Dances with Wolves is now regarded by many cinema critics as one of the best works by Kevin Costner. The film not only provides deep insights into the life of the United States during the Civil War, but it also explores the relations between different cultures in this country. The director tries to dispel some myths about Native Americans and their lives. The basic theme explored in this movie is the differences, which exist between various ethnic groups, especially in their attitude towards life and nature. Dances with Wolves is an epic Western film conveyed with a standard framing device in chronological fashion. Throughout its slow narrative pace, the script follows the adventures of the key protagonist Lt. John J. Dunbar (Kevin Kostner), a soldier in the Union Army who befriends a Sioux tribe and is adopted by them. It’s a lengthy film with various lines of …show more content…
So, even after Lt. Dunbar eventually settles down in his new nomadic existence with his wife, who had been adopted by the tribe at a young age, it constantly occurs to him that Federal troops are bound to come and slaughter the Indians one day, and so he must eventually leave their hospitality. Additionally, some Sioux members resent the presence of a White man among them. When Kicking Bird asks him, “how many White men are approaching” he replies, “Like the Stars”. It makes me afraid of the Sioux.” (Blake 45). The main message, which this film aims to convey, is that it is time to bridge this chasm that still exists between the two ethnic groups. The most eloquent example, which can substantiate this standpoint, is the relationship between John J. Dunbar and the Sioux tribe. At the very beginning, they are hardly able to speak with each other, yet as the story progresses, the protagonist and Native Americans become close
The movie Dances with Wolves was a real good movie and I enjoyed watching it. It showed how life was back in the time of the Civil War. The movie also showed how Indians lived and how they respect everything except the white men.
This film starts out with a wounded Civil War Veteran at war, named John Dunbar, who shows characteristics of loyalty, honor, courage, fearlessness, and strong will. After healing from his wounds, a general, who had clearly lost his mind, sent him further in the West to make post. On his way there, he and the carriage man Timmons, saw unsightly and brutally body remains, that only Native Americans left behind after their slaughter. After reaching his station, everything started out normally with him making preparations for when the other Civil War Veterans would arrive; but, things changed after his first encounter with a Native American who paid Dunbar's fort a visit.
In the film Dances with Wolves, the settlers view the Indians as primitive and uncivilized creatures. Dunbar, played by Kevin Costner, needs a change of pace so he decides to go to the "furthest outpost." Upon arriving at his post, he gradually realizes that the Indians are just as scared of him as he is of them. Soon Dunbar identifies with their way of life and in the end has to choose to live either as a settler or as an Indian.
In this essay I will be doing a brief overview of the book Lame Deer Seeker of Visions, by Richard Erdoes. Within this book a monumental task has been achieved, which turns out to provide unparalleled information and a concrete depiction of the Native American Indian. This aspect has been portrayed through the eyes of a Sioux medicine man throughout the book and to many individual’s dismay, paints an accurate picture of both events that occurred and how Native American Indians were being treated at the time. Capturing the true essence of hours of in depth interviews, which have both been written out in detail and videotaped, years of friendship between Richard and Lame Deer, we are able to read upon a magnificent
John Smith, the troubled Indian adopted by whites appears at first to be the main character, but in some respects he is what Alfred Hitchcock called a McGuffin. The story is built around him, but he is not truly the main character and he is not the heart of the story. His struggle, while pointing out one aspect of the American Indian experience, is not the central point. John Smith’s experiences as an Indian adopted by whites have left him too addled and sad, from the first moment to the last, to serve as the story’s true focus.
Hollywood has helped create and perpetuate many different stereotypical images of the different races in the world. Those stereotypes still continue to affect the way we think about each other today and many of those stereotypes have been proven to be historically inaccurate. The movie Dances With Wolves, directed by actor Kevin Costner, does an excellent job in attempting to promote a greater acceptance, understanding, and sympathy towards Native American culture, instead of supporting the typical stereotype of Native Americans being nothing but brutal, blood thirsty savages.
In the novel When the Legends Die and in the film Dances with Wolves symbolism is very important. Throughout both of them the used symbols are very similar but have very different meanings. In the movie, Dances with Wolves the wolf, Two Socks, and the horse, Cisco, are animal symbols, like the bear in When the Legends Die.
