The Life of All-American Actor Kevin Costner

One of the biggest sequences in Dances with Wolves was the climactic buffalo hunt, which needed to look sweeping, dangerous, and real. But Costner’s Tig Productions also wanted to avoid possible animal cruelty, so the production spent $250,000 on animatronic buffalo for the scene.

That choice showed how ambitious and complicated the film had become. It was not just a small Western with a star trying to direct; it was a massive production trying to balance spectacle, realism, and responsibility before audiences had any idea what was coming.