Based on the homonymous novel by Michael Blake, Dancing with Wolves not only marked the triumphant debut of Kevin Costner in directing (taking up to seven Oscar statuettes with him), but also the revitalization of the western genre that had been stagnant for so many years after having experienced an impeccable golden age decades ago. The soundtrack from john barry for Dancing with Wolves It perfectly accompanies the story offered by Costner, who not only directs this film but also plays Lieutenant John Dunbar, the leading figure in this story. On this occasion, Cosner places us in 1863, a year that places us in the middle of the American Civil War, which kept the United States of America and the Confederate States of America at odds for almost five years.
From hero to relegated soldier, after being seriously wounded and still leading his side to victory, Dunbar is destined to carry out the rest of his military duties at a border post with Sioux territory, where he will not only meet En Pie Con El Puño En Alto (a white woman, adopted by the aforementioned Indian tribe and played by Mary McDonnell), but will establish a relationship of discovery and mutual respect with the aforementioned Sioux.
His more than three hours of footage, his original soundtrack to remember, his epic in the purest Hollywood style and his way of presenting us with a dramatic, intimate and heroic story are not exactly the elements that we might expect from the first film by a new filmmaker. . However, the figure of Costner already had a tradition in the industry (who came from starring in other iconic films, such as The Untouchables by Eliot Ness, The Durham Buffaloes either field of dreams), so this brave movement is nothing more than the confirmation of a hidden talent that had been harvesting for years.
Here, all the details of the soundtrack from Dancing with Wolves:
Dances With Wolves (1990): Original Soundtrack
Dances With Wolves (1990): Songs from the movie
- John Barry – Main Title/Looks Like a Suicide (expanded)
- John Barry – Ride to Fort Hays
- John Barry – Journey to Fort Sedgewick/Shooting Star/John Dunbar Theme/Arrival at Fort Sedgewick
- John Barry – The John Dunbar Theme
- John Barry – The Death of Timmons
- John Barry – Two Socks/The Wolf Theme
- John Barry – Stands with a Fist Remembers
- John Barry – The Buffalo Robe
- John Barry – Journey to the Buffalo Killing Ground
- John Barry – Spotting the Herd
- John Barry – The Buffalo Hunt (film version)
- John Barry – Fire Dance (scored by Peter Buffett)
- John Barry – Two Socks at Play
- John Barry – Falling in Love
- John Barry – Love Theme
- John Barry – The John Dunbar Theme
- John Barry – Pawnees/Pawnee Attack/Stone Calf Dies/Toughest Dies
- John Barry-Victory
- John Barry – The Death of Cisco
- John Barry – Rescue of Dances with Wolves
- John Barry – The Loss of the Journal/The Return to Winter Camp
- John Barry – Farewell / End Title
- John Barry – The Buffalo Hunt (album version)
- John Barry – The John Dunbar Theme (film version)
Here, the most outstanding songs that you can hear on the soundtrack of Dancing with Wolves:
John Barry – The John Dunbar Theme
Main theme of the film, performed by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the oldest surviving line cavalry regiment in the British Army, and whose main lines serve as supporting notes to round off such iconic scenes from the film as the disappointing moment that Dunbar experiences when he lands in his new destination or the closing of the film, with that emblematic wolf howling at the sky.
John Barry – Main Title/Looks Like a Suicide
The film begins with Lieutenant John Dunbar in a very pitiful state of health, where some military paramedics seem to be debating the idea of having to amputate the aforementioned leg, who is seriously injured after the battle they continue to have. However, Dunbar’s heroism pushes him, as the title of this piece reveals, to commit an act that could well have amounted to suicide, rising on his own feet and leading his battalion to victory.
John Barry – Journey To Fort Sedgewick
The reward for such heroism that awaits Dunbar, on the other hand, is not exactly what the lieutenant expected, who ends up being sent by his superior, Major Fambrough (Maury Chaykin) to an inhospitable fort on borderland with the Sioux Indians. These delicate string lines serve to musically describe the melancholy departure and journey of the soldier, when shortly after the aforementioned Dunbar superior commits his own suicide under the famous motto of Charles VII of France, “the king is dead, long live the king”.
John Barry – Two Socks/The Wolf Theme
Dunbar’s first encounter with Two Socks (called Calcetines in Spanish) occurs shortly after the soldier’s arrival at his new fort, where he will not only have to deal with the harshest loneliness, but also with the fact of having become in the sights of the Indians who co-inhabit the border territory with him. Little by little, his relationship with the aforementioned wolf will become the same allegory of what his coexistence with the Sioux ends up meaning.
