle (the sheer grandeur of the buffalo hunt) and liberal revisionism, Dances is both sedately paced and self-consciously epic. That it rarely drags is down to strong performances, the sweeping big-sky beauty of the cinematography and the old-fashioned virtues of a good story well told.
