Michael Blake dies at 69; 'Dances With Wolves' screenwriter

L.A. Times ^ | 5/4/2015 | Steve Chawkins

[Borges]

When Michael Blake was writing his novel "Dances With Wolves," he was living in Los Angeles on friends' couches or, sometimes, in his car. He did occasional odd jobs and finally, with $1,000 borrowed from a pal, headed for Bisbee, Ariz., where he washed dishes in a Chinese restaurant for $3.35 an hour.

[yarddog]

I would guess that was the most ridiculous movie ever made. At least that wasn’t supposed to be.

[Borges]

Pauline Kael said “Costner has feathers in hair and feathers in his head.”

[Sherman Logan]

My wife referred to it as Dances with Squirrels.

[buckeye49]

I liked the music and Graham Greene.

[Catmom]

What was even MORE ridiculous was how it beat out Goodfellas for the best picture Oscar of 1990.

[Borges]

There was a striking parallel to 10 years earlier when ‘Ordinary People’, another nearly forgotten vanity project by a pretty-boy actor beat Scorsese’s ‘Raging Bull’.

[Grams A]

I liked the music...”

Me, too. The sound track comes up every now and then on my player. Great music.

[rey]

“In addition to Marianne, his survivors include his brother Dan Webb, and three teenage children: Quanah Valdemar Blake, Monahsetah Dagmar Blake and Lozen Ingefred Blake.

The children’s first names are those of Native American heroes and their middle names are Nordic.”

[AnAmericanAbroad]

Oh, I agree. Goodfellas was far and away the better film.

Nonetheless, DwW would have received two Oscars from me - cinematography and original score.

[driftless2]

I saw some previews showing Costner doing some spastic movements on the prairie. That was the end of my interest in that flick.

[skinndogNN]

“Chinese restaurant for $3.35 an hour”

My first job I made this. Minimum wage. And it was great. Saving money was easy.

No bills, no responsibility.

[nathanbedford]

Dances with Wolves had good music, good cinematography, some charming scenes but a premise that only a leftist could stomach.

A much better movie, Black Robe, has a much more sophisticated and realistic view of the relationship between whites and Indians and a much more realistic view of Indians. At least it does not betray whites as wolf killers, horse killers, and buffalo killers. White men: bad red man: good (except for those pesky Pawnees). Indeed, when the whites weren't busy killing Indians, wolves, horses, and buffalo they were mindlessly killing each other in a civil war and also mindlessly killing themselves by suicide.

Black Robe is Dancing with Wolves for grown-ups and it has better music too.

[VA_Gentleman]

One of my in-laws hand sewed all of the costumes in the movie... by himself. Here’s a recent article on some of the other things he has done.

https://www.ourstate.com/civil-war-costumer/

[JAKraig]

Dances with Wolves had good music, good cinematography, some charming scenes but a premise that only a leftist could stomach.

_____________________________________________________________

Sometimes you have to look past the leftist cynicism and just try to enjoy the story. The movies are full of fantasies, stories that were never true but fun to see anyway.

Yes many stories are based on a true story the vast majority are just silliness. “Dances With Wolves” was full of silliness, it certainly was damming of white man, but the two heroes, actually hero and heroine were white people. They were kind and gracious which means that other white people could be kind and gracious. The evil villains were the Pawnee Indians who killed without remorse for fun.

Yes there were good earth loving Indians and there were evil Indians. Yes there were no-good white stupid queer men but there were also good white people.

Sometimes you just have to sit back and not listen to the message and just enjoy the story.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Pirate Ragnar]

Yes. Movies are entertainment. If not a documentary, one can enjoy the film for what it is. Dances With Wolves was not supposed to be an accurate portrayal of Whites or Indians, but was fiction. Stories can be fun.

[nathanbedford]

Sometimes you just have to sit back and not listen to the message and just enjoy the story.

This is after all a political forum and that which touches on politics is grist for our mill. Those people who spent $440 million to watch the movie and accept the premise of the movie are very likely to vote. I have already conceded the movie has charming scenes good music and good cinematography, I am quite capable of enjoying the movie but I am also capable of being wary of the political implications of propaganda. It is not for nothing that we spend $1 billion in advertising to elect the president, is not for nothing that Madison Avenue spends billions every year to sell soap etc.

These images change minds and alter votes.

Take a look at how The Frankfurt School has gone about undermining every basic assumption that carried America to greatness and ask yourself whether Democrats could succeed in their agenda without Hollywood, the publishing industry, the television industry, journalism, academia? If your answer is that these institutions, Hollywood clearly among them, affects our politics then you might reconsider your rather cavalier attitude toward propaganda like Dances with Wolves.

Finally, the "good" white people were "good" only because they went native-or at least that is how their "goodness" was manifested by turning away from the white world, actually fleeing it for their lives.

[Borges]

The DWW template is quite common. ‘Western Man Gone Native’ can be seen in everything from ‘Heart of Darkness’ to Ursula K LeGuin’s 1972 novella ‘The Word for World Is Forest’.

[Rebelbase]

My first job min. wage was $2.30. I’m sure there are those here who worked when there was no minimum wage.