Dances With Wolves and reality authenticity

[stardustpilgrim]

I saw a program on Reelz on the making of Dances With Wolves last night. In the middle of the '80's a friend of Kevin Costner's, Michael Blake, was having trouble writing screen plays so Kevin told him, write a book, write a novel. Michael had been learning about Native Americans so that became the subject of his novel. Over a year later, Costner read the novel, Dances With Wolves. After reading just a few pages he decided he wanted to make a film from it. A screen play was written and Kevin put up $75,000 of his own money for preproduction. With no interest in Hollywood, Costner found a company that specialized in finding funding for out of the ordinary films like Chariots of Fire, they planned a $16,000,000 budget. With this help of Jim Wilson, Costner took the script to thirteen Studios, and all passed on it. They finally began having serious discussions with Warner Brothers. They were getting close to a deal, but Warner executives said no to the idea of 1/3 of the film being spoken in Lakota Sioux with English subtitles. Kevin wasn't happy with this so he said, Oh, by the way, also, I want approval of the final cut. Well, with that, the meeting was over. For Costner, the whole backbone of the film was the language barrier, and the struggle to overcome it. He said the whole film fell apart if it was all done in English. After this Jim Wilson devised a plan to get financing from foreign distributors obtaining $10,000,000. With this, they moved forward with production.

Costner talked with a few directors about directing the film, but their ideas didn't correspond to his, they just didn't get the vision, so Costner decided to direct the film himself, direct and play the lead roll. He decided this was the only way to keep his vision and Blake's story intact. He went for being as authentic as possible. $40,000 was spent building a fort which was only on screen for a few minutes. The costume designer had little designing to do, she found books, drawings and paintings of Native American dress of the period, and designed over 115 costumes from these. They found a 3,500 herd of buffalo is South Dakota, a necessary element. They also found enough Sioux Lakota to play extras in SD. They found a teacher who taught the Lakota Sioux language. They found an animal trainer who had 2 wolves, a necessary element. Filming just the wolf scenes took an additional ten days adding to the schedule, because you can't train wolves like you can dogs. They kept running into problems which Costner as producer and director had to make decisions on. He stuck with his vision although it cost money and time. The shooting schedule was 88 days, but it took 108 days to film. At a critical time Orion Pictures came on board with the other $6,000,000, as they had worked with Costner on two other films and trusted him.

Now, I had seen and loved the film in the theater, but seeing all the problems that had to be overcome made me appreciate the film even more. Costner had some very big acorns with decision after decision he had to make. The Lakota language teacher translated the Lakota dialogue into Lakota in phonetic English and made recordings of all the parts. None of the major Native American actors spoke Lakota, so the had to learn their parts in Lakota, and Costner demanded that they actually learn. They listened to the tapes over and over, learning their parts in Lakota. As some of these scenes were taking too long, Costner told the actors who were not learning their parts in Lakota, learn it or I'll fire you. This was enough incentive, and they learned their parts. That's just an example of one of the problems Costner faced in fulfilling his vision.

Towards the end they filmed the buffalo hunt. Native American stunt men were looked for throughout the country. These turned out to be NA rodeo cowboys. They filmed what had not been done in over 100 years, they actually rode in the middle of a 3,500 buffalo stampede, bareback, without hands on reins, firing guns and arrows.

The first cut of the film was 5 & 1/2 hours long. Jim Wilson told Costner he had to get it down to at least 3 hours. There was a lot of Hollywood hype about the film, was it going to be a fiasco? They decided to go with limited beginning release, only 14 theaters. This was very risky as this strategy really depended on reviews, if film critics didn't like it, the film was probably dead in the water. But the rest is history. Critics loved it. It is still the highest money making western film. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning seven including best picture, best director for Kevin Costner and Michael Blake winning for best screen play from his novel.

Cut to the chase: OK, what does any of this have to do with spirituality? It's about authenticity. I really don't get this, oh, this world is only a dream in non-separation. There aren't any separate individuals doing anything, everything that happens is merely the non-volitional movement in dream-world. When they started editing, they ran out of money again. So they sold all the horses and all the costumes and every little piece of the film they could sell. They scrapped up enough money to finish.

