Dances with Wolves goofs

Overhead electrical power lines are visible during the buffalo hunt.

The banner flying over Fort Sedgwick is the fifty‑star flag, rather than the flag that would have flown during the Civil War.

In the film's final scenes, United States military personnel discover a camp that has just been vacated. Many of the soldiers are shown wearing overcoats with rank stripes and yellow lining. The action is set during the American Civil War (1861–1865), yet overcoats with coloured lining and rank stripes were not introduced until 1883.

The dove in the old fort is a Eurasian collared dove, a species that had not yet been recorded in North America at that time.

In 1863 General Tide is depicted wearing three stars, the insignia of a lieutenant-general. There were no lieutenant-generals in the United States Army at that time.

At the time in which this film is set (the US Civil War, 12 April 1861–9 May 1865) the site was not called Fort Sedgwick; it was known as "the Post at Julesburg Station". The post was not renamed Fort Sedgwick until 27 September 1865, several months after the war had ended, in honour of the late Major-General John Sedgwick.

As Dunbar pulls a dead deer from the pond at Fort Sedgwick, tyre tracks can be seen on the hillside in the background.

The apple lying beside Dunbar on the battlefield, following his return from the operation, belonged to a variety that had not yet been developed at that time.

A round tin kerosene can, shown in close-up for a few seconds while Dunbar prepares to set fire to rubbish left at the abandoned outpost, is clearly marked 'NPRY' for the Northern Pacific Railway — which did not lay its first track until roughly five years after Dunbar is meant to have arrived at the post (and that track was in a different state).

By the fireside, an elder is discernible with a modern-day collar tucked beneath his costume.

During the Pawnee raid on the Sioux camp, one Pawnee is seen wearing a Pattern 1883 cavalry greatcoat, notable for the cape's yellow lining. Greatcoats from the 1860s did not have a yellow lining.

Upon Dunbar's arrival at the settlement, workers are sawing rough planks from logs at a makeshift sawmill. No nearby woodland is visible, nor is there any apparent means of transporting such large timbers from a distant location.

Towards the end, when the winter camp is first shown, an elder tends a campfire; as he looks up the collar of his costume parts, revealing a long waffle-weave undershirt beneath.

During the buffalo-hunt sequence, one can notice fence posts streaking past.

In the sequences set at Fort Hays, the windmill that appears in several shots is anachronistically modern. The film is set in 1863; the windmill shown is a steel, self-lubricating design, a type that was not developed until after 1900.

Fort Hays (misspelt as "Fort Hayes") appears in the film. The film opens in 1863, but Fort Hays was not established until two years afterwards and did not receive its present name until the following year.

The film depicts European-American settlers hunting bison solely for their hides. That was not the reality in 1865; hunting for hides did not begin until 1871, and even then settlers still hunted bison for their meat as well.

Mary McDonnell's hairstyle was a contemporary 1980s look that would have required professional salon techniques — a hairdryer, the use of a hair iron, meticulous cutting and styling products. She stood apart from the Sioux women of the tribe, who all wore their hair in braids, as was customary.

The muskets issued during that period were rifled rather than the less accurate smoothbore arms of earlier decades. Even so, smoothbore muskets would have been capable of reasonable accuracy at those distances.

The song Kevin Costner sings while washing his clothes and taking a swim in the pond is "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?", which was first written in 1903.

Timmons and the others are shown wearing trousers with belt loops. Belt loops did not appear until 1922.

Lieut. Dunbar rides an entirely black 1872 McClellan saddle, whilst the standard-issue saddle at the time was the 1859 model, with a rawhide-covered tree and black rigging. One of the two saddles Costner used in filming was sold by Bonham's auction house in 2013.

A flock of Sandhill Cranes flies overhead, but the sound effect is actually that of Canadian Honkers.

At the start of the large buffalo hunt, one can plainly hear someone shout 'Here we go' as the camera remains trained on Dunbar. (This audio track is present on the European (four-hour) version.)

Upon hearing John Dunbar's name for the first time, Kicking Bird replies "Dumb Bear". This is implausible, since he cannot speak English and therefore could not make that phonetic association.

