Dances with WolvesSometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself. Dances with Wolves is a Western film about an erstwhile Civil War lieutenant, John Dunbar (Kevin Costner), who encounters the Native Americans of the Sioux Nation during his lonely posting at a remote station on the edge of the American frontier. Slowly but surely, Dunbar becomes accepted into the Sioux clan, befriending them and learning their language, courtesy of another "white" who was taken in years before, a woman who now goes by "Stands With A Fist" (Mary McDonnell). Dunbar supports the clan, and is later honored with his own Sioux identity, "Dances with Wolves". But his true test comes when he is forced into a conflict with his former life as it threatens his new life.
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Dances with Wolves is, for the most part, a movie about communication. For a significant portion of the three hour movie, Dunbar is rarely able to express himself as he needs to, but he makes constant strides to overcome this obstacle. At the start of Dances with Wolves, Dunbar is being prepped for amputation due to a leg wound he received in a battle during the Civil War. Determined not to spend the rest of his life trying to cope with being maimed by uneducated field surgeons, he throws himself headlong into a suicidal rush on the Confederate forces--a act which ironically earns him both proper medical attention for his valor as well as the right to choose his own post. His choice is the frontier, one which is misunderstood by a deranged major who sends him on a "knight's errand" to man the post at "Fort Sedgewick", which is little more than a mud hut further west than any United States settlement. Dunbar frequently catches sight of a haggard-looking wolf--who he dubs "Two-Socks", for his white paws--who he eventually tries to befriend, although he struggles to earn the wolf's trust. Dunbar's greatest difficulty in communication comes from his encounters with the Sioux. When the "holy man" named Kicking Bird (Graham Greene) approaches the fort--seeing that it is now occupied again--Dunbar comically scares him off by racing toward him buck naked, although they later get to know one another on more reasonable terms. A hot-headed Sioux called "Wind In His Hair" (Rodney A. Grant) initially dismisses Dunbar as "just another dumb white man not worth their time"; Kicking Bird politely disagrees, sensing that Dunbar is different, someone with goodness in his heart. After Dunbar discovers the distraught Stands With A Fist isolated on the prairie after her own botched suicide attempt, Dunbar graciously returns her to the Sioux, an act which prompts Kicking Bird to visit Fort Sedgewick with Wind In His Hair as envoys. Both Dunbar and Kicking Bird are anxious to get to know their neighbors, but the language barrier makes any meaningful conversation difficult. Still in mourning for her late husband--also a Sioux--Stands With A Fist begrudgingly returns to speaking the "white words" on behalf of Kicking Bird, providing a crucial link in uniting these two different cultures. Stands With A Fist also begins to teach Dunbar--now "Dances with Wolves"--the Lakota language, after he has proven himself time and again as an ally to the Sioux, and the two fall in love. The real key to Dances with Wolves' adoption of Lakota is rooted in his willingness to listen, to understand the often misunderstood Native Americans. While Dunbar is an educated man, it is clear that even among his original people, this is not a universal trait, nor is his sympathy for other cultures. The military he was once a part of is portrayed as vicious and cruel, eager to engage in brutality and violence with little to no provocation. Dunbar becomes painfully aware of this when he returns to Fort Sedgewick, and is set upon by his former comrades-in-arms, savagely beaten not so much for abandoning his post, but for "turning 'Injun'". Virtually all of Dances with Wolves takes place on the frontier, where civilization as we know it is nonexistent except in faint points of light in the vast darkness.
