Dances With Wolves (1990)

 

Talk about a modern epic: here's one. Sure, in the wake of the immense success 'Dances With Wolves' had, Kevin Costner would go a little overboard for a while, but there is hardly any denying that this is by any way you look at it a classic that laid the template for quite a number of films since. No 'The Last Samurai' or 'Avatar' without this one, I'd wager. 

Well, maybe there would be, but the formula might have been different. 

Costner plays John Dunbar, a lieutenant in the Union Army who chooses to go to a remote outpost on the frontier because he wants to experience this before everything becomes colonised and - dare I say it? - civilised in the sense only modern people know. 

You could also say 'fucked up', but let's not point fingers too much just yet.

It is a lonesome vigil, but Dunbar settles in and even sort of befriends a lone wolf he names Two Socks. Things start to change immensely when he realises that there is a tribe of Native Americans nearby and Dunbar decides it might be beneficial to try and connect with those people and to learn more. On his way, he discovers a woman who is hurt and turns out to be a white woman who was adopted into the tribe many years ago. 

The longer Dunbar spends time with this group of Lakota Sioux, the more he begins to see that their way of life works better with the land and of course he also falls in love with Stands With A Fist, the woman he rescued a while ago. Dunbar leaves behind more and more of his former self and starts to fully embrace the Lakota way, but alas, he can't outrun the fact that colonists and the army are creeping ever closer and push the native population further into oblivion... 

It might all seem like one big trope or cliché about now, but Costner expertly handled the telling of this story. It's slow, but it does suck you in along the way and before you know it, you are almost as native as Dunbar himself. Yes, sometimes the Sioux are presented a little too 'honest and in tune with the land', but that's okay as it doesn't become a caricature like a lot of other films did. The characters are above all the most intriguing part and with the feisty Wind In His Hair, the curious Kicking Bird and enthusiastic Smiles A Lot, you will have a plethora of faces to choose from whom to like the most. This film did what a lot of others failed: humanise the Native Americans. It gave them a face and voice for once and thus the impact was a lot bigger. 

But more than that, this story is expertly told and especially the ending will hit you like a freight train. Not that it is explicitly brutal, but the final shot of Dunbar and Stands With A Fist in the snow and then the text that appears will certainly strike a nerve. All the more so because history has told us how the native people fared against the invaders and it's not a pretty tale. 

Sure, some might say that this story aims for the heartstrings a bit too much, but that is not the point. The point is that this is by all accounts a wonderful piece of cinema about people of all kinds, and serves as a stark reminder that invasions and colonisations of any kind have never really been beneficial to whomever was there first.