60 Fun Facts About Dances with Wolves

In which year was Dances with Wolves released?

It premiered in October and opened nationwide on 9 November, going on to become the year's fourth-highest grosser worldwide.

What is the surname of the Union lieutenant played by Kevin Costner?

He is a first lieutenant who asks to be posted to the frontier so he can see it before it disappears.

Who wrote both the 1988 novel and the film's Oscar-winning screenplay?

The story began as an unsold spec script; Costner urged him to turn it into a novel to improve its chances of being made.

Much of the film's dialogue is spoken, with English subtitles, in which language?

Only one of the actors was a native speaker, and critics later noted the cast had been taught the language's feminine forms.

In the original novel, the lieutenant settles with a tribe of which people, changed for the film?

The film moved the story north to the Sioux; a sequel novel published in 2001 picks the tale up eleven years later.

What is the name of the horse the lieutenant rides in his opening suicide charge and is later awarded?

The unarmed ride in front of Confederate lines distracts the enemy long enough for a successful Union attack.

What does the lieutenant name the wolf that visits his fort?

The name comes from the animal's white forepaws.

What do the Sioux see that inspires the name Dances With Wolves?

The name marks his transformation from outsider to member of the tribe.

Which actress plays Stands With A Fist and earned an Oscar nomination for it?

It was her film breakthrough after more than 21 years in theatre and television.

Which Canadian actor plays Kicking Bird?

The role brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and international fame.

Who plays the fierce warrior Wind In His Hair?

The character ends the film shouting his everlasting friendship from a cliff as the lieutenant rides away.

Which activist and musician plays Chief Ten Bears?

He went on to play the shaman in Oliver Stone's The Doors the following year.

Wes Studi plays a warrior from which tribe, portrayed as the film's antagonists?

Studi went on to play the Huron Magua in The Last of the Mohicans two years later.

What happens to Major Fambrough, the fort commander who posts the lieutenant to the frontier?

Because he told no one where the lieutenant had gone, no reinforcements ever arrive.

Which actor plays the unhinged Major Fambrough?

The Canadian character actor's other credits include WarGames, My Cousin Vinny and The Sweet Hereafter.

What is the name of the deserted frontier outpost the lieutenant rebuilds alone?

He finds it abandoned and records his daily observations in a diary.

At which fort does the lieutenant first report before being sent to the farthest outpost?

The wagon driver who takes him west is killed on the return trip, so nobody knows where he is.

The film opens with the lieutenant wounded at St. David's Field, a battle in which state?

A surgeon plans to amputate his leg, prompting the suicidal ride that instead makes him a hero.

In which year does the film's story begin?

The epilogue jumps ahead to 1876, when the last free Sioux surrendered.

The author said Stands With A Fist was based on which real woman, captured as a girl by a Plains tribe?

Her son was the famous chief Quanah Parker.

What is Kicking Bird's role within the tribe?

He adopted Stands With A Fist as a girl after her family was killed, and later approves her marriage to the lieutenant.

When the lieutenant first finds Stands With A Fist, she is harming herself. Why?

He carries her back to the Sioux camp, his first real contact with the tribe.

How does the lieutenant win the tribe's acceptance?

He later hands over his stash of firearms in time for them to beat a raiding party.

What do the soldiers who reoccupy the fort steal, leaving the lieutenant unable to prove his story?

He had gone back for it precisely because it could have led the army to the tribe's winter camp.

What happens to the wolf when it tries to follow the army convoy?

The scene, along with the shooting of the horse, marks the army's final betrayal of the man they consider a deserter.

With what offence is the lieutenant charged after refusing to help the army hunt the Sioux?

His Sioux friends attack the wagon train carrying him back east and free him.

The closing text says the last free Sioux surrendered in 1876 at which fort?

The fort was in Nebraska; the film's Sioux friends are last seen vanishing into the mountains.

The film's budget grew from an initial $15M to how much?

It went on to gross $424.2 million worldwide.

Which studio finally made a deal to distribute the film and gave Costner final cut?

It became the highest-grossing film in the studio's history.

Costner dropped out of which submarine thriller to make Dances with Wolves?

Alec Baldwin took the role of Jack Ryan instead.

Most of the film was shot on private ranches in which state?

Locations included the Badlands, the Black Hills and the Belle Fourche River, with a few scenes filmed across the border in Wyoming.

