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The wolf in the film was played by two different wolves. Neither knew how to howl, so a third wolf had to be brought in for the howling scene. See more...

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Dances with Wolves (1990) - 20 mistakes

Directed by Kevin Costner, starring Graham Greene, Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell (add more)

Genres: Adventure, Drama, Western

Mistakes

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Other: When the Sioux and Dunbar are leaving for the buffalo hunt, one of the young boys riding a horse is wearing a pair of low-cut black converse Allstar sneakers. You can see it as they are riding away from the camera.

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Continuity: The piece of meat that Dunbar offers the wolf changes shape and size dramatically throughout that scene.

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Continuity: When Kevin Costner gets hit on the head by the top frame of the door, he is knocked out unconscious. Yet, when he gets back up after regaining consciousness, the blood from is head had been running down his nose. Don't you think that as he was lying down in a horizontal position, the blood would run down over the eyes towards the ears?

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Factual error: We see and hear geese flying overhead toward the end of the film, a sure sign that winter is approaching, but the birds in the shot are sandhill cranes, which do not "honk" like Canada geese.

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Continuity: Dunbar's jacket has yellow officer tabs on the sholder for Cavalry, but after he gave it to Wind in His Hair, the officer tabs are now blue for Infantry.

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Continuity: When Cisco comes to Dunbar on the morning after the hunt, Cisco's "US" brand is missing.

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Revealing: During the buffalo hunt, where the buffalo turns to charge the fallen Indian, the buffalo has a nose ring used for leading domestic animals.

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Continuity: In the scene where Kevin Costner is playing with the wolf on the prairie and the Sioux see him doing so. Costner is on the ground when the wolf runs away and the camera cuts to the Sioux coming toward Costner. In the scene of the Sioux approaching him he is seen in the distance standing. The camera returns to a close-up of Costner and he is on the ground again.

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Continuity: When the Sioux men come to steal Dunbar's horse, Dunbar jumps into waist-deep water as he runs toward the corral. As soon as he climbs the river bank, his pants are dry.

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Factual error: When Lt. Dunbar is preparing for his meeting with the Indians, you can see the rubber sole of his boot as he is putting it on. There is also a stamped logo on the boot heel. Rubber bottomed boots did not exist during the Civil War.

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Other: Dunbar has to race back to the fort in the middle of having a shave. The amount of soap on his face alters shot to shot.

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Continuity: At the close of the buffalo hunt, Wind in his Hair cuts out the liver of the buffalo, holding it in two hands. He stands to take a bite out of it and it's already about half its previous size. When he hands it to John Dunbar, it shrinks dramatically in size again, and is a different colour and shape.

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Revealing: In the extended version of the film during the buffalo hunt, there is a shot of a buffalo making a turn and in the distant horizon, you can briefly see a modern radio tower on top of a hill.

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Revealing: The U.S. Army killed the wolf friend of Dunbar, and in the following scene, the camera shows the wolf body while the Army moves away. If you stop the scene, you can see that the "wild" wolf has a strap around his neck.

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Continuity: When Kicking Bird is trying to steal Cisco and Dunbar frightens him away, he falls over the fence. He scares his horse, who runs off to his right. But then Kicking Bird jumps up and runs to his left, and suddenly his horse is waiting for him there, standing still.

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Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where the Sioux discover the rotting dead buffalo lying in the valley, as they are riding by them, right after they show a Sioux woman crying, in the background you can see a man with dark hair in a white shirt lying on the ground. In the special edition DVD, if you watch this scene with the commentary on you will hear Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson admit that it is an assistant cameraman trying to get out of the scene.

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Revealing: In the scene where Dunbar comes to the Indian camp with the wounded woman he found, she is supposedly knocked out. However, when the Indian warrior grabs her wrist and pulls her to the tribe, she is also hanging strongly, with her hand around his wrist.

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Revealing: At the end of the movie, just before Dunbar arrives at the winter camp in the mountains, after being rescued by Wind in his Hair and his men, an old Indian man looks up and see them coming down the mountain. The old man is wearing thermal underwear under his leather tunic.

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Continuity: The buffalo that charges Smiles A Lot is shown on its left hand side, with no arrows. But the shot changes and when the buffalo is shown again, he has 3 arrows stuck in his left side.

Edit Submitted by Ral0618

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Factual error: In an opening scene Kevin Costner is seen eating a Delicious Apple, a variety not created until after the Civil War.

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