Preview

Dances with Wolves

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1427 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dances with Wolves
10 October 2012

‘‘Dances With Wolves’’ film review

‘‘Dances With Wolves’’ is a 1990 western film directed, produced by, and starring Kevin Costner who plays the character of John J. Dunbar, a Civil War First Lieutenant on the Union side. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake . 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. Although there are many movies about Native Americans, this is far superior to all the others. It is certainly a very powerful and educational film which teaches, as well as entertains. The film is successful because it has a dramatic plot, fascinating main character, realistic language and setting.
The film tells the story of Lieutenant Dunbar, a United States Army Officer, and an
Indian tribe who eventually, after meeting, become friends. The story starts when
Dunbar goes to the American frontier to find a military post and while there, he soon finds out he is not alone. He meets a wolf he dubs ‘‘Two-socks’’ and a curious Indian tribe, the Sioux tribe. At first, the Indians do not accept him and want nothing to do with him because they do not respect or like white men. Having made contact with these people, Dunbar quickly becomes infatuated with their way of life and begins to adopt their culture, taking on the name Dances with Wolves. As time passes he falls in love with the beautiful ‘‘Stands With a Fist’’, a white

woman who was raised amongst the tribe. Dunbar’s ties to his old life are forever severed when he is allowed to marry her. However, his peaceful existence is threatened when Union soldiers capture him and tries him for treason. He is shipped east, as a prisoner of the army he once served. This triggers a Sioux attack. They ambush the army transport, kill the soldiers, and release Dunbar. He knows that his presence within the Sioux now translates to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of my favorite movies is Dances With Wolves. Dances With Wolves is a 1990 American epic western film directed and produced by Kevin Costner. Kevin Costner plays the star character, Lieutenant, John J. Dunbar. He is wounded in the American Civil War. He chose to try to commit suicide over having his foot amputated by taking a horse and riding it up to and along the confederate soldiers’ front lines. They failed to shoot him. The Union Army attacks the line while the confederate soldiers are distracted and the Union Army wins the battle. Dunbar survives and is allowed to recover properly, receives a citation for bravery, and is awarded Cisco, the horse who carried him, as well as his choice of posting. John Dunbar requests a transfer…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I would describe the character of John J. Dunbar as an extraordinarily committed man. John Dunbar was committed to staying at Fort Sedgwick although all of the other soldiers had abandoned the Fort in hopes of finding a better life. I would also consider John Dunbar a very committed man because when he invests himself into a relationship, he carries out all that he can to make that relationship flourish. He showed that commitment through his numerous relationships with Stands with a Fist, Cisco, Two Socks, and Kicking Bird. John J. Dunbar can also be described as a receptive individual because of the way he communicated with the Sioux Indians. When he first met the Sioux Indians he was very persistent on initiating their communication.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the Indians prepare for the white people to come for them they decide to pack up their camp and move. As he is packing he realizes he has left it at is post and goes back to grab it. When he goes back to grab the journal, it comes to find out there are Army troops there. Since he appears to be an Indian, they kill his horse and take him into captivity. When he is in captivity that they notice he is a white man pretending to be an Indian and beat him during interrogation. The Army officers decide to take Dunbar to Fort Hayes to have him killed. As they are on their way to execute him, Two Socks, his wolf, comes across and they shoot him. As they continue their trek, the people of the tribe that he was with come to his rescue. Although he was rescued by them he decides in the best interest of the tribe that he leave the tribe, as he will be hunted by the Army.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "John Smith, the protagonist of Sherman Alexie's novel Indian Killer, is a man caught between the white world and the Indian world, and at home in neither. He is a full-blooded Native American Indian, but was raised by whites, and knows little about his Indian roots. As a result of these circumstances, and the fact that he is a man who appears to be an Indian in a nation of prejudice against Indians, he is a man without…

    • 1305 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thomas King’s Borders, is a first person narrative designed to represent the continuing loss of identity experienced by the native population in contemporary North America. Borders tells the story of a native family living on a reservation located close to the Albertan-Montanan boarder in Western Canada. The protagonist of Borders is the unnamed mother of the family, who by refusing to properly state her nationality, is not allowed to cross the border with her young son. When asked to state her nationality by the border authorities, the mother answers “Blackfoot.” This confuses the border guards,…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dances with Wolves

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dances With Wolves is a fantastic movie! It depicts the American Indians as a loving race, has three very unique Lakota Tribe leaders, shows the life in the Great Plains before American settlers arrived, it really shows the difference between customs and traditions of the whites and Indians, and finally the Sioux and Paunee fighting was very important and showed Dunbar important things that will affect the rest of his life. I really recommend seeing this movie if want to see something that shows Native Americans as loving people instead of savages.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dances With Wolves