By the time Dunbar first arrives at the Sioux Camp, "Wind In His Hair" is already clad in the same army jacket that Dunbar gives him much later.

When Lieutenant Dunbar first meets Stands with a Fist as she mourns her deceased husband, the length of her hair varies between scenes.

A prominent dorsal stripe along Cisco the horse's back repeatedly vanishes and then reappears throughout.

Throughout much of the film, Lt. Dunbar wears yellow shoulder boards marking him as a cavalry officer on his army jacket. In the scenes immediately before the Sioux war party leaves the camp to attack the Pawnee, Lt. Dunbar exchanges this jacket with Wind In His Hair for a breastplate. In the next sequence, as the Sioux war party rides out to assault the Pawnee, Wind In His Hair is seen mounted in that same jacket, but its shoulder boards have turned blue — the colour associated with infantry officers.

As Dunbar sets off on his second ride across the Confederate lines, he is shown jabbing his horse with the heel of his booted right foot with seemingly no reaction — yet that is the injured foot on which he had to bite a piece of wood to endure the pain of pulling a boot on only a short while earlier.

The canteen attached to Cisco's saddle has come open and is leaking water immediately after the General speaks to Dunbar about keeping his foot.

While Sgt Bauer is fleeing the river skirmish he is carrying a Remington Model 1858 revolver, but when he meets Smiles A Lot on the riverbank and attempts to shoot him (the weapon misfires) he is using a Colt 1860 Army revolver.

The size of the piece of jerky Dunbar is presenting to the wolf. Alternatively, he might be holding it in a different manner.

The window in front of which Fambrough is standing opens and shuts a couple of times both before and after he takes his own life.

Once he has unloaded the wagon at the fort, Dunbar pauses briefly and looks down. A rag, or small piece of cloth, lies by his foot but is gone a moment later.

When Dunbar returns to the battlefield from the operating theatre, an apple is shown as having gone from half‑eaten to scarcely touched.

As Dunbar rides towards the Indian camp he carries a flag on a pole; the flag’s lower edge is roughly level with the top of his hat. Yet when Two Socks sees the flag pass over the crest of a hill it is being held considerably higher, so Dunbar's hat cannot be seen.

When Dunbar strikes his head on the door frame he sustains a wound at the centre of his forehead, 1.5 inches from his hairline. After he washes the wound, it has shifted upwards to 0.5 inches from his hairline.

After Dunbar and Stands With A Fist marry, they step into their tipi and shut the door, which is hinged on the right-hand side. A few "days" later, Kicking Bird summons Dunbar to come out and ride with him, but the door is now hinged on the left-hand side.

The stamped brass cavalry badge on Dunbar's service cap bears the numeral 2 (indicating the Second Cavalry) above the crossed sabres in certain scenes; the 2 intermittently appears and vanishes throughout the film.

When Dunbar first examines the two buildings that make up Fort Sedgewick, his facial stubble is very short. As he moves from one building to the next, however, his beard suddenly shows roughly three to four days' growth.

During the attack on Timmons by Native Americans, the number of arrows embedded in his chest/abdomen increases from three to four, even though he is not struck again.

A pickled egg stuck to the face of Dunbar's wagon driver.

When the first arrow strikes Timmons it hits him in the behind, even though he was seated when it struck, and only after he scrambles to his feet do the Pawnee appear cresting the ridge and riding towards him; therefore it would have been impossible for the Pawnee to have fired that first arrow at Timmons, much less hit him in the behind.

Two Socks grabs a sizeable chunk of jerky from John Dunbar and walks off with it clamped between his teeth, yet a few frames later that chunk has disappeared.

When Dunbar first brings the wounded Stands With Fist into the village, the time of day seems to shift between shots: for example, in frames where the camera faces the village it looks like afternoon — the light is overhead and the shadows are short — whereas in shots focused on Dunbar after the exchange the light indicates it is approaching sunset.

During the attack on Timmons, the Pawnee make a conspicuous display of cutting the mules loose from their traces. Yet when they ride off, they have only the horses they rode in on; the mules are nowhere to be seen.

