Dances with Wolves

Dances with Wolves (1990)

2 suggested corrections

(21 votes)

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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Suggested correction: True enough officially, but it often happened during war or in remote areas or in this case Both, unconvential materials would be used in improvised solutions.

dizzyd

Continuity mistake: The Civil War battle scene has trees already turning fall colors, and the cornfield is already showing frost damage with dying top leaves. The likely timing for scenery such as this would be about mid to late September. There wouldn't be enough time for Dunbar's leg to heal, then travel 1000 miles west, then establish rapport with the Sioux, then go on a buffalo hunt, then move to winter quarters before snow flies.

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Suggested correction: Maybe he recovered over fall and winter, then traveled west in spring?

dizzyd

Dunbar tells the Army soldiers that have him captured that he arrived at the fort in April.

Continuity mistake: 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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Lt. Elgin: Spivy! You bash that prisoner one more time, I'll put those shackles on you.

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Trivia: 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.

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Question: Maybe I just missed something, but what's going on with Dunbar's military superior that he meets at the fort out west? He seems to think he's a king or something, referring to the frontier as the "realm" and Dunbar's travel companion as a "peasant." At the end of the scene he salutes Dunbar very sarcastically and then shoots himself. What does any of that have to do with the story?

Krista

Chosen answer: It shows that the officer was mentally disturbed, and he was the only one in the fort who knew about Dunbar's assignment. It sets the story up so that Dunbar could live with the Indians without the Army interfering with his life (No one expected any communications to or from Dunbar).

Twotall

Answer: So why was his journal so important to him? He knows lots of soldiers and many other whites are coming.

Answer: Because it documented his time at the fort and with the Indians and also what he learned from them during the period when he arrived before the Army did show up - This would have been crucial if there had been any trial which there was not as the Sioux rescued him from the situation.

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