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dressed like an Indian, the soldiers took him away, and Dances With Wolves was saved…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Spokane vs Seattle

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In Sherman Alexie’s short story, “What You Pawn I Redeem,” Jackson, the protagonist, must figure out how he can merge his Native American culture into modern day Seattle. The characters in this story have similar characteristics of real life Native Americans. According to The main character, Jackson Jackson, is part of the Spokane Indian Tribe but he has moved to a larger metropolitan area in Seattle, which is much different from the cultured-based Spokane Reservation. Most people move to a new area and have to deal with finding new friends and finding their way around town, but Jackson has bigger problem. He is caught up in his Native American culture and has not quite learned how to live the modern day lifestyle. The story shows that it is important that he keeps his culture alive without becoming separated from the modern world. Jackson is put to the test each and every day to find new ways to interact in the big city and figure out how he can mix his historic traditions with the contemporary civilization that is set in Seattle, Washington. He must adapt to a new culture without losing his own. The struggle to balance modern day living and the Native American culture in Seattle is revealed through the setting.…

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the first time that white men came across Native Cultures they have tried imprint their own values and view points on that culture. In Susan Power’s The Grass Dancer, dance is an important symbol of the Native American culture. Powwows, and the dances held at them, play a key part in the book and many of the major events in the book are somehow related to a ceremonial dance. Many times, though, the dances do not take place at powwows or ceremonies, they just occur as a representation of the meaning of the dance. Harley Wind Soldier, Charlene Thunder, and Pumpkin all help preserve their culture by “dancing a rebellion” against forces trying to change their ways.…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Return To The Wild

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The documentary Return to the Wild debates the two very different argued reasons of why Chris McCandless went into the wild. The writers choose to uncover the dark secrets of the McCandless family and to reveal the truth as to why Chris travelled into the Alaskan wilderness. The documentary adopts an intense tone in the beginning that shifts to a more light hearted attitude throughout the second half of the film using symbolism, cinematography, audio, and various interviews in order to explain to the viewers the grim childhood McCandless experienced and events that led him into the barren wilderness of Alaska.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie expresses the modern Native American experience throughout a series of short stories. Throughout these stories Alexie portrays the lives of Native Americans in a dismal and melancholic way. Most of his characters have failed or forgotten their dreams due to their problems with alcohol. Sherman Alexie’s emphasis on Native American’s issues with alcohol gives us insight into how alcohol has destructive effects on Native American society and culture.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the story “An Indian Father’s Plea”, the story shows how culture is oftenly affecting how one views others and the world by showing what Wind-Wolf did as a child before he went to school. For example, throughout the story, the father of Wind-Wolf shares to his teacher what Wind-Wolf was exposed to as a child, “. Because of this, Wind-Wolf’s educational setting was not only a “secure” environment, but it was also very colorful, complicated, sensitive, and diverse.” This can show that the child is exposed to his Native-American culture and later in the story, the father talks what the child does spiritually with his mother and what he experienced in his tribe. “Wind-Wolf was with his mother in South Dakota while she danced for seven days straight…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Crazy Horse is one on the most ambiguous yet legendary leaders in the American Indian history. The book Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life attempts to tell the story of one of the most feared by foes, and honored by allies American Indian leaders. Kingsley M. Bray draws from primary sources and other biographies to construct the tragic sequence of childhood conflict, deception, and misjudgments that shaped the leader’s adulthood affairs and eventually led to his demise. The book reveals a new biography not only in the warrior’s battles, but also the often time overlooked political and religious struggles he faced. It gives a new outlook on the man inside the legend.…

    • 666 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Indian is trying to go back to their homeland, but they were invaded by the white settlers along with the protection from the federal government; so they lost most of their people during the Black Hawk War. Their Principal Chief Ross is helping the Indian nation to bring back their homeland, but he lost to Jackson during the bidding and so Jackson bought the Indian…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Montana 1948

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The whole white population within Mercer County were partly responsible for the terrible events of Montana 1948. The social environment was one that favoured the white people’s value and discriminated against the Indians. The Indian’s lived away from the whites in little reservations allowing the Indians to have little or no contact with the white people. This had already proved the racial treatment within Montana. Furthermore Ollie Young Bear was an Indian but he was accepted from the whites because he lived as white. He was successful through every aspects of life and married a white woman. But the Indians, on the other hand had regard believing that Ollie young bear wouldn’t “be happy until he was white.” The white societies within Montana were all well aware of the crimes committed by Frank against the Indians. When Wesley and Gail were to take action on the claims made by Marie about Frank’s wrongdoings, David heard a remark made by Daisy McAuley saying “Just the squaws though.” Daisy…

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays