So It Won A Few Awards....
| Half way through the semester, my professor Miriam Schacht gave us the assignment of watching the three-hour film Dances With Wolves. However, this time we were supposed to watch it with a critical eye. At this point, our class had already read Deloria's Playing Indian, and it was becoming apparent to most of us that Native Americans have been branded with an awful stereotypical image. I remember being really psyched about this assignment because, like I said earlier, Dances With Wolves was one of my favorite movies. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me respect, and maybe even love, Kevin Costner. |
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| Well, when I watched it for our assignment, something had changed. First of all, I noticed that Kevin Costner really is not that great of an actor. Second, I began to see some of those awful Native American stereotypes present throughout the film. In addition, there were multiple scenes where the white John Dunbar played the hero to the Native American tribe. Some examples are when John Dunbar discovers the massive heard of buffaloes and frantically rides his house to tell his "Indian friends". Or when John Dunbar graciously gives the tribe some riffles so they can defend their land from their rivals, the evil Indians who scalp everyone they run into. The point I am trying to make is that this movie may have been applauded by nearly everyone who saw in when it was released, but if you look at it though a critical eye, the whole movie is pretty ridiculous. |
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