Dances With Wolves - It Made Me Cry

by David Sanders
(Medford, Oregon)

When I saw Lt. Colonel John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) walking into the forest with Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell), I cried.

There is something about this movie that can't be explained in words, but there are certain things that one can learn from watching Dances With Wolves. The first thing that you can learn from this movie is that you will be rewarded for being heroic, even if your heroics deeds are unintentional or accidental. When Dunbar rides a horse in a open field in front of hundreds of enemy guns, you are not sure he wants a death wish or he is boosting his army’s confidence. The next thing that you learn is to be careful about what you wish for because you just might get it. Dunbar wishes for a post on the frontier, which wouldn't be so bad in and of itself, except that when he arrives at Fort Sedgwick, with the help of teamster Timmons (Robert Pastorelli), the rest of the soldiers are gone and Dunbar is left to fend for himself alone on the frontier.

But there starts his inspirational journey within himself and with sheer nature around him. Camera captured the scenic beauty of frontier so beautifully; you will wish to see it yourself. There he gets this wonderful opportunity to become acquainted with the frontier Sioux Indians, who name him Dances With Wolves because he befriends a wolf on the frontier. In the middle of warfare and strife, he ends up helping the Sioux in their fight against a neighboring tribe of Pawnee Indians. Eventually he becomes a member of the tribe and is drawn to Stands With a Fist, a white woman raised by the Sioux after her family was massacred by Indians. She does translate between Dunbar and the Indians as Dunbar slowly learns their language and becomes romantically involved with her, eventually marrying her.

And right when you lose yourself watching the idyllic life that Dunbar lives with the Indians, soon comes a jolt when soldiers return to Fort Sedgwick, which is unmanned as far as they are concerned. This is where the sadness begins and the tears first start to flow, first they kill Dunbar's beloved animals. You will cry seeing men being so brutal to what naturally is so harmless. Before long they are after the whole tribe of the Sioux that saves him again from the troops. Dunbar makes a wise decision to protect Sioux from further damage by troops. And then he comes to know what he really was, an Indian or a white man.

In a nutshell Dances With Wolves is about dealing with both change and loss, and learning that the two are often connected unbeknownst to the person experiencing them. The poignant moment is when Wind In His Hair (Rodney A Grant) bids goodbye to Dances With Wolves by saluting him and shouting, as he is losing him, that he will always be his friend. The love he receives from Sioux is shown just beyond any words.

As the tears came to my eyes while watching Cisco being killed and Two Socks, and then Dunbar and his wife being torn from the life they know and love, I learned to be careful about courage and to be careful what you wish for, because this story taught me both of those things in equal measure. A movie beyond any reviews folks.