Foley mixer Tim Hoggatt’s name is misspelled “Tim Hoggat” in end credits.
       According to a 25 Mar 1991 NYT article, writer Michael Blake met producer Jim Wilson in 1977 at the University of California at Berkeley, where they both studied film. In 1983, the two collaborated on a direct-to-video release, Stacy’s Knights, which starred their friend, Kevin Costner, in one of his early roles. Over the next few years, Michael Blake struggled, writing something like fifteen unproduced screenplays until he came up with the idea for Dances with Wolves, inspired by his longtime interest in American Indian history, Dee Brown’s book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (New York, 1971), and a true story about a real-life teamster who was sent to resupply a U.S. Army fort on the frontier only to find it abandoned. In 1986, Blake pitched the idea to Kevin Costner, who expressed interest in the story but suggested writing it as a novel instead of a screenplay to increase its chances of selling. Blake, who was living out of his car at the time, wrote the novel in nine months. However, he had a difficult time selling it and left Los Angeles for Bisbee, AZ, where he took a job as a dishwasher. Meanwhile, Wilson urged his contacts at the William Morris Agency to read Blake’s manuscript. A William Morris agent eventually agreed to represent Blake and the novel was sold to Fawcett Books for $6,500. Costner optioned film rights before the book’s release, and commissioned Blake, still living in Bisbee, to return to Los Angeles and adapt the novel into a screenplay. In 1988, Fawcett released Dances with Wolves in paperback, as stated in a 2 Feb 1991 LAT article, with an initial print run of 30,000 copies.
       Using $70,000 of their own money, Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson developed the project under their newly formed company, Tig Productions. Costner did not initially plan to direct, as stated in a 16 Aug 1989 Screen International article, but eventually took on the role as a first-time director. A 28 Oct 1990 LAT article stated that two major film studios turned down the project based on Costner’s insistence that a third of the dialogue be in the Lakota Sioux language, with subtitles in English, while the 2 Nov 1990 Austin American Statesman stated that three “near-deals” fell apart before Canadian film financier Jake Eberts joined the project as executive producer. Eberts reimbursed Costner’s “initial upfront investment” and helped acquire European funding through Majestic Pictures, which raised $9 million in foreign pre-sales. Meanwhile, the 19 Mar 1991 LAT reported that overseas distribution rights would be owned by Kevin Costner’s children in perpetuity. Although Island Pictures was originally set as domestic distributor, the company backed out, allowing Orion Pictures Corp. to come on board with a $10.5 million investment. Costner’s salary was said to be $3 million, $2.5 of which he contributed to the film’s budget. Costner later reported conflicting numbers in a 23 Jan 2011 LAT interview, stating that, in addition to the $9 million in foreign pre-sales, Orion provided $4 million, and Costner contributed $3 million toward a $16 million budget. Varying contemporary sources listed budgets ranging from $15-19 million.
       Although an 8 Jan 1989 LAT brief reported that principal photography would begin in Mexico in Mar 1989, filming did not take place in Mexico and the start date was pushed back to 17 or 18 Jul 1989, as noted in various sources including production notes in AMPAS library files, the 7 Jun 1989 HR and DV, and the 7 Jul 1989 HR. After scouting nine states from Canada to Mexico, filmmakers chose South Dakota, where production headquarters were set up in Rapid City. According to the 7 Jul 1989 HR, local stockbroker Guy Edwards claimed to have persuaded filmmakers to shoot in South Dakota instead of Valentine, NB. A 26 Oct 1990 HR item stated that Dances with Wolves contributed $10 million to the state’s economy, making it the largest feature film to be made there, to that time.
       Thousands of American Indian actors were auditioned for roles and roughly 150 Sioux from the Rosebud Reservation in Rosebud, SD, were hired as extras, as noted in the 28 Oct 1990 LAT. Filmmakers strove for authenticity, therefore no American Indian parts were played by white actors. Sioux costumes were made from real deerskin, while buffalo skin, feathers and beads were used to create accessories. Cathy Smith, a nineteenth-century plains Indian expert from Black Hills, SD, was brought in to consult on costumes and production design. One of the few inaccuracies portrayed in the film, as noted by actors Tantoo Cardinal and Rodney Grant, was a line of dialogue spoken by one of the Sioux children, who fears his father will “break a bow over his back” as a punishment. Cardinal and Grant emphasized that the Sioux Indians would never beat a child.
       In a 2 Dec 1990 NYT interview, actress Mary McDonnell stated that she sepnt a month on set before her scenes began filming. During that time, she spent several hours a day learning Lakota from instructor Doris Leader Charge, who also appeared in the film as “Pretty Shield.” Charge gave all Lakota-speaking cast members a three-week crash course in the language prior to the start of principal photography. She also translated the screenplay into Lakota, with Albert White Hat, a fellow instructor at the Rosebud Reservation’s Sinte Gleska College. Production notes stated that Charge and White Hat simplified the Lakota dialogue so that actors could more easily learn their lines. Charge stated in the Nov 1990 issue of Interview magazine that the American Indian actors were the hardest to teach, because the language had been forbidden by the U.S. government when they were school-aged and they had developed a “mental block” when it came to speaking their native tongue. According to a 26 Nov 1990 Newsweek item, Costner’s character, “Lieutenant John J. Dunbar,” used feminine Lakota words because he received language lessons from his female love interest, "Stands With A Fist." His way of speaking was apparently noted in a line of dialogue in which an elder tribesman tells Dunbar, “You speak funny.” Doris Leader Charge also served as an advisor during filming, showing filmmakers how to rig teepees and clarifying the rules of Indian etiquette.
