Dances With The Wolves Analysis
‘Dances with the wolves’ is a 1990 American epic western movie that defied norms in Hollywood, revitalized the western genre in filmmaking, challenged and changed the perception of viewers toward native Americans. The movie significantly impacted social, cultural, historical aspects of society.
Native American are rarely screened in Hollywood and when they do, they are demonized as the blood thirsty savages and bad guys. According to Beverly R. Singer, "Despite the fact that a diversity of indigenous peoples had a legal and historical significance in the formation of every new country founded in the western hemisphere, in the United States and Canada the term 'Indians' became a hegemonic designation implying that they were all the same in regard to culture, behavior, language, and social organization. The view of 'Indians' as savage and uncivilized was repeated in early films and crystallized the image of 'Indians' as dangerous and unacceptable to the normative lives of European
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The movie also helped to protect the Lakota language and culture of Sioux Indians. Dances with wolves changed the social perception of general people about native American. It had deep impact on its viewers, so overwhelming that at the movie’s preview screening in 1990 at San Francisco’s American Indian Film Festival, Michael Smith, a Sioux, recalled that the reception was euphoric. “The theater had 670 seats,” he said. “It was pretty moving. I think [the film] struck people in an emotional way. I don't think Dances with Wolves is ever going to be topped.” Smith is the founder and president of the American Indian Film Institute, the festival’s sponsoring organization. For its importance and significance to viewers, in 2007, Dances with Wolves was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically
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