Why couldn't Source have made the universe just as authentic as Costner made his film? Time seems pretty real, we couldn't function without it. Space seems pretty real. Our body's seem pretty real, and we don't eat imaginary burgers. We have to put energy into the organism, or it runs out of fuel just like an automobile. I remember my 8th birthday when I got a Hopalong Cassidy watch. Physicists can show that the universe was formed some 13.7 billion years ago. Why wouldn't we assume that time and space and matter and energy and cause and effect are how the universe works, that if you step on a garden rake it can give you a bloody nose.

What's one of the most-real aspects of the universe? The second law of thermodynamics, entropy is always increasing in a closed system. Everything tends to disorder, energy becomes less useful for work. This is what gives time an arrow, from past to future. But where is entropy decreasing? In life. Life orders these little pockets were we find life. Instead of life disintegrating like other stuff, life reproduces itself. And life effects its surroundings. Intelligent life builds skyscrapers and bridges and rocket ships to the moon. Life makes films that replicates the life and times of history. Is there only Oneness and illusory/dreamy appearances in Oneness? I think Oneness can do better than just dream up stuff. I think Oneness makes life which overcomes obstacles. Creativity making creativity being creativity doing and being stuff that not now is. That seems a better world that Source 'doing everything', dreaming everything. I think Source can do better than just make a "film", Source can make the thing real.

[zendancer]

Mar 19, 2015 9:48:14 GMT -5 stardustpilgrim said:

I saw a program on Reelz on the making of Dances With Wolves last night. In the middle of the '80's a friend of Kevin Costner's, Michael Blake, was having trouble writing screen plays so Kevin told him, write a book, write a novel. Michael had been learning about Native Americans so that became the subject of his novel. Over a year later, Costner read the novel, Dances With Wolves. After reading just a few pages he decided he wanted to make a film from it. A screen play was written and Kevin put up $75,000 of his own money for preproduction. With no interest in Hollywood, Costner found a company that specialized in finding funding for out of the ordinary films like Chariots of Fire, they planned a $16,000,000 budget. With this help of Jim Wilson, Costner took the script to thirteen Studios, and all passed on it. They finally began having serious discussions with Warner Brothers. They were getting close to a deal, but Warner executives said no to the idea of 1/3 of the film being spoken in Lakota Sioux with English subtitles. Kevin wasn't happy with this so he said, Oh, by the way, also, I want approval of the final cut. Well, with that, the meeting was over. For Costner, the whole backbone of the film was the language barrier, and the struggle to overcome it. He said the whole film fell apart if it was all done in English. After this Jim Wilson devised a plan to get financing from foreign distributors obtaining $10,000,000. With this, they moved forward with production.

Costner talked with a few directors about directing the film, but their ideas didn't correspond to his, they just didn't get the vision, so Costner decided to direct the film himself, direct and play the lead roll. He decided this was the only way to keep his vision and Blake's story intact. He went for being as authentic as possible. $40,000 was spent building a fort which was only on screen for a few minutes. The costume designer had little designing to do, she found books, drawings and paintings of Native American dress of the period, and designed over 115 costumes from these. They found a 3,500 herd of buffalo is South Dakota, a necessary element. They also found enough Sioux Lakota to play extras in SD. They found a teacher who taught the Lakota Sioux language. They found an animal trainer who had 2 wolves, a necessary element. Filming just the wolf scenes took an additional ten days adding to the schedule, because you can't train wolves like you can dogs. They kept running into problems which Costner as producer and director had to make decisions on. He stuck with his vision although it cost money and time. The shooting schedule was 88 days, but it took 108 days to film. At a critical time Orion Pictures came on board with the other $6,000,000, as they had worked with Costner on two other films and trusted him.

Now, I had seen and loved the film in the theater, but seeing all the problems that had to be overcome made me appreciate the film even more. Costner had some very big acorns with decision after decision he had to make. The Lakota language teacher translated the Lakota dialogue into Lakota in phonetic English and made recordings of all the parts. None of the major Native American actors spoke Lakota, so the had to learn their parts in Lakota, and Costner demanded that they actually learn. They listened to the tapes over and over, learning their parts in Lakota. As some of these scenes were taking too long, Costner told the actors who were not learning their parts in Lakota, learn it or I'll fire you. This was enough incentive, and they learned their parts. That's just an example of one of the problems Costner faced in fulfilling his vision.

