Dances With Wolves Analysis Essay -- Movies Native Americans History P

Dances With Wolves Analysis The movie "Dances With Wolves" was produced in 1990 and directed by Kevin Costner who starred as the main character. "Dances with Wolves" tells us the story of a white man who gets acquainted with the Sioux, who learns to love and respect them as valuable people with a culture and who discovers how wrong white people's preconceived ideas about Native Americans are. A sense of adventure and drama is the feeling "Dances with Wolves" gives us. With this movie, Costner made his debut as a film director. "Dances with Wolves" scored "a total of seven Oscars for best directing, best script, cutting, music and sound effects." (Sanders, Simon D.) A common scene in a medical tent during the Civil War could describe the opening scene of the movie: Two doctors are bending over a soldier, ready to amputate his badly injured leg. The doctors leave the tent for a break just before the amputation. Soldier Dunbar uses this moment to pull back on his boot and stumbles out of the tent. He doesn't see a purpose in his life and wants rather death than a life with one leg. He gets on his horse and attempts suicide by riding across the enemy line. Surprisingly, the enemies are unable to shoot him, and his own solders are starring at him with disbelieve. They do respect him for his crazy, yet brave act. Dunbar's people take advantage of the moment of distraction and storm the enemies line, making a victory. Dunbar receives outstanding medical treatment and gets to keep his leg. As a decorated veteran, he chooses to take a post in the west because he wants to see the frontier before its gone. Dunbar is fascinated about the wide, open spaced no mans land: "The country is everything I dreamed it would be." ... ...it [the Indian Removal] was supposed to be voluntary, removal became mandatory whenever the federal government felt it necessary. The memory of these brutal forced marches of Native Americans, sometimes in the dead winter, remained vivid for years to come in the minds of those who survived. Paherman indicates that the Plains Indians Wars, "which raged during the last half of the 19th century, ended with the slaughter of Sioux men, women, and children, as well as the soldiers of the U.S. 7th Calvary, at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890." Works Cited: Costner, Kevin, dir. Dances with Wolves. Per. Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, and Rodney A.Grant. 1990. Videocassette. Orion, 1991. Paherman. "Indian Removal." "n.d." 17 August 2001. Sanders, Simon D. We are fans of Kevin Costner. Biography. February 2001. 17 August 2001.