Deserved Best Picture

Good movies that year. I too would have ranked Dances... and Goodfellas on top. Either one winning would have been ok with me.

I thought Goodfellas was better, though a little more crude.

Dances with Wolves had some gorgeous screenplay. But the plot, the story could not hold my interest. I felt the movie tried too hard to villainize the whites, going over the top with bad deeds (e.g. shooting the wolf). The truth is that there were many whites, like the major who was kind to Costner. But the movie seems to gloss over that side and wanted us to see the whites as bad and the Indians as good.

Goodfellas is a great movie but Dances with Wolves is epic.

DWW is what the best Picture Oscar is supposed to be.

In the last 20 years there are maybe 2 films worthy of best film. And I can only name one, Lord of the Rings.

Yeah it definitely deserved it.

It was way better than Goodfellas.

Both timeless classics. Both define their respective genres. All you can do really is just flip a coin.