Kevin Costner took a massive gamble in 1990. People called it "Kevin's Gate," a snarky reference to the legendary flop Heaven's Gate, because nobody thought a three-hour Western with long stretches of Lakota dialogue would work. They were wrong. It swept the Oscars and changed how we look at the American frontier.
Looking for movies like Dances with Wolves isn't just about finding another Western. It’s about finding that specific feeling of being an outsider who finally finds home in a culture they were taught to fear. It’s about the "White Savior" trope—for better or worse—and the sweeping, wide-lens cinematography that makes the landscape a character of its own.
Most people just point you toward Avatar. Sure, James Cameron basically remade the movie with blue aliens, but that’s a surface-level comparison. If you want the grit, the history, and the heartbreaking reality of the frontier, you have to look deeper.
The Revisionist Westerns That Actually Hit the Mark
The 1990s saw a massive shift in how Hollywood handled Native American stories. Before then, you mostly had John Wayne-style caricatures. Dances with Wolves broke that mold, even if it wasn't perfect.
If you want something that captures the same spirit, start with The Last of the Mohicans (1992). Michael Mann directed this one, and it’s visceral. Daniel Day-Lewis is incredible, obviously, but the real soul of the film lies in the conflict between the British, the French, and the various tribes caught in the middle. It’s got that same epic scale and a soundtrack that will stay in your head for weeks. Honestly, the final fifteen minutes of that film are some of the most intense minutes in cinema history.
Then there’s Geronimo: An American Legend (1993). It didn't get the same awards love as Costner’s epic, but it tries to do something similar by humanizing a figure that history books often flattened into a villain. Wes Studi, who was also in Dances with Wolves as the toughest Pawnee warrior, gives a powerhouse performance here. It’s a movie that sits uncomfortably with the concept of "manifest destiny."
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Why We Are Still Obsessed With the "Stranger in a Strange Land" Trope
There is something deeply satisfying about a character shedding their old life. John Dunbar is a man who is essentially "done" with civilization. We see this exact DNA in The Last Samurai (2003).
Tom Cruise plays Nathan Algren, a man haunted by his past (much like Dunbar) who finds a new moral compass among the very people he was hired to help destroy. Is it a bit predictable? Maybe. But the production design and the exploration of a fading warrior class—the Samurai—echoes the tragedy of the Plains Indians perfectly. You see the collision of the old world and the new, and it’s never pretty.
If you’re okay with something a bit more modern and much more brutal, check out The Revenant (2015). Alejandro González Iñárritu didn't make a movie about finding community, but he definitely captured the overwhelming, terrifying beauty of the wilderness that Costner highlighted. It’s a survival story, but it’s also a story about the exploitation of the land and its people.
Does Avatar really count?
I mentioned it earlier, and honestly, you can't talk about movies like Dances with Wolves without acknowledging the elephant in the room. James Cameron has openly admitted that Dances with Wolves was a massive influence on Avatar.
- Jake Sully is John Dunbar.
- The Na'vi are the Lakota.
- Unobtanium is the buffalo (sort of).
It’s the same narrative structure. If you love the "learning the ways" montage where the hero fails repeatedly before earning respect, Avatar delivers that in spades. But it lacks the historical weight. It’s a fantasy. For some, that’s better. For others, it feels a bit hollow compared to the real-world stakes of the 1860s American West.
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The New Wave: Wind River and Hostiles
In the last decade, we’ve seen a shift toward "Neo-Westerns." These movies don't always take place in the 1800s, but they carry the same heavy themes of displacement and justice.
Hostiles (2017) is probably the closest spiritual successor we have. Christian Bale plays an Army captain who spent his life killing Natives and is now forced to escort a dying Cheyenne chief back to his ancestral lands. It is a bleak, difficult watch. It strips away the romanticism that Costner kept in his film. It asks if reconciliation is even possible after so much blood has been spilled.
Then there is Wind River (2017). It’s a modern-day story set on a reservation in Wyoming. While it’s a murder mystery, it deals with the contemporary reality of the themes Dances with Wolves introduced. It’s about the land, the isolation, and the people who are often forgotten by the rest of the country.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Genre
The biggest misconception is that these movies are all about "going native."
Actually, the best ones are about the realization that the "civilized" world is often the more barbaric one. In Dances with Wolves, the Union soldiers are portrayed as filthy, illiterate, and cruel, while the Lakota society is structured, clean, and deeply spiritual.
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If you want to see this flipped on its head, watch A Man Called Horse (1970). It’s older, and definitely a product of its time, but it paved the way for Costner. It follows an English aristocrat captured by the Sioux. It’s much harsher than Dances with Wolves, and arguably less "Hollywood," but it captures that same sense of total cultural immersion.
Specific Recommendations Based on Your Mood
Sometimes you want the scenery, and sometimes you want the politics.
- For the Cinematography: Legends of the Fall (1994). It’s more of a family soap opera, but the Montana vistas and the sweeping score feel like they belong in the same universe.
- For the Historical Weight: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007). This is an HBO film, but it is essential viewing if you want to see the real-world consequences of the events hinted at in the end of Costner’s movie.
- For the Adventure: The New World (2005). Terrence Malick’s take on John Smith and Pocahontas. It’s dreamy, poetic, and focuses heavily on the "first contact" aspect.
The Actionable Insight: How to Watch These Correctly
If you’re planning a marathon, don’t just look for "Westerns." Look for films categorized as Revisionist Westerns. This is the specific sub-genre that seeks to correct or complicate the traditional myths of the American West.
Start with Dances with Wolves (the Director’s Cut if you have four hours to spare), then move into Hostiles to see how the genre evolved to be more cynical. Finally, watch The Last of the Mohicans for the pure cinematic adrenaline.
You should also look into the work of Sherman Alexie or films like Smoke Signals (1998). While they aren't "epics" in the same way, they provide the Native perspective that Dances with Wolves—as good as it is—still filters through a white protagonist. To truly understand the impact of the genre, you have to see the stories told by the people who actually lived them.
Seek out the Blu-ray versions where possible. These films were shot on large-format film to capture the horizon; watching them on a tiny phone screen honestly kills half the experience. The scale is the point. The vastness of the prairie is supposed to make the characters look small. That's where the magic happens.
Next Steps for the Epic Film Buff:
- Audit the "White Savior" Narrative: Research the criticisms of Dances with Wolves by Native scholars like Angela Aleiss to see how the film holds up today.
- Track the Score: Listen to John Barry’s soundtrack for Dances with Wolves alongside Trevor Jones’ work for Last of the Mohicans to see how music defines the "Epic Western" feel.
- Explore the Cast: Follow the filmography of actors like Wes Studi and Graham Greene, who have anchored almost every major film in this genre for the last thirty years.