Analysis Of The Film Dances With Wolves

Dances with Wolves’ sense of identity is entirely with the Lakota Sioux when he is captured by the U.S. Army, his original people, and is beaten, yet Dances with Wolves refuses to cooperate with them, “I am Dances with Wolves, and I have nothing to say to you. You are not worth talking to.” Dances with Wolves sense of identity is closely related to his mindset.

"My People the Sioux" is a good literary work written in 1928. This book leaves an everlasting impression with some because it definitely intensifies the sympathy for the Indians. Luther Standing Bear, also known as Plenty Kill, portrays the dramatic and traumatic changes about the Sioux throughout their traditional way of life. As a young boy growing up, he experienced many of these hardships first hand between his people and the whites. This autobiography is quite valuable as it helps allow us to envision what really happened in the battling times of the Indians. Luther stated this quote, which to me, is unforgettable and very well said. It reads:

The Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a Visual text about a 13-year-old boy named Ricky. Ricky changes and develops in the bush and at his new home throughout the whole story. He had never had a real family; he'd been thrust aside, from home to home, getting pushed to the side and abandoned. He never knew what it was like to have a real family who loved him. Since he never felt loved it caused him to retaliate and do many bad things.

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.

Everyone has a preconceived opinion of how a certain ethnic group is in terms of the way they live, the morals they hold, the way they deal with people different from them, and how they deal with one another. We come to these conclusions by what we have seen in the media, heard from other people, or actually experienced ourselves. Most people would consider these opinions to be stereotypes. Dances with Wolves is a motion picture that deals with and touches on all sides of personal stereotypes we as American and American Indians have about each other. John Dunbar takes us through and allows us to see how it is to come into a situation he was not familiar with and then eventually the

This movie was pleasantly surprising. It was an enjoyable watch and told a story that kept the plot line and details close to the real history of the Sioux Indians’ lives, starting with The Battle at Little Big Horn.

Book by James Lapine was a great story overall. I truly enjoyed watching the show especially when the Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim played perfectly during the show. Director Eve Himmelheber was able to put out a such an amazing show. I really enjoyed watching Into The Woods because it was colorful, every character was really great with their role, and so much more. I could not be more amazed of how beautiful the production came out. Musical Director Mitchell Hanlon was really great with every musical that played throughout the show. He was always in time of making the sound when a character would kick the floor or any action that was necessary during the play. Scenic Designer Mauri Anne Smith and Ashley Strain created such an amazing setting for the production. The scene looked very realistic, which is really great because it gave me a different feel of the show. Costume Designer Michelle Kincaid created such beautiful costumes for every single character. Whether the costumes were bought, hand made, or both it still came out pretty good. The costume definitely matched the theme of having several characters from different show. Lighting Designer Ben Hawkins made the interior and

In Dances with Wolves and The Searchers the viewer was able to see many of the Indians values and how they differ from the ones of the white men. In both films the Indians were vibrantly painted with symbols on their body and horses .They also wore feathered hats and beaded jewelry. The Indians were very spiritual in Dances with Wolves. They held many ceremonies with lots of dancing and music.

Most of the men of the tribe sent out one day trying to make peace with another tribe. Dances with Wolves was assigned to watch the chief’s family. While the men were gone, the tribe was attacked me other Indian’s. Dances with wolves provided rifles to the Indians who were there and they defeated the other Indians.

Throughout world history, it is evident that Native Americans have struggled in society ever since the landing of Christopher Columbus in North America. Ever since the film industry began in the 1890s, Native Americans have been depicted in many negative ways by film makers. One particular way film makers degrade Native Americans by making their white characters convert into Indians or “go Native” and eventually they always become better than the original Indians in the film. This notion has been repeated in many films, three significant films were it is evident is in The Searchers, Little Big Man, and Dances with Wolves.

Filmmakers showed what they felt had already been conventional to their beliefs about Native Americans. In the film The Last of the Mohicans (1920) these two contrasting roles of Native Americans dominate most of the plot. The fiend is Magua, and the “noble” savage is Uncas. These two roles that are shown of Native Americans have some historical ground, but what makes one side good and the other bad? Is it because that is how society wants to see them? And does the director’s representation of the two sides gain them acceptance in American culture? In the history of America, Native American tribes often became associated with similar tribes with similar beliefs. This is true of the two tribes in The Last of the Mohicans. The Huron, who according to the historical events of Fort William Henry are the Iroquois and the Mohicans are historically associated with the Delaware. The Huron in the various versions of The Last of the Mohicans, come to represent the Iroquois who were allied with the French, and were seen as evil in the eyes of the British. The Mohicans, historically come to represent the noble Delaware, who were allied to the British. These tribes get grouped together, the “Huron [became] condensed into the same entity as Maquas, Mingoes and Mohawks and contrasted with the superior virtue of the Delawares and Mohicans” (Clark 122). These tribes were constantly intermixed

Unfortunately, the Sioux population misconstrued Wovoka’s teachings and adapted them to their own personal needs. When the Sioux adopted the Ghost Dance, they turned it from a religious ceremony into a violent act. When Wovoka had preached to be passive and patient for God’s intervention, the Sioux thought this meant to rid their land of the white population (Malinowski 467). For example, the militant leaders Short Bull and Kicking Bear attended the Ghost Dance and went home with the interpretation they should proactively rid the continent of whites through any means necessary (Malinowski 467). The Sioux had always been recognized as warlike, but now with the Ghost Dance, they were viewed as “half-crazed ‘savages’” who set out to be “demonic killers” (Moses 342). With this misunderstanding, the Ghost Dance received a bad reputation. If the Sioux did any killing in the name of the Ghost Dance, all tribes associated with the religion were also seen in a negative way.

Dance of the Tiger is a “paleo fictional” novel written by Björn Kurtén in 1955. Dance of the Tiger is set in Scandinavia approximately thirty-five hundred years ago during a thaw Ice Age. The story follows the lives of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons referred to as whites and blacks. The Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals lived around the same time but yet we share more DNA with Cro-Magnons. The primary objective of the story is to determine what happened to the Neanderthals which Kurten does explain using the story of Tiger, a Cro-Magnon. The story splits into three parts: Veyde, Shelk, and Tiger.

Typically referred to as ‘Indians’ in popular culture, Native Americans were traditionally seen in Westerns as the antagonists. The Western genre typically tells the story of the colonisation and discovery of America, which saw the major Hollywood studios revive the interest in the Western. Westerns draw on “historical actuality, a romantic philosophy of nature, and the concept of the […] savage” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3). Westerns often split the “depiction of the Indian, with the cruel and treacherous [Indian] balanced by the faithful [Indian]” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3) which resulted in the portrayals of Native Americans witnessed in films today.

"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.