Clint Eastwood May Have Broken the Western, But Kevin Costner’s 35 Year Old Movie Did Something Better

Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning 1990 classic brought a change in the struggling Western genr

Clint Eastwood has always reigned over the landscape of American western cinema with an iron fist.

His memorable portrayal of earnest cowboys of few words was unrivaled until Kevin Costner made an equally grand entry to spice up the movies from the wild west.

While we are not going into the debate regarding who should be crowned the undisputed king of the Hollywood Westerns, Costner, in Dances With Wolves, did something which even Eastwood’s mystical thespian abilities failed to match.

No, we are not talking about who is the better director between the two, but rather we are trying to point out how Costner’s cinematic poetry aided in resuscitating a dying genre by breathing a fresh lease of life.

Kevin Costner revived the Westerns with Dances With Wolves, after the dismal 1980s

For the last century or so, Western cinema charmed a major section of the cinema-goers’ imagination.

Following the proliferation of Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, which saw Clint Eastwood, 94, cement his position as the quintessential cowboy on the silver screen, the later decades witnessed a major slump.

Kevin Costner in a still from Dances With Wolves | Credit: MGM.

While Italianized “Spaghetti Westerns” were slowly rising as a major sub-group, the overall genre went through a gradual decline, which even the greatest fan cannot deny.

Eastwood, who has starred in over a dozen Westerns, wore the cowboy hat only once during the decade with his 1985’s Pale Rider.

While other films were being released, what the audience did not require during that time was the rehashing of the same tropes with nothing new to offer.

Amid this, Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves not only came as a breath of fresh air but also provided the much-needed shaking up in the decades-old genre of American cinema.

With the watered-down Westerns, along with Anti-Westerns and satires, slowly increasing in number, the field was ripe for a thought-provoking cowboy film.

When it came to defying the then-contemporary narrative, Costner delivered exactly on that promise through his thought-provoking romanticized revisionist film, Dances With Wolves.

With the advent of 1990, the Yellowstone star’s directorial debut not only became a cultural phenomenon but also won over the critics.

After grossing more than $400 million at the box office, Costner’s passion project rounded up its accolades at the Academy Awards by taking home seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for the actor himself.

However, its importance in the history of Westerns is not restricted only to its successes, as Dances With Wolves successfully opened the floodgate of the neo-Western dramas and films.

It inspired a plethora of future projects, including Eastwood’s 1992 classic The Unforgiven and Edward Zwick’s Legends of the Fall.

What worked in Dances With Wolves’s favor was not the story, but rather the way the story was told.

The film also subverted a few tropes to establish itself as historical commentary of the gritty American frontier, while boldly incorporating the truth behind Native American oppressions (via CBR).

Clint Eastwood may be the star cowboy, but Kevin Costner is the one who revived the genre

Despite the success of Dances With Wolves, it can be argued that had Costner not ventured into Westerns with his directorial debut and ushered in the renaissance, Clint Eastwood would have.

The veteran actor probably would have revived the Westerns with Unforgiven.

Clint Eastwood in a still from Unforgiven | Credit: Warner Bros Home Entertainment.

Yet, a little corner of our mind cannot help but wonder, what if that wasn’t the case?

Eastwood’s Unforgiven came two years after Costner’s Dances, and followed the revisionist path paved by its predecessor.

Though at the end of the day, Eastwood’s film went on to become a similar commercial and critical success, while bringing two individual Oscars for the Joe Kidd star, the Westerns’ resurgence was not solely done by Unforgiven. 

In that sense, at least, it can be said that Costner’s 35-year-old masterpiece indeed scored a point over Eastwood’s creation.