When they set out on the buffalo hunt, the horses ridden by several characters, Dunbar among them, differ from shot to shot.

As Dunbar carries Stands With A Fist into the village unconscious, the camera's point of view from Dunbar's rear shows the sun shining on his left. When the shot cuts to Dunbar's front, the sun is shining from his right.

In the opening shot Dunbar is viewed from above as he lies on his back; his hair looks very fine and even shows signs of hair loss. For the remainder of the film his hair appears full and without any visible baldness.

One of the wolves is visible wearing a choke chain.

As the Sioux and John Dunbar are out on a buffalo hunt and come across slaughtered and/or skinned buffalo, a crew member is visible lying on the ground in the background, behind the Sioux as they ride past on horseback.

When Kicking Bird leads Dunbar to the "Sacred Place" (which, in "The Making of 'Dances With Wolves'", is identified as the Black Hills), Mount Moran (the Grand Tetons in Jackson Hole, Wyoming) dominates the right-hand side of the panorama.

Throughout the hunting scene the Lakota are repeatedly portrayed felling stampeding buffalo with single arrow shots. Bowhunting doesn't work like that. In reality, the hunters would often have to track the wounded animals for miles until they bled out.

The Sioux in the film react to the arrival of a white man as though he were from another planet. In reality, the Dakota Sioux had fought white settlers in western Minnesota in 1862: about 800 white settlers were killed and 38 Sioux were hanged after the hostilities ended. It is inconceivable that news of those events would not have reached the Lakota Sioux tribes immediately to their west.

When the three Lakota boys think they have taken Cisco from Dunbar, one of them shouts (as the subtitle renders it), "They'll write songs about us!" Both historically and today, Native Americans use the verb "make" rather than "write" when referring to songs.

Throughout much of the film, which covers an extended period, the Lakota camp remains in the same spot near Fort Sedgwick. In reality, apart from the winter months, Plains Indians were continually on the move, tracking game and seeking fresh grazing for their sizeable pony herds.

During the wagon journey across the prairie, Timmons tosses an empty tin can. Tin cans weren't commonly used in the United States in the early 1860s. Anything preserved at that time would most likely have been kept in a glass jar. Tin cans did not come into widespread use in the United States until about 1901.

Although the Lakota and the Pawnee were indeed mortal enemies, it was the Lakota who harassed the numerically inferior Pawnee. By the 1860s the Pawnee population had dwindled to about 4,000 owing to disease and warfare.

Kicking Bird inclines his head in agreement with Stands with Fist. However, head-nodding is not a traditional Native American way of communicating assent; instead, they would typically curve the index finger downwards and sweep the hand in a downward arc to indicate 'yes'.

The three birds seen flying overhead are commonly mistaken for geese, but in reality they are cranes.

When Dunbar regains consciousness after striking his head on the door lintel, blood is shown trickling down his eyebrows and nose. Yet, because he had been lying on his back the whole time, the blood should have flowed down the sides of his forehead instead.

Many of the arrows the Pawnee shoot at Timmons are bent, so from that range it would be impossible to hit him.

References to Fort "Hayes" (sic) are incorrect. This is Fort Hays, Kansas. It should be spelt "Fort Hays" (without the final "e"); it was named for Alexander Hays, who was killed at the "Battle of the Wilderness" in 1864.

When Kicking Bird addresses the others inside the tipi, several of them are shown shaking their heads to indicate 'no'. This, however, is not a Lakota form of communication; the Lakota traditionally signalled 'no' by turning the palm over.

Kevin Costner used the word 'celebrity' years before it entered common parlance.

After John Dunbar fires at the charging buffalo, it drops to the ground. He asks the young Indian "Are you all right?" and the buffalo twitches. He turns and fires two more shots with the lever-action without needing to reload.

Even after fully joining the tribe, Dunbar retains his 1980s shag hairstyle, remains clean-shaven and keeps neatly squared sideburns.

You can spot horseshoes glinting on an Indian's mount.

Ten Bears was a member of the Comanche people rather than of the Sioux.

