Switched Perspectives

Switched Perspectives

After winning seven Oscars, Dances With Wolves can easily be argued as one of America’s best Western films. Kevin Costner directed Dances With Wolves in 1990. Costner presents a new kind of Western; it is a Western that attempts to “reinvent” the image of a traditional Western. Indians are now not just being portrayed as raging savages, but as friendly allies. The tale begins when a Civil War solider, Lieutenant John Dunbar, unintentionally becomes a hero when trying to commit suicide in battle. John decides he wants to see the frontier before it disappears and requests to be stationed at a post in South Dakota. After the long journey, John arrives to discover that the post is deserted. As John waits for help, he soon discovers he is not alone. He comes across a lonely wolf, a white woman raised among Indians, and a neighboring Sioux tribe, who are eager to learn about the strange white man. As John becomes closer to the tribe, he starts to wonder who he really is. All of his beliefs and motives are put to the test and John has to make a decision that will affect everyone in his future and his past. John’s decision is what sets apart the film from a traditional Western; it “reinvents” the people and places of the American West. Dances With Wolves combines aspects of both a revisionist Western and a traditional Western.

Dances With Wolves displays many attributes of a revisionist Western throughout the film. First, Costner changes the audience’s perspective about the Indians. Indians are no longer shown only as uncivilized savages who ambush innocent white settlers and kill their families. Instead, the viewers are shown another side of the story, where the Indians are a society of people who are curious, genuinely kind, and accepting. For instance, when John first arrives at the post, most of the Sioux want to befriend him and learn about his culture rather than kill him on the spot. Then Kicking Bird, the medicine man of Sioux, goes in...