In Hollywood, thousands of scripts are born every day, but there are very few that can actually be made into movies.
Not to mention, to be recognized by the Oscars.
However, there are exceptions to everything, and more than 30 years ago, there was such a script that achieved unprecedented success.
An unknown middle-aged man, with his freshly written script, knocked on the door of MGM Pictures.
As a result, the other party did not hesitate to refuse after reading it, and the reason given was that the script was too boring.
When Blake left disappointed, the other party casually threw the script in a corner of the office.
Within a few days, Kevin Costner was lucky enough to get an audition.
Although he had just emerged at this time, he was still far from becoming famous.
During the audition break, Kevin Costner stumbled upon a few pieces of paper in the corner, which he picked up and looked at, and one picture after another instantly came to mind.
At this point, he realized that if the script was made into a movie, it might be an unexpected success.
Kevin Costner contacted Blake and lobbied everywhere to finally get $15 million in investment.
Not only that, he also personally served as a producer, director, actor and other positions.
As it turned out, as Costner expected.
And this script is called "Dancing with Wolves."
The film was released in 1990, and no one expected that a second-rate actor and a third-rate screenwriter would achieve such a great success with a subject matter that was not optimistic.
First of all, the film has grossed more than 400 million yuan worldwide, more than 20 times the cost.
Secondly, at the Academy Awards, it beat many masterpieces such as "Good Guys", "Ghost in Love", "Godfather 3" and won 7 awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Behind the success, however, Kevin Costner and Michael Blake were under great pressure.
First, Westerns were not recognized by the mainstream at the time.
Second, the story involves Indians, and once it is rejected by some "people", it is impossible to even release it.
Third, the length of the film is 4 hours, and many fans are directly dissuaded.
The story takes place in the 19th century, during the American Civil War.
Lieutenant Dunbar is a hero in the war, but he is arrogant by nature, but he chooses to go west in search of a new way of life.
However, on the way, his coachman was killed by native Indians, and Dunbar lost contact with the outside world completely.
Since then, on this boundless prairie, Dunbar has lived a peaceful life.
He also became "friends" with a white wolf and named it "Two White Socks".
During this time, Dunbar had brief contact with the Indian Sioux.
The Sioux were talking about Dunbar's arrival, and the tribesmen quarreled over how to treat the visitor.
So Dunbar decided to take the initiative to show his kindness, and on the way he rescued a Sioux woman called "Standing Dancing Fist".
She was originally white, but she lost both of her parents at an early age and was adopted by the Sioux.
When Dunbar returned the Standing Fist to the tribe, the Indian leaders changed their minds about him.
With the contact with Dunbar, the two sides formed a deep friendship.
Not only that, but Dunbar also had an Indian name — "Dances with Wolves."
Dunbar not only brought coffee to the Sioux, but also taught them the use of muskets, helping them to come in handy in resisting aggression.
Over time, Dunbar became a hero in the hearts of the Sioux and married the "Standing Dancing Fist".
However, this era did not belong to the Indians, and the invasion of the white army completely broke the calm here.
In order not to bother the Sioux friends, Dunbar refused to stay and left the Sioux village with his wife "Standing Dancing Fist".
Years later, the Sioux were forced to sign an agreement with the government to give up the land they had passed down for generations.
The reflection on history throughout the film makes the theme of war and the history of western exploration become the two major themes of the film.
The real reason for the success of "Dances with Wolves" should be attributed to its profound thematic connotations.
The film was filmed over a four-month period, with main scenes taken from South Dakota and Wyoming.
Due to the changeable weather in South Dakota, the wild nature of wolves, and the complexity of the Indian war scenes, the shooting was quite difficult, and adults eventually exceeded the budget and became $18 million.
As the highlight of the film, the hunt for bison took a total of three weeks to shoot, and the crew used 100 Indian stunt riders and thousands of bison.
In the end, none of the bison in the huge herd scene came from the CGI special effects.
In "Dancing with Wolves", the title is related to "Wolf", but there are not many pictures depicting wolves in the whole film, and a few scenes are very symbolic.
As an animal, the wolf symbolizes the primitive way of survival, corresponding to the entire Sioux tribe in the film.
Dancing with wolves means living with the Sioux, both cooperative and fighting.
At the end, the fate of the wolf also hints at the fate of Lieutenant Dunbar.
Kevin Costner is said to have invited hundreds of Indians to watch the film, and the applause was enduring after the film.
Even after the film was released, the theater was empty, and some audiences preferred to stand and watch it.
It is this film that revives the Westerns that have gone into decay, and also unveils the scars that cannot be looked back.
In fact, director Kevin Costner made this film with good intentions, playing the melody of friendship, equality and peace in the film.
But the reality is cruel, the United States is an equal country on the surface, but in fact, the discrimination in people's hearts can never be eliminated.
So the ideal in "Dancing with Wolves", like the American Dream, has become an empty phrase.
After all, who are the real barbarians?