Towards the end they filmed the buffalo hunt. Native American stunt men were looked for throughout the country. These turned out to be NA rodeo cowboys. They filmed what had not been done in over 100 years, they actually rode in the middle of a 3,500 buffalo stampede, bareback, without hands on reins, firing guns and arrows.

The first cut of the film was 5 & 1/2 hours long. Jim Wilson told Costner he had to get it down to at least 3 hours. There was a lot of Hollywood hype about the film, was it going to be a fiasco? They decided to go with limited beginning release, only 14 theaters. This was very risky as this strategy really depended on reviews, if film critics didn't like it, the film was probably dead in the water. But the rest is history. Critics loved it. It is still the highest money making western film. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning seven including best picture, best director for Kevin Costner and Michael Blake winning for best screen play from his novel.

Cut to the chase: OK, what does any of this have to do with spirituality? It's about authenticity. I really don't get this, oh, this world is only a dream in non-separation. There aren't any separate individuals doing anything, everything that happens is merely the non-volitional movement in dream-world. When they started editing, they ran out of money again. So they sold all the horses and all the costumes and every little piece of the film they could sell. They scrapped up enough money to finish.

Why couldn't Source have made the universe just as authentic as Costner made his film? Time seems pretty real, we couldn't function without it. Space seems pretty real. Our body's seem pretty real, and we don't eat imaginary burgers. We have to put energy into the organism, or it runs out of fuel just like an automobile. I remember my 8th birthday when I got a Hopalong Cassidy watch. Physicists can show that the universe was formed some 13.7 billion years ago. Why wouldn't we assume that time and space and matter and energy and cause and effect are how the universe works, that if you step on a garden rake it can give you a bloody nose.

What's one of the most-real aspects of the universe? The second law of thermodynamics, entropy is always increasing in a closed system. Everything tends to disorder, energy becomes less useful for work. This is what gives time an arrow, from past to future. But where is entropy decreasing? In life. Life orders these little pockets were we find life. Instead of life disintegrating like other stuff, life reproduces itself. And life effects its surroundings. Intelligent life builds skyscrapers and bridges and rocket ships to the moon. Life makes films that replicates the life and times of history. Is there only Oneness and illusory/dreamy appearances in Oneness? I think Oneness can do better than just dream up stuff. I think Oneness makes life which overcomes obstacles. Creativity making creativity being creativity doing and being stuff that not now is. That seems a better world that Source 'doing everything', dreaming everything. I think Source can do better than just make a "film", Source can make the thing real.

SDP: Thanks for the background info on the movie. That was fascinating. All of your other comments, however, were a result of TMT. Just stop and be still. Things are not as you imagine, and it would be helpful to get a basic insight into what's going on. Your comment that the second law of thermodynamics is one of the most real aspects of the universe is hysterically funny. It's just an idea that is useful in certain contexts. Is a line of longitude real or imaginary? Same same with time and space; they're just imaginary grids that are useful in certain contexts. What time does the present begin or end, and what is aware of what is present? You know why they call the present "a present?" Because that's what it is.

[runstill]

Mar 19, 2015 9:48:14 GMT -5 stardustpilgrim said:

I saw a program on Reelz on the making of Dances With Wolves last night. In the middle of the '80's a friend of Kevin Costner's, Michael Blake, was having trouble writing screen plays so Kevin told him, write a book, write a novel. Michael had been learning about Native Americans so that became the subject of his novel. Over a year later, Costner read the novel, Dances With Wolves. After reading just a few pages he decided he wanted to make a film from it. A screen play was written and Kevin put up $75,000 of his own money for preproduction. With no interest in Hollywood, Costner found a company that specialized in finding funding for out of the ordinary films like Chariots of Fire, they planned a $16,000,000 budget. With this help of Jim Wilson, Costner took the script to thirteen Studios, and all passed on it. They finally began having serious discussions with Warner Brothers. They were getting close to a deal, but Warner executives said no to the idea of 1/3 of the film being spoken in Lakota Sioux with English subtitles. Kevin wasn't happy with this so he said, Oh, by the way, also, I want approval of the final cut. Well, with that, the meeting was over. For Costner, the whole backbone of the film was the language barrier, and the struggle to overcome it. He said the whole film fell apart if it was all done in English. After this Jim Wilson devised a plan to get financing from foreign distributors obtaining $10,000,000. With this, they moved forward with production.

