Dance with Wolves: Film Analysis

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This paper would seek to examine two western movies that we all have grown up watching. In this paper, both of the movies various perspectives would be analyzed and contrasted n order to determine the way they portray relationships and the way people are caught at cross roads.

The movie” Dance with Wolves” was released in 1990, and is considered as an epic film for its portrayal of a United States cavalry office from the civil war., who has to travel alone into the frontier into Sioux Tribe. The movie begins with the actions of a desperate man, who has to redeem himself and his honor by willingly participating in a suicidal act of bravery.

The movie received great recognition and even won several awards for the way it portrayed a character who was caught between a past life and a newer life. Another surprising element about the movie was the fact that most of the film’s dialogues were in the Lakota Language, with English subtitles. As of present, this had not been done so and therefore, the movie was able to set its own standards.

It was selected in the year 2007, for the purposes of preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.

The tagline of the movie pretty much depicts the entire movie’s storyline:

“Lieutenant John Dunbar is about to discover the frontier…within himself”.

The second move; which this paper would be examining and comparing against “Dances with Wolves would be “Smoke Signals”. Based in different settings, it also focuses on relationships and the realization process, which allows the characters to realize a few important things about themselves.

The relationship in Smoke Signals is that of a father and son while the relationship crossroads that the central character of “Dances with Wolves is caught up in an equally complex situation.

The two can be contrasted for their settings and their subsequent effects on the characters. However, the intensity of both cannot be questioned and measured as being one lesser than the other.

While one character is caught in a more intense situation in which his entire upbringing and his training is brought out into question,

the character in smoke signals is caught up with conflicting views about a father who he has to put to rest, and yet is caught in a highly conflicted emotional situation himself.

Lieutenant John Dunbar, after learning that his leg is about to be amputated, decides to attempt suicide by riding across the line of fire, where the Confederate and the Union forces are caught in crossfire.

This very act of his results in him being labeled as a hero as he manages to rally his fellow comrades, who go on to storm the Confederate positions.

As a result, of this very act of bravery, he is given a choice of choosing his next placement and decides to be posted to the Western frontier. In this deserted post, he faces the Sioux-Lakota American Indian tribe.

The second movie, Smoke Signals, is based on such characters who themselves , are Native Americans and yet are brought up in settings that are more modern their traditional settings. However, their Indian reservation still as certain Indian ways to which the boys closely adhere to.

As opposed to that, John Dunbar, being a white Union officer, and having had no personal experience of Native Americans and their cultural values, has to live amongst a tribe and consequently, has to adapt to their way of living.

One of the lead characters of Smoke Signals, Thomas Build-the-fire helps the other characters, Victor Joseph , in understanding the Indian values and in understanding the choices made by his father, Arnold. Hence, Victor experiences on a smaller scale, though, the same series of soul searching activities that John Dunbar has to when he seeks his abode amongst the Indians.

While John Dunbar has to do so against all the values that e has stood for and has fought for so long, Victor has to fight against the yeas of resentment pent up in him and bitter love that he has for a man who been nothing but an abusive alcoholic.

A man who has never shown any sort of parental feelings and yet for this man, another lead character feels total reverence due to the heroic actions carried out. Thus, the way heroic actions have been portrayed in these two movies have left quite different impacts on the movie’s ending and the consequent relationships formed by the lead characters.

John Dunbar’s entire life changes as a result of his heroic action. He becomes ensnared by a native tribe’s way f life and d eventually loses his white man’s identity. For him, this gradual process of losing his white man’s identity and becoming ”Dances with Wolves” is a part of accepting a new way of life.

Though he is initially met by wary suspicion, his actions if locating a large buffalo herd on which the natives are dependant is food, clothing, and supplies make him a hero in the eyes of the Sioux people.

His language barrier is overcome through the help of the woman who later on becomes his wife, tying his bond even more this tribe.

Hence, this movie was and continues to be an epic in this sense that it dared to venture into newer territory by creating a strong bond between a white man and the Native Americans.

Smoke Signals, based around relationships as well, and set amidst an Indian reservation deals with conflicting emotions of Victor Joseph in the same way that Dances with Wolves does those of John Dunbar.

