DANCES WITH WOLVES:CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS

10/31/03


DANCES WITH WOLVES: CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS


Dances With Wolves is the story of the “transformation” of Lieutenant John


Dunbar, a Union Army Officer, to Dances With Wolves, a Lakota warrior. The film is


seen from the viewpoint of Dunbar, who runs away from a field hospital as his foot is


about to be amputated and literally invites death by riding his horse by in a suicidal


charge at the Confederate lines. He does this to provide a diversion so that a group of


Union soldiers can overrun an entrenched Rebel position. Miraculously, he survives and


is decorated and given his choice of any posting. John Dunbar chooses the frontier.


Dunbar begins a new life in a remote, isolated outpost, Fort Sedgewick, in the wilderness


of the Dakota territory where he is the only white man around for miles. A month into his


stay, with only a wolf, Two Socks and his mount, Cisco, for company, Dunbar


encounters the local ...