At the start of the movie, “Dances with Wolves”, John Dunbar is depicted as someone who has given up with life. He prefers death to the amputation of his foot as prescribed by the medical provider. Dunbar is one man who has gone through a lot fighting during the Civil War. As a Civil War First Lieutenant on the Union side, Dunbar is brave in that he rides towards the frontlines and gets injured while trying to fight for his army. It is due to this move that his army can go over the Confederate sentry lines. Even though he was severely injured, he caused their victory, hence, worth being respected. When he establishes a good relationship with kicking bird and one of the Sioux warriors, he realized that he held wrong assumptions concerning First Nations when they were to be treated with ultimate respect.
Regarding the concept of civilization, Indians’ culture is at stake because they are regarded as primitive in society. When Dunbar interacts with them, he realizes that Indians are good people. It becomes apparent that Americans are the ones destroying their lives, hence, moving them backward. To this effect, Americans are the real savages. Indians are portrayed in this film as people with a strong culture (Costner, 1990). This is evident by the way Dunbar was influenced and got to embrace their idea of dressing. He admired their culture depicting it as strong and exciting.
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Native Americans seem to have been brainwashed to believe that Indians were primitive and hostile. Native Americans are first presented in “Dances with Wolves” while at war with Indians in Lakota. Hence, this explains their stereotype where they looked down upon this community (Costner, 1990). Over time, they perpetrated a notion that Indians are not friendly. Nonetheless, Dunbar discovers that all this was untrue. Hence, “Dances with Wolves” portrays Native Americans as noble savages in society.
Dunbar decides to move on with Sioux by accompanying Sioux's tribe while vacating their original home to another place. He does this to continue protecting the tribe from future attacks by the U.S. Army. However, I do not agree Dunbar’s decision since accompanying them may make the army to continue looking for the tribe. Therefore, being in this community would endanger the lives of the entire members of the tribe.
The friendship between Dunbar and Sioux starts low but grows gradually. They meet at first due to the circumstance that Sioux was facing. She wanted to commit suicide and was saved by Dunbar. Their friendship develops when Dunbar is introduced to their culture (Costner, 1990). It is made stronger since he realized that Sioux's tribe was being attacked based on wrong facts concerning their behavior. Their love is tested when the tribe moves out of their area but Dunbar goes along with them together with Sioux.
The film triggers feelings of sympathy on the viewer. Viewers may sympathize for Indians since they realize that they are being attacked for nothing. Sioux is genuinely in love and pleads with Dunbar to accompany them as they desert their area (Costner, 1990). The film accomplished the shift when Dunbar finally moves together with Sioux’s tribe to another location.
The film portrays Native Americans as people guided by misconceptions. This is linked to the hatred and negative attitude they have towards Indians and their culture. It later proves that Americans were fighting Indians for no apparent reason. The director, Kevin Costner, ends “Dances with Wolves” with a culmination of the conquest of the Western frontier states since he had managed to deliver the main message embedded in it. Therefore, other subsequent happenings like war would be unnecessary in reinforcing this message. Nonetheless, John Dubar is the hero in “Dances with Wolves” although it may be controversial since he is an American, but assisted Indians to escape the wrath of the attack. This teaches viewers that an enemy can turn to be a friend, thus, they should learn to trust and build relationships.
Reference
Costner, K. (1990). “ Dances with Wolves ” [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqAl8JtfGPw
