Dances With Wolves

On Sunday I watched the film “Dances with Wolves”, which was directed by and starred Kevin Costner. It was the winner of seven Oscars including Best Film and Best Director, and deservedly so.

It tells the story of Lt. John Dunbar who is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, and is sent to a remote outpost in the wilderness of the Dakota Territory, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, and meets a wolf he dubs "Two-socks" and a curious Indian tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and is eventually accepted into the local Sioux tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Indians. He becomes known as "Dances with Wolves" to them and as time passes he becomes enamoured by the beautiful "Stands with a Fist". Soon after, the frontier becomes the frontier no more, and as the army advances on the plains, John must make a decision that will not only affect him, but also the lives of the natives he now calls his people. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man's ways.

Not your usual Cowboy and Indian stuff, where all the Cowboys are goodies and all the Indians are baddies, but a well thought out and stimulating film, which deals in a very realistic and thoughtful way with the problems of the White Man gradually taking over the Indian Territory.

The music to the film is composed by the doyen of Soundtrack composers, John Barry, and contains the ever popular John Dunbar Theme.

If it’s listed in the tv schedules have a look at it. You’ll probably enjoy it.

Film Music - Top Ten

I was out most of the day yesterday, and when I arrived home the monthly Classic Fm magazine and CD’s were awaiting me on the doormat. There is usually 1 CD per issue, but Classic Fm must have been feeling particularly generous this month because there was not one, but TWO free CD’s.


The first CD is called Top 10 Soundtracks and contains tracks from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Chariots of Fire, Schindler’s List, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dr. Zhivago, The Mission, Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves.

Looking at the composers, there is Howard Shore, (Lord of the Rings),

Howard Shore

Hans Zimmer, (Gladiator),

Hans Zimmer

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou better known as Vangelis, (Chariots of Fire),

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou better known as Vangelis




Klaus Badelt, (Pirates of the Caribbean),

Klaus Badelt

Maurice Jarre, (Dr. Zhivago),

Maurice Jarre (father of Jean Michel Jarre)

Ennio Morricone, (The Mission),

Ennio Morricone

two John Williams compositions (Star Wars and Schindler’s List)

John Towner Williams

and two John Barry compositions (Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves).

John Barry


Whilst I enjoy much of the music which is written especially for films, I find it hard to relate to it as classical music. It was not written as a piece of classical music. It was written to support the visual images of a film i.e. to be the SOUNDTRACK. Perhaps somewhere the difference between classical music and soundtrack music has become blurred because a lot of soundtrack music is performed by a full scale symphony orchestra – indeed some of the more famous of our resident English Orchestra’s make a lucrative living from recording the soundtracks to films. Exciting and entertaining as the above mentioned pieces are (they are well written too!) and they will stand listening to without the film they have come from, at the end of the day they are not pieces of classical music!

The second CD is called Classics at the Movies and contains classical music which has been used on film soundtracks.