       The 2 Nov 1990 Austin American Statesman stated that filming took place in twenty-seven South Dakota locations. The production required 300 horses, 250 American Indian actors, forty-eight speaking roles, 150 cavalry, and 3,500 buffalo, provided by the Triple U Ranch, which boasted the largest privately owned buffalo herd in the world. The ranch, located just west of Pierre, SD, served as the location for nearly half the film. In addition to Triple U’s buffalo, “Cody” and “Mammoth,” two tame buffalo owned by singer-songwriter Neil Young, were used to portray two buffalo hit by arrows during the hunt scene. Meanwhile, “articulated buffalo” made from wire and fur were used to depict buffalo that were trampled.
       Kevin Reynolds, who received “Special Thanks” in onscreen credits, directed second-unit footage according to a 26 Mar 1991 DV brief. After rumors spread that Reynolds came in to help Costner because he was “in over his head,” editor Neil Travis defended Costner, insisting that Reynolds never once directed an actor or a line of dialogue, and Costner storyboarded all of the second unit scenes he shot. According to different reports, the production went twenty-three to thirty days over schedule, and early snowfall necessitated the erection of a teepee inside a Quonset hut. A 26 Nov 1989 LAT item noted that the film had earned the nickname “Kevin’s Gate,” which referred to the notoriously problematic production of Heaven’s Gate (1981, see entry). Although filmmakers went over budget by roughly $1.8 million, costs were kept down by using non-union crewmembers, although some members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union, including cinematographer Dean Semler and editor Neil Travis, were involved in the production. IATSE subsequently wrote a letter of complaint regarding Dances with Wolves, as stated in a 1 May 1991 DV item, but no further information about the complaint was found in AMPAS library files.
       In the 23 Jan 2011 LAT, Costner stated the picture entailed only one special-effects shot, in which animatronic buffalo were used to augment a scene depicting grazing buffalo.
       A five-hour rough-cut of the film was edited down to 181 minutes, as noted in a 30 Dec 1990 LAT article. Editor Neil Travis claimed the most difficult scene to cut was the “Broken Forest scene,” in which Dunbar and “Kicking Bird” ride through a beautiful forest filmed in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, only to find an area littered with dead trees and animal carcasses left by white trappers.
       Sneak previews took place mid-May 1990 in Seattle, WA, and Phoenix, AZ, according to a 16 May 1990 DV item. The current edit, roughly ten minutes shorter than the final theatrical version, received a majority of “excellent” cards, as noted in the 29 May 1990 DV. Advance screenings were also held in Nov 1990, benefitting the Nature Conservancy, as noted in a 29 Oct 1990 Var brief. In addition, the 31 Oct 1990 HR stated that Costner would film public service announcements for the Nature Conservancy.
       Orion’s promotional campaign included “a considerable media commitment,” according to a 5 Nov 1990 Var brief, although the company would not disclose its advertising budget. In addition to a direct-mail campaign, radio advertisements in Lakota were aired on Native American radio stations, and Orion arranged a cross-promotion with the Discovery Channel series, Quest for America’s Frontier, which addressed topics raised by the film. Discovery and Orion co-sponsored a sweepstakes, which ran 12 Nov—6 Dec 1990 and awarded five Discovery Channel viewers a seven-day vacation touring Native American pueblos in the American Southwest. A 6 Dec 1990 HR item noted that The Making of Dances with Wolves, a documentary syndicated by Golden Gate Productions, aired on various television stations through the end of Dec 1990, and proved a “valuable marketing tool” for Orion, according to David Forbes, the company’s president of distribution.
       According to the 16 Aug 1989 Screen International, an Aug 1990 release was initially slated. However, the world premiere did not take place until 19 Oct 1990 in Washington, D.C., as noted in a 15 Oct 1990 Var brief. The event raised funds for the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of the Native American. Later, a 4 Nov 1990 Los Angeles premiere hosted by Costner’s then-wife, Cindy Costner, raised $500,000 for the charities Tripod and Futures for Children, as noted in a 6 Nov 1990 DV news item. Another benefit premiere took place in Rapid City, SD, on 18 Nov 1990, with proceeds going toward dropout prevention programs for at-risk youth in South Dakota, specifically American Indians.
       The film opened in limited release on 9 Nov 1990 in nine cities, including Los Angeles; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Toronto, Canada; Washington, D.C.; Seattle, WA; Dallas, TX; and New York City. A nationwide release followed on 21 Nov 1990, expanding to 750-800 screens, according to various contemporary sources including the 5 Nov 1990 HR.
