Rooting for Scorcese - and Costner

(Note: I had written this for an MSM publication, but no word, so here it is......)


I waited a decade to watch "Dances With Wolves."

In 1990, I wasn't ready for the story of a Union Army soldier who eventually becomes a member of the Lakota Sioux tribe. When I finally saw it for the first time in 2000, my reaction was "Yes, indeed."

There are many reasons the film works so beautifully, including John Barry's score, Dean Semler's cinematography, Elsa Zamparelli's costumes and Michael Blake's script. They, as well as editor Neil Travis, all won Academy Awards, as did the film for Best Picture.

If they all deserved their Oscars, why then, wouldn't the man whose direction brought them all together - Kevin Costner, who also starred in the film?

The issue has come up again this year because of Martin Scorcese's current Oscar nomination for directing "The Departed." I hope he finally wins, and yes, I hope that means Costner finally gets off the hook with critics still carping about the alleged Great Oscar Robbery of 1991.

Scorcese's "Goodfellas," about Mafia serf-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill, was released the same year as "Dances." Scorcese was also nominated for a directing Oscar. To hear the critics, one would think Costner had physicallybroken into Scorcese's home and taken the trophy.

There's a snobbishness about their criticism, this presumptiveness that Costner doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as Scorcese. Scorcese's films are among those that film students - a number of critics are in that category - are schooled in. Gritty, hard-edged, shot with a certain style.

Costner didn't go to the same school. In fact, he didn't go to a formal film school, graduating from Cal State-Fullerton in 1978 with a degree in marketing. He would get off that road and start his quest to become an actor just six weeks after graduation. He performed mostly in community productions and with a troupe that would include Michael Blake and Jim Wilson, Costner's producing partner since 1989.

The filmmakers Costner follows are the ones whose films he watched and loved as a boy: John Ford, Frank Capra, Cecil B DeMille. What he learned from that combination got put to very good use in "Dances."

Today, critics seem to suffer from collective amnesia about the positive reviews they gave the film, and the effect it had on both the cinematic and national landscapes. There's also a disconnect between their view of that film and the general public's view. They forget what the film meant to Hollywood's view of Native Americans.

I still cringe at watching Italian-American character actor Val Bisoglio as a stereotypical tribal chief in the 1979 western dramedy "The Frisco Kid." Casting like that was the norm for decades. Thus, it was a shock in Hollywood when Costner, in making his movie, did what should come naturally to any filmmaker wanting to get the story right: He cast Native Americans and made sure they were schooled in the Lakota (and Pawnee) dialogue. He used real wolves and buffalo. He added his director's vision to Blake's script. The result was a classic story of a human being who has followed orders, but finally follows his heart.

Some people have suggested the buffalo hunt scenes won "Dances" and Costner those Oscars. I can't say. For me, the joy comes with the smaller scenes -Costner's John Dunbar struggling to communicate with the Sioux; Mary McDonnell's Stands With a Fist, a white woman raised by the Sioux, overcoming her fears of communicating with Dunbar; Dunbar's interaction with a wolf that results in his Sioux name (the film's title). Critics have argued that a majority of traditional Academy voters embraced a traditional film. But "Dances," like Costner's later "Open Range," (2003) actually bends tradition. How many rookie directors would have the plates spinning in the air that Costner did? Not many.

Costner is an idealistic - and under-appreciated - filmmaker. A scene in his "For Love of the Game" (1999) sums up his approach. Playing aging Detroit Tigers pitcher Billy Chapel, he counsels young outfielder Mickey Hart (Greer Barnes) on, of all things, facing the media after a bad play.

"There's a bunch of cameras out there right now waiting to make a joke of this, Mick," Chapel says. "So you can either stop, give them the sound bite, do the dance. Or you can hold your head up and walk by... Don't help them make a joke out of you."

The clubhouse attendant, overhearing Chapel, tells the outfielder: "Old School, baby."

Costner is old school, with as much of a love for the cinema as Scorcese has. He deserved that Oscar in 1991. Now, Scorcese deserves the Oscar. But Costner deserves vindication.