Costner talked with a few directors about directing the film, but their ideas didn't correspond to his, they just didn't get the vision, so Costner decided to direct the film himself, direct and play the lead roll. He decided this was the only way to keep his vision and Blake's story intact. He went for being as authentic as possible. $40,000 was spent building a fort which was only on screen for a few minutes. The costume designer had little designing to do, she found books, drawings and paintings of Native American dress of the period, and designed over 115 costumes from these. They found a 3,500 herd of buffalo is South Dakota, a necessary element. They also found enough Sioux Lakota to play extras in SD. They found a teacher who taught the Lakota Sioux language. They found an animal trainer who had 2 wolves, a necessary element. Filming just the wolf scenes took an additional ten days adding to the schedule, because you can't train wolves like you can dogs. They kept running into problems which Costner as producer and director had to make decisions on. He stuck with his vision although it cost money and time. The shooting schedule was 88 days, but it took 108 days to film. At a critical time Orion Pictures came on board with the other $6,000,000, as they had worked with Costner on two other films and trusted him.

Now, I had seen and loved the film in the theater, but seeing all the problems that had to be overcome made me appreciate the film even more. Costner had some very big acorns with decision after decision he had to make. The Lakota language teacher translated the Lakota dialogue into Lakota in phonetic English and made recordings of all the parts. None of the major Native American actors spoke Lakota, so the had to learn their parts in Lakota, and Costner demanded that they actually learn. They listened to the tapes over and over, learning their parts in Lakota. As some of these scenes were taking too long, Costner told the actors who were not learning their parts in Lakota, learn it or I'll fire you. This was enough incentive, and they learned their parts. That's just an example of one of the problems Costner faced in fulfilling his vision.

Towards the end they filmed the buffalo hunt. Native American stunt men were looked for throughout the country. These turned out to be NA rodeo cowboys. They filmed what had not been done in over 100 years, they actually rode in the middle of a 3,500 buffalo stampede, bareback, without hands on reins, firing guns and arrows.

The first cut of the film was 5 & 1/2 hours long. Jim Wilson told Costner he had to get it down to at least 3 hours. There was a lot of Hollywood hype about the film, was it going to be a fiasco? They decided to go with limited beginning release, only 14 theaters. This was very risky as this strategy really depended on reviews, if film critics didn't like it, the film was probably dead in the water. But the rest is history. Critics loved it. It is still the highest money making western film. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning seven including best picture, best director for Kevin Costner and Michael Blake winning for best screen play from his novel.

Cut to the chase: OK, what does any of this have to do with spirituality? It's about authenticity. I really don't get this, oh, this world is only a dream in non-separation. There aren't any separate individuals doing anything, everything that happens is merely the non-volitional movement in dream-world. When they started editing, they ran out of money again. So they sold all the horses and all the costumes and every little piece of the film they could sell. They scrapped up enough money to finish.

Why couldn't Source have made the universe just as authentic as Costner made his film? Time seems pretty real, we couldn't function without it. Space seems pretty real. Our body's seem pretty real, and we don't eat imaginary burgers. We have to put energy into the organism, or it runs out of fuel just like an automobile. I remember my 8th birthday when I got a Hopalong Cassidy watch. Physicists can show that the universe was formed some 13.7 billion years ago. Why wouldn't we assume that time and space and matter and energy and cause and effect are how the universe works, that if you step on a garden rake it can give you a bloody nose.

What's one of the most-real aspects of the universe? The second law of thermodynamics, entropy is always increasing in a closed system. Everything tends to disorder, energy becomes less useful for work. This is what gives time an arrow, from past to future. But where is entropy decreasing? In life. Life orders these little pockets were we find life. Instead of life disintegrating like other stuff, life reproduces itself. And life effects its surroundings. Intelligent life builds skyscrapers and bridges and rocket ships to the moon. Life makes films that replicates the life and times of history. Is there only Oneness and illusory/dreamy appearances in Oneness? I think Oneness can do better than just dream up stuff. I think Oneness makes life which overcomes obstacles. Creativity making creativity being creativity doing and being stuff that not now is. That seems a better world that Source 'doing everything', dreaming everything. I think Source can do better than just make a "film", Source can make the thing real.

The best scientific minds on the planet are getting closer and closer to realizing that consciousness is primary , some in a round about way will even say it.

