Dances With Wolves
We begin this movie with Lt. John Dunbar appearing to be very badly injured. The medics are probably going to have to amputate one or both of his legs, but as soon as they leave, Dunbar puts his boots back on and goes right back into the battle. He jumps onto a horse and rides right into enemy fire, hoping to be shot and killed. Not one bullet touches him and he becomes a hero. He has the choice to be sent to any post he chooses and decides to be sent to Fort Sedgewick to see the open prairie. He arrives at the fort and finds it deserted. He decides to stay there anyway. After he finds an Indian woman who is badly hurt, he returns her to her tribe of Sioux Indians and that leads to an alliance between him and the Sioux's. After living with the Sioux for a while, he goes back to the fort to get some supplies and finds a large regiment has come to Fort Sedgewick. He is captured by them and is ruled a traitor, but the Sioux soon come and free him.
Towards the beginning of the movie, the Native Americans are portrayed as savages, people who kill just to kill. The whites believe they are beggars and thieves. As the movie goes on, we learn that although there were some tribes that were more warring, most tribes were probably peaceful. For example, you can see the Pawnee were a very war-like tribe. They killed and scalped Timmins just because they don't like white people. The Sioux, on the other hand, were very peaceful. They made an attempt to reach some kind of treaty with the white man. Also, we learn that they are not beggars and for the most part, they are not thieves either. The only thing the Sioux would take is horses.
The white man is actually portrayed as more of a beggar or thief than the Native Americans. They are also made to seem illiterate, wasteful, and not very hygienic. Think about it, when Lt. Dunbar is captured, his journal is stolen, but the soldier can't read it, so he rips out some pages and gives them to another soldier to use as...
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