Dances With Wolves Analysis

In the beginning of the movie Dances With Wolves, the director, Kevin Costner, utilizes the emotion of the audience. Costner does this through the use of pathos: music, sight, sound, and/or sensory images that appeal to emotion. For example, Lieutenant Dunbar rides through the desert as heroic music plays after saving Stands With A Fist from bleeding to death. This scene makes the audience view Lieutenant Dunbar as a hero. Costner also uses symbolism to foreshadow upcoming events. For example, Lieutenant Dunbar raises his arms out as if to say "shoot me now", in a cross formation. In film when a character performs this action, it usually foreshadows that the character will die in the near future. Costner also depicts both sides of the war between the Sioux Nation and the White man, instead of only showing the Native Americans as evil; like many American movies depicting Native Americans do. For example, Major Fambrough is an American Major depicted as a drunk that pees his pants; this is the first time in American film where a high ranking officer is displayed in a shameful manner. Costner also shows us how both the Sioux Nation and the Americans see each other as savages by the way each dresses. This movie thus far has shown a breakthrough for Native American film in the American film industry.