Dances with Wolves
...be positioned to sympathise with the Native Americans because they were not presented as having individual identities or be shown as ‘human’ or ‘civilised’. In the same way cowboys in American ‘westerns’ are portrayed much like the Australian cultural myth of the stockman or the drover, as strong, male, white, setting forth to conquer the land and the indigenous peoples. This traditional genre also portrays women in a stereotypical way, both the Native American and the white women identities are shown to be separated from each other. The white women are shown to be either strong Annie Oakley characters, mothers, wives or women of the land. Whilst Native American women are rarely represented or shown to be women but like the men as "savages" and "untamed". Costner’s film represents the ‘modern Western’ because it has challenged traditional stereotypes of Native Americans by representing them to the viewer in a much more positive way than they would be represented in real American life. Unlike the traditional ‘western’ genre, Costner as a director has clearly studied and learned about the Sioux culture before making this flim. This attempt of ‘authenticity’ is one of the strongest aspects of the film. Costner also learned the Sioux language and he employed Native Americans to act in the film Unlike traditional ‘westerns’ that employed white actors and made them darken their skin. The use of Native Americans also adds to the realism and quality of the film. The most powerful aspect of the film is that Costner is the first director to attempt to make a bilingual film through the use of sub-tiles. This bilingual technique positions the audience of the time (1990) as outsiders, which allows the viewer to consider and view the Native Americans in a different way. The use of this technique gives status to the Native Americans voice and makes the viewer consider them as human. The Native Americans like the indigenous people of Australia are rarely treated as human in films or given the respect by using their language. The film also shows the viewer that the traditional Sioux language is not dead, it has survived through all the hardships they have encountered. An example of this is when the Sioux people and Dunbar find the slaughtered buffalo on the plains. ( the buffalo is the main food for the Sioux and very important in their culture). Without the prior translation and conversations between Dunbar and the Sioux, the viewer would not have been positioned to empathise with the Sioux and their loss. Spatial and temporal settings in this film are still stereotypical of the traditional ‘‘western’’ genre. Like many other ‘westerns’, the film is set during the civil war, 1863, during the time of conflict between the North and the South states of the United States of America. The spatial setting of the feature film is on the American frontier. Like most ‘‘westerns’’ the scenery is composed of vast open spaces, the rugged mountain ranges, canyons, and long and powerful rivers of the West. What I found different about Costner’s film, is the way he uses the landscape to continue to show the viewer, or educate the audience of the ways the Native Americans used the landscape. For example, how they had different uses for sum...