The bison hunt sequences were filmed at which property outside Fort Pierre?

The fort set was built on the same property.

Who translated the film's dialogue into the native language?

She taught in the Native studies department at Sinte Gleska University.

How many Academy Awards did the film win from its twelve nominations?

The haul included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, Score and Sound.

Costner became only the fifth person in Oscar history to do what?

He was also nominated for Best Actor for the same film, another rare double.

Dances with Wolves was the first Western to win Best Picture since which 1931 film?

Only two Westerns have won since: Unforgiven and No Country for Old Men.

Who composed the Oscar- and Grammy-winning score?

The veteran of a dozen Bond films had already won Oscars for Born Free, The Lion in Winter and Out of Africa.

Which Australian cinematographer won the Oscar for shooting the film?

He had earlier won Australian Film Institute awards for Razorback and Dead Calm.

Where did the film rank among the highest-grossing films of its release year worldwide?

Its $424.2 million made it the biggest hit ever for its studio.

The film held its premiere in October in which city?

The venue was the Uptown Theater; the nationwide release followed on 9 November.

What rare grade did opening-night audiences give the film in CinemaScore polling?

Critics were warm too: more than 115 named it one of the ten best films of the year.

Roughly how long is the extended Special Edition that opened in London a year after the original?

It restored 52 minutes of footage; Costner later said he had no involvement in creating it.

What is the title of the 2001 sequel novel that was never filmed?

Costner said in 2008 that he would never make a sequel.

On home video in 1991 the film broke the rental record set by which hit of the previous year?

A 1992 McDonald's promotion let customers buy the VHS tape with a meal.

Russell Means mockingly compared the film to which epic, calling it a version set on the Plains?

He said the actors had been taught the language's feminine forms and that native-speaking viewers laughed.

In which year was the film selected for the US National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress deemed it culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Which earlier Western's box-office disaster did studios cite when turning the project down?

They also objected to the length of the script and the fading popularity of the genre.

What did Sioux elder and cultural adviser Albert Whitehat do for Costner after the film's success?

Two other families did the same for the film's leading lady and producer Jim Wilson at a ceremony in the US capital.

What was Michael Blake's only produced screenplay before Dances with Wolves?

The 1983 film starred Kevin Costner, who later urged Blake to turn his unsold Western script into a novel.

Why did Costner encourage Blake in 1986 to turn his unsold screenplay into a novel?

Numerous publishers rejected the book before it appeared in paperback in 1988; Costner then bought the rights to direct it.

How did Costner and Jim Wilson raise enough money to enter pre-production after studios passed?

The project had languished at Nelson Entertainment and Island Pictures before the Orion deal gave Costner final cut.

What surgical procedure does Dunbar flee at the start of the film by riding at the Confederate lines?

His suicide charge instead distracts the enemy, the Union attacks successfully, and he is rewarded with the horse Cisco.

What is the name of the foul-mouthed mule-wagon provisioner who drives Dunbar to Fort Sedgwick?

He is killed by Pawnee on the way back, which, along with Fambrough's suicide, leaves the army unaware of Dunbar's posting.

Which young Sioux character returns Dunbar's stolen diary at the end of the film?

He recovered it during the rescue of the army convoy; Wind In His Hair then proclaims his everlasting friendship.

Why does Dunbar name the wolf 'Two Socks'?

The tribe watching man and wolf chase each other gives Dunbar his Sioux name.

Which fast-food chain ran a 1992 promotion offering VHS copies of the film with food purchases?

The 1991 video release had already broken the rental record set by Ghost, moving 649,000 units.

Which director was once attached to the never-made sequel based on Blake's novel The Holy Road?

Costner said in a 2008 interview that he would 'never make a sequel'.

How many extra minutes did the Special Edition restore to the film, according to Costner and Wilson's letter to critics?

Costner later admitted he had no hand at all in assembling the four-hour cut.

Who scored the film's 'Fire Dance' scene, separately from John Barry's main score?

Barry's score won both the Oscar and a Grammy and was reissued complete in 2004.

Which historian noted the film makes all Sioux heroic while the Pawnee, only 4,000 strong then, are villains?

Russell Means also mocked the Lakota dialogue, saying some actors and Costner spoke in the language's feminine form.