       Both a critical and box-office success, Dances with Wolves marked the first time that a film starring Kevin Costner reached the $100 million mark in domestic box-office grosses, as stated in the 19 Mar 1991 LAT. On 8 Apr 1991, Var reported that the cumulative box-office earnings had reached $147 million, surpassing Platoon (1986, see entry) to become Orion’s highest-grossing film to that time. The 11 Feb 1991 DV stated that the earnings were even more impressive because the picture’s three-hour length limited its number of daily showings to three or four per day instead of five or six.
       Michael Blake went on to establish Seven Wolves Publishing, with the company’s first release set to be an unabridged, audiobook version of Dances with Wolves. The paperback was re-issued by Fawcett, with 800,000 copies printed, and an eighty-page book on the making of the film was released by Newmarket Press. A four-hour cut of the film was screened at a West End theater in London, England, according to a 20 Dec 1991 LAT item, which listed the following scenes as added material: the “Broken Forest” scene as detailed in the 30 Dec 1990 LAT; the slaughter of buffalo by white hunters, which informs Dunbar’s decision to return to white society; additional scenes between Dunbar and Stands With A Fist, emphasizing their cultural gap; and scenes in which the Sioux appear more brutal. In 1993, the extended version of the film aired as a miniseries on ABC (American Broadcasting Company). An even longer, letterboxed director’s cut, with ten minutes of additional unseen footage, was set to be released on home video in late Aug 1994, as stated in a 10 Jun 1994 LAT article. The “Limited Collector’s Edition” video package would include The Making of Dances with Wolves, a “22-minute, behind-the-scenes, never-before-released video” (which may have been Golden Gate Productions’ syndicated version aired on television in 1990), and the Newmarket Press book, Dances with Wolves: The Illustrated Story of the Epic Film (New York, 1990).
       An 11 Feb 1991 LAT “Morning Report” column noted that an original script with Costner’s notes and a peace pipe used in the film sold at a Lake Tahoe, NV, celebrity auction for $6,000. Proceeds went toward the Starlight Foundation.
       On 8 Apr 1991, LAT announced that commercials for Ivar’s Restaurants and Seafood Bars were taken off the air at the insistence of Orion when the company discovered that Ivar’s had spoofed Dances with Wolves in its commercials and newspaper advertisements. The advertisements showed a Kevin Costner lookalike dancing with a man in a clam costume, and the commercial contained the following dialogue: “He is a newcomer. He has not yet learned our ways, but soon he will eat at Ivar’s.”
       Dances with Wolves received numerous accolades, including twelve Academy Award nominations. It received the following seven Academy Awards: Best Picture; Directing; Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Original Score; Cinematography; Film Editing; and Sound. The film received Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, and Best Screenplay – Motion Picture, and the National Board of Review’s (NBR) Best Director award, as well as its D. W. Griffith Award for Best Picture. Michael Blake won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Best Screenplay Adaptation; Kevin Costner won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award for Best Director; Neil Travis won the American Cinema Editors (ACE) Award for Best Edited Feature Film; Dean Semler won the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Best Cinematography Award; and the Producers Guild of America (PGA) gave Jim Wilson and Kevin Costner the Daryl F. Zanuck Producers of the Year Award. Costner also received a Special Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. The Rosebud Sioux Tribal Nation adopted Costner, Jim Wilson, Mary McDonnell and Michael Blake for “outstanding representation of the Lakota Sioux Nation,” and presented the honor in a Hunka Ceremony performed outside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on 19 Oct 1990, as noted in a 15 Oct 1990 Var item. The film was named Best Movie at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame’s 30th Western Heritage Awards, as reported in a 1 Feb 1991 LAT brief, and listed as #75 on AFI’s 1998 “100 Years…100 Movies” list, and #59 on AFI’s “100 Years…100 Cheers” list released in 2006.
      The following written epilogue precedes end credits: “Thirteen years later, their homes destroyed, their buffalo gone, the last band of free Sioux submitted to white authority at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. The great horse culture of the plains was gone and the American frontier was soon to pass into history.” End credits include “Special Thanks” to: “The Spirited People of South Dakota who helped make this film possible; Roy Houck and Kay Ingles – Triple U Standing Butte Ranch; 777 Bison Ranch; Sioux Indian Nation; The Honorable Governor and Mrs. George S. Mickelson; Gary Keller and the South Dakota Film Commission; Black Hills National Forest; Homestake Mining Company; South Dakota Law Enforcement; South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks; Badlands National Park; Indian Learning Center; Storm Mountain Center; South Dakota Job Services; Pierre and Rapid City Chambers of Commerce; Verendrye Museum; Institute of Range and the American Mustang; Mule Utility Vehicles by Kawasaki U.S.A.; West River Video Productions; and Kevin Reynolds.” End credits also include the statement, “Every effort was made to ensure the safety of all the animals depicted in the film. All the featured animals were trained and handled by professional animal specialists.”