In Kevin Costner's motion picture Dances With Wolves, a white veteran of the Civil War, John Dunbar, ventures to the American frontier, where he encounters a tribe of Sioux Indians. At first, both parties are quite wary and almost hostile to each other, but after some time, Dunbar realizes that they have both grown to love and value each other as friends. As the movie critic Robert Ebert comments, "Dunbar possesses the one quality he needs to cut through the entrenched racism of his time: He is able to look another man in the eye, and see the man, rather than his attitudes about the man. As Dunbar discovers the culture of the Sioux, so do we. " As the viewpoint of the hero gradually shifts throughout the film, it is also paralleled by the similarly shifting perception of the audience- from one of initial, stereotypical fear to a much more positive one, of respect and sympathy. This overall effect on the viewer is accomplished through the skillful use of several techniques in the film, as well as through the use of some memorable scenes, as portrayed through Dunbar's eyes.
The film, Dances with Wolves, staring Kevin Costner gives a historically accurate presentation of the Sioux Indians and their way of life. In this production, Lieutenant John Dunbar, played by Costner, is rewarded for his heroic actions in the Civil War by being offered an opportunity to see the American frontier before it is gone. Dunbar is assigned to an abandoned fort where his only friends are a lone wolf and his beloved horse, Cisco. After several weeks of waiting for more American troops, a Sioux Indian makes contact with Dunbar and reports this finding to his chief. This incident sets off a train of events that would forever change John Dunbar and the Sioux tribe he encounters.
The movie starts by showing the Indians as “bad” when Johnson finds a note of another mountain man who has “savagely” been killed by the Indians. This view changes as the movie points out tribes instead of Indians as just one group. Some of the tribes are shown dangerous and not to be messed with while others are friendly, still each tribe treats Johnson as “outsider.” Indians are not portrayed as greater than “...
After struggling for five years to recover his niece, who is now a young woman, she is rescued by his own hands. Likewise, Dances with Wolves is a Western film directed and starring Kevin Costner. It is also situated during the American Civil War and tells the story of a soldier named John Dunbar that after a suicide attempt he involuntarily leads Union troops to a triumph. Then, by his request, he is sent to a remote outpost in the Indian frontier “before it’s gone”. There, the contact with the natives is eminent and thus it shows how through those contacts this soldier is transformed into another Indian that belongs to the Sioux tribe and who is now called Dances With Wolves.
The story chronicles situations that illustrate the common stereotypes about Natives. Through Jackson’s humble personality, the reader can grasp his true feelings towards White people, which is based off of the oppression of Native Americans. I need to win it back myself” (14). Jackson also mentions to the cop, “I’m on a mission here. I want to be a hero” (24).
The film Dances With Wolves, attempts to change our stereotypical view of Native Americans, as savage and uncivilized people, by allowing us to see life from their perspective, helping us to realize that many of their experiences are not all that different from our own. The main setting of the film is the Great Western Plains of North Dakota. John Dunbar comes to discover the west before it is completely destroyed through settlement and what he actually finds is a group of people that he comes to understand and love, for all of the qualities that he finds within their individual lives. The Sioux soon become a part of John Dunbar's experience not only in the west, but in his life as well. Through his eyes, the viewers begin to see that these Native Americans are not what they are expected to be, but instead are civilized and are companions that can have strong relationships.
The Ghost Dance was a very important custom performed by many Indians during the 1880’s through the 1890’s. During the 1890’s, the Indian civilization started to die. The Ghost Dance was a dance that tried to bring back the dead and bring back the ways of the Indians. During those times the Indians were having a hard time dealing with all of the white men. The white men were trying to push the Indians out of their land. In these times, the white man had basic control over the reservation. That meant that the white man had control of the supplies and food that the Indians received. The white man did not take good care of the Indians, as partrayed in the movie Thunderheart. During the movie Thunderheart the white man is sent in to find out about a murder of one of the Sioux tribe’s members. In the movie there is a revolt going on with a group called the ARM’s that are trying to save their Indian culture. Just like back in the old days. The white man in the movie treats all of the Indians like they are dirt. The Indians turn out to be very smart people who have many talents. During the movie the main character, Ray Levoi starts to have visions and see many Indians doing the ghost dance. The main character is part Indian, but he does not believe that the Indians are his people. During the 1880’s, that is when Wovoka had the vision of the Ghost Dance. Ever since that day he tried to get as many people as he could to join him to fight the white man. The ghost dance plays a major part in the movie Thunderheart and also plays a major role in the lives of the Indians.
“Dances with Wolves” is a movie that seeks to deliver a message of the need for cultural diversity. The story follows the main character Lt. John James Dunbar, played by Kevin Costner, from the battlefields of the Civil War to the barely touched western frontiers that house the Sioux people. Once Dunbar arrives at his post, Ft. Sedgewick, he sets out to find his place in his new home. However, due to two plot moving events, the suicide of the officer who dispatched Dunbar to Fort Sedgewick and the murder of the coach driver who took him there, no one else is alive that holds knowledge of Dunbar’s placement.