Posts from Peridot in thread „Dances with Wolves (1990)“

  • Dances with Wolves (1990)



    :wink_smile: She is well aware of that, and that's fine. :rose: She thought everyone was moderated at this board. If that's not the case for all on the board, it's a surprise to her, but it's certainly acceptable. She is always on her best behaviour everywhere, and hopes that you will forgive her speaking of herself in the third person just this once. :embaressed_smile:


    Lady Manners is always watching, you see.

  • Dances with Wolves (1990)



    On the whole I believe we're in complete agreement, especially where I bolded your remark above. My point was, and it may have been too short to be clear, that the whites were not innocent of evil, nor was the Indian a free-living-in-harmony innocent roaming happy indigenous aboriginal, either. The only way to look at these cultural clashes is with eyes wide open on both sides.The Indians had a culture of war and there were diseases here in the pre-Columbian era. Nevertheless, it was a complete biological disaster when the French and Spanish came to Florida. The Timuaca people greeted the French on the St Johns River. They had large cities not only on the northern coasts of Florida but ranged centrally as far and wide as southern Georgia. In less than 200 years the Timucua people were extinct. Who knows what they might have taught us?


    All that remained of the Timucuana people were their shell middens, most of which were mined for road-building before their irreplaceable archaeological nature was known. I remember my parents driving me on shell roads, crushing our inestimable heritage under our the tires of our car. Shell mounds were once everywhere. They were loaded into dump trucks and spread onto roads to be smashed into atoms. The crunching sound of tires over the shells of our history still echoes in my ears today.


    Now you see why I deleted the majority of my post yesterday. Depressing, isn't it?


    Now, back on topic:


    6 Guns, a revenge-of-the-revengers western. A character based on the son of Tom Hall goes after the ex-sheriff who allegedly shot his father in the back. Children are murdered, a woman is raped and she wants revenge for her family.


    The best thing about this film is that three of Dick van Dyke's relatives are involved in its production. It was quite the stinker.

  • Dances with Wolves (1990)


    Yes, I'm afraid that you did miss my point. However, there's no offense taken because you meant none. :wink_smile: You see, I wrote paragraphs and college papers worth of text on my post and then I deleted them...I tend to be far to verbose and preachy when I'm trying to make my point.


    Today if I were writing that post I might respond with fewer words: 'Indians were the first Americans.' I have problems with the black-and-white view that all the non-Indians who came to the US were good people and that all the Indians were bad and evil. That's a lie fed us when we were in school. Custer wasn't a big hero. The Indian wars murdered women and children and babies; slaughtered them in horrific ways. But don't get me started on that.


    My post was meant to remind people without going into a debate which could turn ugly that the Indians (I know the preference) were here first. They were the first Americans and their history is our history. Many of us have Indian heritage. (My sister's part Cherokee, an eighth, near as we can calculate.)


    If John Wayne were still around today I'm sure that he'd embrace these changes. He was a man of fair mind with a generous heart and he never turned away from a thing that was honest and right. He simply didn't live long enough to see how balanced things have become now. He'd laugh, pour a drink, slap Kevin Costner on the back and say, 'That was a helluva good movie you made, kid! How come you didn't ask me to be in it?'


    That's my opinion. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. John Wayne was a helluva good guy, and pretty much everyone here would agree with me on that point, at least I hope so.

  • Dances with Wolves (1990)

    Note to Moderator:


    I'm not certain this is an appropriate response for this thread or this post. It seemed to me that The Ringo Kid's view was a narrow way to categorise this particular film. If you feel it's right, please delete this note and allow the post...if not, then you know what to do.


    Thank you,


    R Jackson



    Quote from The Ringo Kid

    Not me, I hate anti-American American films.



    Somehow I've never seen Dances With Wolves as anti-American. It seems to me that it's more in illustration of a clash of cultures, industrial against paleolithic. Another point of view is that the first Americans, the Native Americans, had a valid way of living life before the Europeans arrived to commit genocide. Their lifestyles should also be celebrated and remembered. Native Americans are also Americans. As the first Americans, their history is also our history.


    There were many atrocities perpetrated by our white ancestors. The appropriate thing to do is not to deny that these atrocities happened, but to admit that they occurred and that they were wrong. Sweeping the bad stuff under the rug leads to the same thing happening again and again in this and in future generations.


    It is extremely painful to watch some scenes in Dances With Wolves. When Cisco is shot I'm always extremely angry. When the soldiers are firing at Two Socks I feel physical pain. It's a beautiful film and a great western. This country lost a great treasure when so many populations of its indigenous peoples were wiped out. Who knows what those lost peoples might have taught us, what we may have learned from them?


    Even in Dances With Wolves the Native Americans lost at the end.