Dunbar observes the way of life of the Sioux, and documents his observations in a journal, a testimony of his adventure into unknown territory. Unlike his American military counterparts, he strives to reduce his intrinsically invasive presence, but is aware that he is viewed with suspicion by the Sioux. Although Fort Sedgewick is in poor shape from the start, his efforts to tidy up his new base of operations is more akin to turning the fort into a home, rather than just a bunker. (He does, however, prepare for the worst upon first witnessing Kicking Bird freely investigating his home.) Dunbar struggles at times with understanding the ways of the Sioux, even after being inducted as a "celebrity" in their community, after alerting them to the presence of buffalo near their camp. When Dunbar and Wind In His Hair trade uniforms with one another, Dunbar understands this to represent that they consider one another "brothers-in-arms". Conversely, Dunbar commits a near faux pas when he asks for his hat back from another Sioux after their hunt after it fell of of him, failing to see that in the world of the Sioux, possessions do not mean the same thing as it does in the world from where Dunbar came. He does understand, however, the grave injustice perpetrated against the buffalo they come across on the prairie, left to rot in the fields after only their "skins and their tongues" were taken by disinterested poachers, letting the rest of the animal to go to waste in such a disrespectful way. Dunbar observes that the Sioux appear to live "in harmony" with their environment, and in turn live harmonious lives--with nature and with themselves. At tribal meetings, no one asserts or commands another, but each offers their opinions in a neutral, rational way--actually listening to one another. (Tell me when you last heard about a political forum that was actually like that?) Contrast this with Dunbar's former life back in the United States, where men like the major who sent him to Fort Sedgewick were so wretched in the "civilized world", that it drove him insane, and the idea of the Sioux way of life doesn't seem so hard to appreciate. Dunbar's affection for the Sioux becomes so great that when he hears that they are to be set upon by the bloodthirsty Pawnee tribe, he brings the armaments from his own base--intended for the Army--and gives them to the Sioux so that they may drive back their enemy. (The Pawnee are depicted as the kind of "Indian" who are what his old world perceived as the terrifying figures lurking on the prairie, scalping and making pincushions out of white men with their arrows.) What Dunbar/Dances with Wolves comes to discover through his odyssey from one world into the next is that nations and peoples are fluid; just as there are the cruel Pawnee, there are also the cruel American soldiers who replace him at Fort Sedgewick. But for the good-hearted people like John Dunbar/Dances with Wolves, there are people like him to be found in the Sioux.
Recommended for: Fans of a majestic Western, with vast vistas of rolling hills and untamed prairies. Dances with Wolves is a story with the message of understanding at its core, and how overlooking superficial qualities like language and skin color can open many doors and lead to discovering one's true calling.
Dunbar observes the way of life of the Sioux, and documents his observations in a journal, a testimony of his adventure into unknown territory. Unlike his American military counterparts, he strives to reduce his intrinsically invasive presence, but is aware that he is viewed with suspicion by the Sioux. Although Fort Sedgewick is in poor shape from the start, his efforts to tidy up his new base of operations is more akin to turning the fort into a home, rather than just a bunker. (He does, however, prepare for the worst upon first witnessing Kicking Bird freely investigating his home.) Dunbar struggles at times with understanding the ways of the Sioux, even after being inducted as a "celebrity" in their community, after alerting them to the presence of buffalo near their camp. When Dunbar and Wind In His Hair trade uniforms with one another, Dunbar understands this to represent that they consider one another "brothers-in-arms". Conversely, Dunbar commits a near faux pas when he asks for his hat back from another Sioux after their hunt after it fell of of him, failing to see that in the world of the Sioux, possessions do not mean the same thing as it does in the world from where Dunbar came. He does understand, however, the grave injustice perpetrated against the buffalo they come across on the prairie, left to rot in the fields after only their "skins and their tongues" were taken by disinterested poachers, letting the rest of the animal to go to waste in such a disrespectful way. Dunbar observes that the Sioux appear to live "in harmony" with their environment, and in turn live harmonious lives--with nature and with themselves. At tribal meetings, no one asserts or commands another, but each offers their opinions in a neutral, rational way--actually listening to one another. (Tell me when you last heard about a political forum that was actually like that?) Contrast this with Dunbar's former life back in the United States, where men like the major who sent him to Fort Sedgewick were so wretched in the "civilized world", that it drove him insane, and the idea of the Sioux way of life doesn't seem so hard to appreciate. Dunbar's affection for the Sioux becomes so great that when he hears that they are to be set upon by the bloodthirsty Pawnee tribe, he brings the armaments from his own base--intended for the Army--and gives them to the Sioux so that they may drive back their enemy. (The Pawnee are depicted as the kind of "Indian" who are what his old world perceived as the terrifying figures lurking on the prairie, scalping and making pincushions out of white men with their arrows.) What Dunbar/Dances with Wolves comes to discover through his odyssey from one world into the next is that nations and peoples are fluid; just as there are the cruel Pawnee, there are also the cruel American soldiers who replace him at Fort Sedgewick. But for the good-hearted people like John Dunbar/Dances with Wolves, there are people like him to be found in the Sioux.
Recommended for: Fans of a majestic Western, with vast vistas of rolling hills and untamed prairies. Dances with Wolves is a story with the message of understanding at its core, and how overlooking superficial qualities like language and skin color can open many doors and lead to discovering one's true calling.