If you haven't seen the movie ' Lucy ' yet it's a real hoot a fast paced plot and lots of action with enough existential questions to engage most . The very end of the movie caused an involuntary smile.

[jay17]

Mar 19, 2015 9:48:14 GMT -5 stardustpilgrim said:

Cut to the chase: OK, what does any of this have to do with spirituality? It's about authenticity. I really don't get this, oh, this world is only a dream in non-separation. There aren't any separate individuals doing anything, everything that happens is merely the non-volitional movement in dream-world. 

FFUUUUUU, it did not post...

If non-duality does not make sense to you, then that is how it is to you. For those that align themselves to this religion, it does, so they will behave accordingly. It makes sense to them, they have confidently assigned 'absolute truth' labels to it, and spend a great portion of their finite human existence promoting it as such.

If you do not agree with their claims, and their incessant proclamations do not cause you any harm, then simply let it go and go find something you do agree with, something you value and judge\feel can be of value to other open minded individuals who are still searching for answers.

I think every individual has the right and freedom to fill their mindtanks with anything they like, and if doing so and sharing this data does not cause me any harm, i see no rational reason to argue, dispute or interfere with other's beliefs.

In answer to your question, it seems to me that non-duality has everything to do with spirituality, for those that believe it's the absolute truth.
 

[onehandclapping]

Mar 19, 2015 9:48:14 GMT -5 stardustpilgrim said:

I saw a program on Reelz on the making of Dances With Wolves last night. In the middle of the '80's a friend of Kevin Costner's, Michael Blake, was having trouble writing screen plays so Kevin told him, write a book, write a novel. Michael had been learning about Native Americans so that became the subject of his novel. Over a year later, Costner read the novel, Dances With Wolves. After reading just a few pages he decided he wanted to make a film from it. A screen play was written and Kevin put up $75,000 of his own money for preproduction. With no interest in Hollywood, Costner found a company that specialized in finding funding for out of the ordinary films like Chariots of Fire, they planned a $16,000,000 budget. With this help of Jim Wilson, Costner took the script to thirteen Studios, and all passed on it. They finally began having serious discussions with Warner Brothers. They were getting close to a deal, but Warner executives said no to the idea of 1/3 of the film being spoken in Lakota Sioux with English subtitles. Kevin wasn't happy with this so he said, Oh, by the way, also, I want approval of the final cut. Well, with that, the meeting was over. For Costner, the whole backbone of the film was the language barrier, and the struggle to overcome it. He said the whole film fell apart if it was all done in English. After this Jim Wilson devised a plan to get financing from foreign distributors obtaining $10,000,000. With this, they moved forward with production.

Costner talked with a few directors about directing the film, but their ideas didn't correspond to his, they just didn't get the vision, so Costner decided to direct the film himself, direct and play the lead roll. He decided this was the only way to keep his vision and Blake's story intact. He went for being as authentic as possible. $40,000 was spent building a fort which was only on screen for a few minutes. The costume designer had little designing to do, she found books, drawings and paintings of Native American dress of the period, and designed over 115 costumes from these. They found a 3,500 herd of buffalo is South Dakota, a necessary element. They also found enough Sioux Lakota to play extras in SD. They found a teacher who taught the Lakota Sioux language. They found an animal trainer who had 2 wolves, a necessary element. Filming just the wolf scenes took an additional ten days adding to the schedule, because you can't train wolves like you can dogs. They kept running into problems which Costner as producer and director had to make decisions on. He stuck with his vision although it cost money and time. The shooting schedule was 88 days, but it took 108 days to film. At a critical time Orion Pictures came on board with the other $6,000,000, as they had worked with Costner on two other films and trusted him.

Now, I had seen and loved the film in the theater, but seeing all the problems that had to be overcome made me appreciate the film even more. Costner had some very big acorns with decision after decision he had to make. The Lakota language teacher translated the Lakota dialogue into Lakota in phonetic English and made recordings of all the parts. None of the major Native American actors spoke Lakota, so the had to learn their parts in Lakota, and Costner demanded that they actually learn. They listened to the tapes over and over, learning their parts in Lakota. As some of these scenes were taking too long, Costner told the actors who were not learning their parts in Lakota, learn it or I'll fire you. This was enough incentive, and they learned their parts. That's just an example of one of the problems Costner faced in fulfilling his vision.