Lieutenant John Dunbar is shown carrying a Colt 1851 Navy cap-and-ball revolver, yet he is a cavalry officer and would more appropriately be armed with an 1860 Army or an 1858 Remington. Moreover, in a close-up of the revolver the marking "Made in Italy" is clearly visible. In that same shot the weapon appears to be .44 calibre, whereas genuine Navy Colts of the period were .36 calibre — only Italian reproductions are produced in the .44 calibre.

The film is set during the Civil War in the early to mid-1860s, but a Red Delicious apple appearing in one scene was not discovered and cultivated until the 1870s.

Early on in the film, it took several arrows to kill the teamster who had dropped Lieutenant Dunbar off; yet later on, entire bison weighing roughly a tonne were brought down by a single arrow.

When Kicking Bird leads Lt. John Dunbar to the 'Sacred Place', it is there that Dunbar finally admits the 'White' people are on their way. Kicking Bird's answer is in English, "How many?" — a tongue not usually associated with his character. It shows Kicking Bird had learnt a little English through his friendship with Dunbar.

Members of the tribe do not make use of proverbs or set phrases, which typically serve to conserve knowledge and tradition within an oral, pre-literate culture.

After Wind In His Hair first confronts Dunbar and rides off, Cisco overtakes him as he runs back to the fort. Wind In His Hair becomes enraged and hurls his spear at Cisco. When he releases it, the spear spins sideways in a distinctly amateurish fashion and falls well short. A seasoned Lakota warrior would never make such a poor, clearly untrained throw.

When Lieutenant Dunbar is initially shown approaching Fort Hays and the voice-over begins, the canteen hanging from the right-hand side of his saddle sloshes and loses water as his horse gallops. Given that he's on the frontier and the distances between settlements are considerable, a leaking canteen could leave him dangerously short of water for prolonged periods.

After hearing a sound outside, Dunbar rushes to the door, strikes his head on the door frame and collapses unconscious. When he comes round, blood has run down his face rather than across his forehead.

After Dunbar finds Stands With A Fist some distance from her tribe, bleeding heavily after accidentally cutting her thigh too deeply during a widow's ritual, he places her on his horse and takes her back to her encampment. Upon arrival, as her people — who view him as an interloper — confront him, he unloads her from the horse. Wind In His Hairs steps forward to take her, grabbing her hand and dragging her unconscious body away from Dunbar. The problem is that, in a fleeting shot of the dragging, you can see Stands With A Fist clutching Wind In His Hair's hand as he pulls her along — something she would not be able to do given her unconscious state from blood loss.

After the Sioux rescue John Dunbar beside the stream, one of them walks past the dead Spivey, splashes water onto his face, and Spivey blinks.

Whilst Dunbar fires the 1860 Henry rifle, the cartridge indicator is positioned fully to the rear — signifying that it is empty — and remains there for the duration of the action sequence.

When Dunbar and Timmons set off for Fort Sedgewick, a second pair of reins is visible running back beneath the wagon seat. A curtain is also draped under the seat to conceal the actual driver; in later scenes that curtain is absent.

The outlines of the discs anchoring the prop arrows are visible beneath Timmons's shirt while he lies on his back following the attack.

As Lieutenant Dunbar rides west towards the frontier, he passes a troop of cavalry apparently heading east. Immediately afterwards, his canteen is visible flapping just behind his saddle on the left-hand side, continuing to swing so that water can be seen spilling from it. Some ten seconds later the canteen's lid is seen bouncing about on top of the canteen. That seems improbable at best, given that Lieutenant Dunbar is travelling alone with scarce provisions and little water.

When Lt Dunbar first spots an Indian and ducks for cover, a very tight close-up of his face reveals that the actor is wearing a false moustache.

During the buffalo hunt, one of the Native American horsemen throws his spear, but the physical spear disappears and is replaced by a chunky single-colour line drawn through the buffalo to give the impression it has been pierced.

When Dunbar regains consciousness on the ground after striking his head while rushing out of the shack during the night, the blood on his head is still wet — it ought to be dry.