Wounded Knee: Film Analysis

“It seems everyday ends with a miracle here. And whatever God may be, I thank God for this day.” This quote is from the movie Dances With Wolves. This relates to Dances With Wolves and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee because no matter what the characters were feelings, they were always thanking and believing in their gods.These movies have a lot of similarities and differences. Some of the similarities and differences are the characters, theme, time period, and historically correct. These movies were alike by their main idea. The idea was to show the audience how the Sioux used to live and how the Americans affected them. The main characters in both movies fought for what they believed in and always did what they thought was right. Both movies …show more content…
In my opinion, the theme for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is to never give up, and the theme for Dances With Wolves is to stand up for what you believe in. In Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, the Sioux never gave up their lands to the Americans without a fight. The Americans wanted their lands because they wanted to build railroads on them. The Sioux did not want to give their lands away because they believed the lands were spiritual and holy. The Americans disagreed. The Americans offered the Sioux large amounts of money for the lands, but the Sioux kept turning down the money. The Americans then turned to war. They started shooting the Sioux, but the Sioux fought back. Because the Sioux did not have as advanced weapons as the Americans, they were defeated. Although the Sioux lost the battle, they didn't go down without a fight. They could've gave up, but they chose not to. In Dances With Wolves, John Dunbar first went to the Sioux lands to learn more about them and to gather information. After meeting them, learning how they lived, and gaining their trust, John Dunbar started living as a Sioux. He found this way of living to be different and exciting. He started becoming a Sioux and the trust between the Sioux and John was strong. Conflict occurs when the Americans came onto the Sioux lands. They recognized John Dunbar because he used to be the lieutenant for the Americans. They saw him as a trader …show more content…
Dances With Wolves isn't 100% accurate. It mainly showed how the Native Americans were treated by the Americans and how they lived their lives. It also used real clothing by showing how the Sioux used to dress. They used props that related to the time period. The one questionable fact about the movie, was if John Dunbar was a real person. Studies cant tell if the name John Dunbar was real, but they can say that an American definitely did go to the lands and turned into a Sioux. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was also not completely historically correct. Parts that were correct were mainly the characters; Charles Eastman, Sitting Bull, and Senator Dawes. The movie did a good job with telling the stories of these characters. The stories were told accurately. For example, Sitting Bull was killed when being taken to the whites. Also, Charles Eastman was once a Sioux then became an American. The one questionable fact in this movie was, the Sioux weren’t speaking in their original language. The events in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee happened in history in 1880’s. The events in Dances With Wolves happened in 1830-1840’s. The movies are similar because the events that happened in history happened around the same time period. They were exact, but around the same time. The movies are different because the Sioux in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee spoke in english and not in their language. This