For Victor, it is mainly about understanding a father from who he has never received any sort of love but has only grow up to resent. His own emotions are strongly contrasted with those of Thomas Build-the-Fire, a more romantic character who perceives Victor’s father to be a heroic figure.

Thomas is shown as the more idealistic and romantic character who has grown up watching dances with wolves in fact-a movie which on the reaction of relationships itself; Dances with Wolves.

This very divide between Victor and Thomas, a fight between being pragmatic and being idealistic can be depicted by the conflict within John Dunbar. While on one hand, he longs to lead a life of idealistic life amongst the Indians, yet the pragmatic side of his personality forces him to understand the difficulties created by this situation for the tribe itself.

This personal conflict of John Dunbar is mirrored by the dichotomy between Victor and Thomas which is a persistent feature throughout the film. Victor perceives this very idealism as an irritation while Thomas continues to view Victor as a source of immense interest and fascination.

The way the medicine man, seeks to resolve ht language barrier of Jon Dunbar, the same way Thomas tries to shed some light on the reasons for the way Arnold was in order to help Victor understand the man his father was (McMurty, 1999).

While Victor and Thomas are both Indians who have never lost the sense of their native identity-John as a white man has to struggle to create an Indian identity.

The varying perspectives of these two Indians is mirrored between the personal fight of the old and newer way for life struggling for supremacy within John Dunbar who has to shed his entire image to become.. Dance with Wolves.

Victor also has to shed years of resentment in order to understand his father and to be truly at peace with himself; not a person caught in a bitter conflict. John Dunbar’s attempt to learn the language can be mirrored by Victor’s attempts to understand Arnold.

His eventual cross country crusade of a journey with Thomas depicts John Dunbar’s attempts to resolve the crisis between the natives and the Whites (Grossman, 1994).

The information that Victor Joseph receives from a father’s friend, Suzie Song, concerning the actual origins of the fire which had resulted in the death of Thomas’ parents death.

The same manner in which Victor grapples with this truth, John Dunbar’s struggles with the realization that his prolonged stay might have disastrous consequences for the people who had taken him into their abode with such open arms.

He tries to warn the Sioux that the white men would come and invade their land, who then decide to move to a safer area; that of the winter camp. The act of leaving his journal behind becomes a cause of immense concern as it can be the very thing that might lead the invaders to the winter camp.

It would also provide a lot of information relating to the Sioux ways. Though it is eventually retrieved, he has to face persecution at the hands of the same Union forces of which he was a part not so long.

When he is forcibly escorted away by these officers, the Sioux tribe comes to the rescue of this man who they have adopted as one of their very own (Deloria, 2003).

The rescue results in the successful retrieval of the journal as well.These actions can be mirrored by the revelation by Suzie Song who makes Victor realize the actual truth.

These revelations come as a moment of truth for both the Central Characters of the movies who have to awaken to his brutal realties that they either willingly repressed or were unaware for so long.

When Victor realizes the truth about his father’s actions that he had accidentally shot off a firework into the living room causing the fire in his neighbors house, makes him realize the reason for his father’s morbid behavior.

Hence, this trip in a lot of ways, becomes a source of balm and cure for a person as troubled by his entire life and past as Victor has been for so long. He realizes the truth about the reason for his father’s brooding disposition towards not only his life but also towards the people around him; including his own son.

Victor finally understands the reasons for the alcoholic and abusive disposition that his father had for so long, and this realization allows the peace that he has been denied for so long (Conner, 2003).

Not only does he achieve a sense of inner peace, but he also manages to finally understand the reasons for Thomas’ sense of reverence towards his father. And so doing so is able to create a better relationship with Thomas.

John Dunbar in the end has to make such a decision as well as he too has to come out of the state of self-denial and has to face to the fact that his prolonged stay can have disastrous results for this peaceful tribe. Hence, in the end, he decides to leave this tribe for their sense of peace and sanctity.

Work Cited

Deloria, P (2003) ”Indians in Unexpected Places”
Grossman, J (1994)” The Frontier in American Culture”
McMurtry, L (1999), “Crazy Horse”
Rollins, P & Connor, J (2003)” Hollywood’s Indian “

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Dance with Wolves: Film Analysis

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