The film Dances With Wolves, directed by and starring Kevin Costner from a script by the author of the novel, Kevin Blake, is an attempt to rewrite history from the perspective of the Native Americans who were basically exterminated by the onslaught of white settlers pushing into the Western frontier in the name of Manifest Destiny. Costner plays Lieutenant Dunbar, and the film is narrated from his perspective. Dunbar miraculously survives a suicide charge and is rewarded with a post on the frontier, a place he wishes to see “before it’s all gone.” What Dunbar discovers is a deserted post where he remains, writing in his journal and experiencing the natural awe and beauty of the landscape. He also encounters the Sioux Indians, whom he has the ability to get to know from a non-racist perspective. This is because Dunbar, rare among whites, is able to look the Sioux in the eye and see the man as opposed to his preconceived attitudes about him.
The film does an amazing job of revealing the American West landscape as well as the soul of the Sioux with visual imagery, body language and native Sioux dialogue comprising nearly a third of the film’s dialogue. The virgin paradise is revealed through expressive and splendorous images that makes us feel we, too, are see the landscape with Dunbar for the first time. The film’s message is that a civilized man is one whose curiosity is stronger than his prejudices and both Dunbar and the Sioux are curious types. Nonverbal language is used when Dunbar first encounters the Sioux, since neither the Indians nor Dunbar know each other’s language. There is a scene near the beginning of the film when Dunbar tries to pantomime a buffalo. One of the Sioux, Wind In His Hair, looks at the spectacle and says “His mind is gone.” However, another Sioux, Kicking Bird, is a holy man who thinks he knows what the white stranger is trying to communicate.
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