Towards the end they filmed the buffalo hunt. Native American stunt men were looked for throughout the country. These turned out to be NA rodeo cowboys. They filmed what had not been done in over 100 years, they actually rode in the middle of a 3,500 buffalo stampede, bareback, without hands on reins, firing guns and arrows.

The first cut of the film was 5 & 1/2 hours long. Jim Wilson told Costner he had to get it down to at least 3 hours. There was a lot of Hollywood hype about the film, was it going to be a fiasco? They decided to go with limited beginning release, only 14 theaters. This was very risky as this strategy really depended on reviews, if film critics didn't like it, the film was probably dead in the water. But the rest is history. Critics loved it. It is still the highest money making western film. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning seven including best picture, best director for Kevin Costner and Michael Blake winning for best screen play from his novel.

Cut to the chase: OK, what does any of this have to do with spirituality? It's about authenticity. I really don't get this, oh, this world is only a dream in non-separation. There aren't any separate individuals doing anything, everything that happens is merely the non-volitional movement in dream-world. When they started editing, they ran out of money again. So they sold all the horses and all the costumes and every little piece of the film they could sell. They scrapped up enough money to finish.

Why couldn't Source have made the universe just as authentic as Costner made his film? Time seems pretty real, we couldn't function without it. Space seems pretty real. Our body's seem pretty real, and we don't eat imaginary burgers. We have to put energy into the organism, or it runs out of fuel just like an automobile. I remember my 8th birthday when I got a Hopalong Cassidy watch. Physicists can show that the universe was formed some 13.7 billion years ago. Why wouldn't we assume that time and space and matter and energy and cause and effect are how the universe works, that if you step on a garden rake it can give you a bloody nose.

What's one of the most-real aspects of the universe? The second law of thermodynamics, entropy is always increasing in a closed system. Everything tends to disorder, energy becomes less useful for work. This is what gives time an arrow, from past to future. But where is entropy decreasing? In life. Life orders these little pockets were we find life. Instead of life disintegrating like other stuff, life reproduces itself. And life effects its surroundings. Intelligent life builds skyscrapers and bridges and rocket ships to the moon. Life makes films that replicates the life and times of history. Is there only Oneness and illusory/dreamy appearances in Oneness? I think Oneness can do better than just dream up stuff. I think Oneness makes life which overcomes obstacles. Creativity making creativity being creativity doing and being stuff that not now is. That seems a better world that Source 'doing everything', dreaming everything. I think Source can do better than just make a "film", Source can make the thing real.

5 1/2 hours?!?!! Dang it! I want to see that version of the film. Did it say if he would ever release a directors cut?

[stardustpilgrim]

Mar 23, 2015 1:48:18 GMT -5 onehandclapping said:

Mar 19, 2015 9:48:14 GMT -5 stardustpilgrim said:

I saw a program on Reelz on the making of Dances With Wolves last night. In the middle of the '80's a friend of Kevin Costner's, Michael Blake, was having trouble writing screen plays so Kevin told him, write a book, write a novel. Michael had been learning about Native Americans so that became the subject of his novel. Over a year later, Costner read the novel, Dances With Wolves. After reading just a few pages he decided he wanted to make a film from it. A screen play was written and Kevin put up $75,000 of his own money for preproduction. With no interest in Hollywood, Costner found a company that specialized in finding funding for out of the ordinary films like Chariots of Fire, they planned a $16,000,000 budget. With this help of Jim Wilson, Costner took the script to thirteen Studios, and all passed on it. They finally began having serious discussions with Warner Brothers. They were getting close to a deal, but Warner executives said no to the idea of 1/3 of the film being spoken in Lakota Sioux with English subtitles. Kevin wasn't happy with this so he said, Oh, by the way, also, I want approval of the final cut. Well, with that, the meeting was over. For Costner, the whole backbone of the film was the language barrier, and the struggle to overcome it. He said the whole film fell apart if it was all done in English. After this Jim Wilson devised a plan to get financing from foreign distributors obtaining $10,000,000. With this, they moved forward with production.