John Barry – The Buffalo Robe
Through his letters, narrated in the first person, Dunbar will demystify all the clichés about Native Americans that for decades remained stored in the collective imagination of American citizens.
John Barry – The Buffalo Hunt
An epic scene of barely 6 minutes that took a whopping more than three weeks to shoot.
John Barry – The Death of Cisco
With a completely converted and unrecognizable look, Dunbar is mistaken for a Sioux and attacked by “his people” in an affront that unfortunately takes the life of his horse Cisco, in one of the most emotional climaxes that the film contains.
Who is the author of the soundtrack of Bailando Con Lobos (1990)?
the soundtrack of Dancing with Wolves is paid by the british composer john barrywho made use of wind and brass instruments for the production of the film that directly refer to that warlike and military air that the historical context of the film requires.
From his early childhood, Barry already established a unique and prescient relationship with the seventh art, as soon as he started working in the movie theaters that his father owned. After returning to the UK from his military service in Cyprus, he began to further develop his passion for music, first leading a self-titled band (The John Barry Seven), and later doing small musical works for television that ended up arousing the attention of those who at that time owned the film rights to the famous James Bond saga. His first work for the most famous celluloid spy came in 1962 with the famous Agent 007 vs. Dr. Nodirected by Terence Youngand since then the composer would develop a relationship with the saga that would last up to 25 years.
With the arts of a mannerist who carefully observes the arrangements that work and those that don’t in his soundtracks, Barry developed his own style (characterized by the use of string instruments and large wind arrangements) with which in turn he never he limited himself to constraining his doing. A style of work that would lead him to explore fields further removed from his conventional career, such as the use of synthesizers for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) or the use of songs signed by pop artists of the moment in Midnight Cowboy (1981).
From the very beginning of his career, Barry knows well what it is to be in the attention of the Academy, since one of his first works for Born Free (1966) was awarded the Oscar for Best Original Soundtrack, and since then he would experience success again through other films such as The Lion in Winter (1968), Memories of Africa (1985), and of course, for the soundtrack of the film in question, Dancing with Wolves (1990).
Trailer of Dances With Wolves (1990)
Where to see Dances With Wolves (1990)?
At the moment, Dancing with Wolves from Kevin Costern It is available for rent and purchase at Amazon Prime Video.
Dancing With Wolves (1990): Curiosities of the film
- As the film shows us, the Indian tribe that Lieutenant Dunbar will deal with in his new role at the border military post to which he is assigned are the Sioux Indians. However, in the book of the same name Michael Blake in which the tape is inspired were Comanche Indians. Apparently, and as Blake himself confirmed in an interview, this plot change was due more to a logistical necessity, since they had to move the filming to South Dakota, where there were still Sioux Indians who knew the Lakota language: “I first wrote the novel to be about the Comanches, but due to location and other logistical issues, we decided to have the Sioux in the film. But no matter what the differences between the Sioux and the Comanches, their spirituality is pretty much the same. And that is what this story is about, after all, about the spiritual aspects that make up the lifestyle of these people.”
- The wild environment that the exciting shots of Dancing with Wolves reveals to us brings with it, of course, the appearance of various animals during the film. Among them, we highlight the use of up to 3,500 buffaloes (which together with 20 cowboys, 24 native riders, and up to 150 extras completed one of the toughest sequences to film for Costner, which is none other than the famous scene of that hectic hunt over arid plains). Two of these trained buffaloes were also donated to the filming set for no less than Neil Young.
- Needless to say, the buffaloes play a spectacular role in the film, being one of the most outstanding and emblematic elements within the narrative and aesthetics of the film. However, any self-respecting director and filmmaker will know very well that working with animals is never easy, and in order to bring them to the terrain and context that the script demands, sometimes it is necessary to carry out the most unusual tricks. In the case of the buffaloes, apparently, his keepers and trainers used Oreo-brand biscuits to get them to follow the director’s demands and force them to charge.
- Although no critical viewer missed the controversial role of “white savior” that John Dunbar plays, the truth is that the representation of this military defender of the Native Americans (who really existed, although his figure is far from what is projected in the film) managed to awaken in the audience a historical memory with which to begin to raise consciences. Such was the satisfaction for the work carried out by Costner in this film that the Sioux Indians even decided to give him a piece of their territory and make the actor and director an honorary member of their community.
Dances with Wolves: Kevin Costner Movie Soundtrack and Songs