Dances With Wolves is one of the saddest films I've seen in recent years. Th ending is as melancholy as the ending from Gone With the Wind. I was asking myself at the end of the film; why did he have to leave the Sioux camp? Couldn't he have stayed? I guess not. After all that was said and done Dances With Wolves had to leave the camp and go his own way. If not he might have caused undo harm to the tribe. Still, I asked myself weren't they all screwed in the end? Couldn't they have known that the Union forces were too strong and that they would be defeated? I guess not. The film was made in 1990. It won several academy awards. It starred Kevin Costner who was also the director and co-producer. The film is a Western. It was the first serious film I watched as a kid.
The premise of the film centers around John Dunbar and his quest to find himself. Dunbar attempts to kill himself in the first twenty minutes of the film. Instead of seeing this as an act of cowardice, a Union General thinks it's bravery. In reward for his bravery Dunbar is given a horse and allowed to pick his post. He chooses to go out West to prairie country. There he befriends a Sioux tribe and becomes a member. In a final sequence he saves the tribe but is apprehended by Union soldiers and sentenced to be hanged. The Sioux tribe conducts a raid and frees Dunbar. In the final sequence he says he must go on his own way away from the tribe.
The acting was top notch. I really believed Costner's character. I thought he showed how a White man would behave in a similar situation. I thought his actions and words were genuine and his acting thoroughly believable. The other actors also came across as genuine. Wind in His Hair and Kicking Bird made me believe that they were plains Indians to the core. I never doubted for a minute that they were anything but real Indians able to speak the language and act the parts given to them.
Kevin Costner was the big star associated with Dance With Wolves. He turned in another great performance. After Untouchables and Field of Dreams, Dances With Wolves is another great performance for the ages that will last as examples of acting excellence in the 80's of American Cinema.
The film couldn't have been better with regards to film techniques. The editing, cinematography, everything was top notch. I couldn't get over the great shots of the plains. They were of overwhelming beauty. The canyons, the prairie, it made me want to visit there soon. Also top notch was the costumes. The Indian attire was totally believable. I felt like I was in that World. The Indian Village became alive with color and setting. So much so that I forgot about where I was and became immersed in the period decor of the film. The film was near perfect. The score was uplifting, the settings were unforgettable, everything was what an epic of The American West should be.
The film heralds a new kind of Western. It is particularly unique. It is a World away from The Searchers which demonizes Native Americans unfairly. The two films are similar in some technical ways. They both show the beauty and grandeur of the American West. The stories and characters of the two films are vastly different though. Dance With Wolves develops in its viewers an overwhelming sympathy for the plight of the American Indians. It is a thoroughly realist portrait of an experience of the American West totally unlike Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. It is perhaps familiar with Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Both are very realist portraits of experiences of The West. The only difference is that Dances With Wolves has a very recognizable opinion about Western Settlement. McCabe and Mrs. Miller is less subtle in it's expression of theme and conflict.
The message of the film comes across very clearly. With it's depictions of White settlers and soldiers as wasteful and brash there is no doubt that the Native American way of life, at least in some ways, is portrayed as better than how the Whites live. This develops a deep sympathy for the Native Americans who populate Dance With Wolves. It also upends decades of thought that White Settlement of The West was a good thing. It raises serious questions about how The West was won and how the Native American were treated. The film reveals its theme in even the most minute of details. It so ingrains its theme deep into the film that it becomes unquestionable that the Native American way of life was to be cherished and lamented at its passing.
Dances With Wolves is a revisionist film. It is much different from other films like The Searchers or other films that demonize the Native Americans unfairly. I remember back to Middle School Social Studies when we watched numerous movies about the Native American experience. In these films about Chief Joseph and others. a deep sympathy was created for the Native American experience. Dances With Wolves puts forth a new theme about Western Settlement. It destroys prejudice and breaks down barriers between Native American and Settler and only begins to ponder the amount of suffering that Native Americans endured while there lands were taken and their way of life was destroyed.
Dances With Wolves is a great film. It is different from other films from before the late 1960's when film started to change and themes were treated differently. I can only compare this film to The Searchers and how different it is from that film. In The Searchers the Native Americans are portrayed from a biased point of view. In Dances With Wolves the entire film shows how the Native Americans lived and survived without the help of the whites. The deep empathy which develops after repeated viewings of the film for Native Americans eliminates bias and prejudice and creates room for new narratives about The West. I would highly recommend this film to anyone with an interest in films about The American West.
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