Costner talked with a few directors about directing the film, but their ideas didn't correspond to his, they just didn't get the vision, so Costner decided to direct the film himself, direct and play the lead roll. He decided this was the only way to keep his vision and Blake's story intact. He went for being as authentic as possible. $40,000 was spent building a fort which was only on screen for a few minutes. The costume designer had little designing to do, she found books, drawings and paintings of Native American dress of the period, and designed over 115 costumes from these. They found a 3,500 herd of buffalo is South Dakota, a necessary element. They also found enough Sioux Lakota to play extras in SD. They found a teacher who taught the Lakota Sioux language. They found an animal trainer who had 2 wolves, a necessary element. Filming just the wolf scenes took an additional ten days adding to the schedule, because you can't train wolves like you can dogs. They kept running into problems which Costner as producer and director had to make decisions on. He stuck with his vision although it cost money and time. The shooting schedule was 88 days, but it took 108 days to film. At a critical time Orion Pictures came on board with the other $6,000,000, as they had worked with Costner on two other films and trusted him.

Now, I had seen and loved the film in the theater, but seeing all the problems that had to be overcome made me appreciate the film even more. Costner had some very big acorns with decision after decision he had to make. The Lakota language teacher translated the Lakota dialogue into Lakota in phonetic English and made recordings of all the parts. None of the major Native American actors spoke Lakota, so the had to learn their parts in Lakota, and Costner demanded that they actually learn. They listened to the tapes over and over, learning their parts in Lakota. As some of these scenes were taking too long, Costner told the actors who were not learning their parts in Lakota, learn it or I'll fire you. This was enough incentive, and they learned their parts. That's just an example of one of the problems Costner faced in fulfilling his vision.

Towards the end they filmed the buffalo hunt. Native American stunt men were looked for throughout the country. These turned out to be NA rodeo cowboys. They filmed what had not been done in over 100 years, they actually rode in the middle of a 3,500 buffalo stampede, bareback, without hands on reins, firing guns and arrows.

The first cut of the film was 5 & 1/2 hours long. Jim Wilson told Costner he had to get it down to at least 3 hours. There was a lot of Hollywood hype about the film, was it going to be a fiasco? They decided to go with limited beginning release, only 14 theaters. This was very risky as this strategy really depended on reviews, if film critics didn't like it, the film was probably dead in the water. But the rest is history. Critics loved it. It is still the highest money making western film. It was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning seven including best picture, best director for Kevin Costner and Michael Blake winning for best screen play from his novel.

Cut to the chase: OK, what does any of this have to do with spirituality? It's about authenticity. I really don't get this, oh, this world is only a dream in non-separation. There aren't any separate individuals doing anything, everything that happens is merely the non-volitional movement in dream-world. When they started editing, they ran out of money again. So they sold all the horses and all the costumes and every little piece of the film they could sell. They scrapped up enough money to finish.

Why couldn't Source have made the universe just as authentic as Costner made his film? Time seems pretty real, we couldn't function without it. Space seems pretty real. Our body's seem pretty real, and we don't eat imaginary burgers. We have to put energy into the organism, or it runs out of fuel just like an automobile. I remember my 8th birthday when I got a Hopalong Cassidy watch. Physicists can show that the universe was formed some 13.7 billion years ago. Why wouldn't we assume that time and space and matter and energy and cause and effect are how the universe works, that if you step on a garden rake it can give you a bloody nose.

What's one of the most-real aspects of the universe? The second law of thermodynamics, entropy is always increasing in a closed system. Everything tends to disorder, energy becomes less useful for work. This is what gives time an arrow, from past to future. But where is entropy decreasing? In life. Life orders these little pockets were we find life. Instead of life disintegrating like other stuff, life reproduces itself. And life effects its surroundings. Intelligent life builds skyscrapers and bridges and rocket ships to the moon. Life makes films that replicates the life and times of history. Is there only Oneness and illusory/dreamy appearances in Oneness? I think Oneness can do better than just dream up stuff. I think Oneness makes life which overcomes obstacles. Creativity making creativity being creativity doing and being stuff that not now is. That seems a better world that Source 'doing everything', dreaming everything. I think Source can do better than just make a "film", Source can make the thing real.

5 1/2 hours?!?!! Dang it! I want to see that version of the film. Did it say if he would ever release a directors cut?

I missed the first ten minutes, but nothing was said about releasing the 5 & 1/2 hour version. Yea, I could watch that. I thought it was going to be an hour program, but near the end of the hour I saw it wasn't going to wrap up everything. It was two hours long, I watched the rest.