The Garden of the Blind

Last night, I watched Dances With Wolves. I used to watch this movie about once a month or so, but it had been years since the last time I saw it. The intervening years took me from a young teenager to a full-fledged adult in his mid to late twenties, with high school, college, and the internet under my belt (none of which I had then). With the changes in me, I was not surprised to note them bringing changes in the movie.

I paid a lot more attention to when Dances With Wolves and Stands With a Fist first get together. I didn’t have much awareness about cultural proprieties the last time I saw it, and I didn’t realize what a big deal it was for them to hook up when they did. I also didn’t register until this time that they first “got together” before their wedding. Busy bee indeed.

I had a better eye for cinematography this time. Many of the shots in the film were beautiful. I guess I saw that before, but I didn’t appreciate how rare a thing it was to have a movie look that good.

The movie is full of anachronistic attitudes. Dunbar seems to have a remarkably clear vision of what will happen to the plains, especially since the land he went to was completely empty when he got there. In reality, people still haven’t seen fit to stop in the Dakotas on their way west. The biggest loss from the way things were in the movie is that of the native cultures, rather than the environmental losses from white men taking over everything.

This version of the film included quite a few extended and deleted scenes, right in the regular flow of the film. Now, I’m all for including deleted scenes on DVDs, but I’m also quite the purist when it comes to theatrical content. Most of the time, the movie that hit the theaters is better than the movie that contains the deleted scenes, even when those scenes enhance the storyline (possible exceptions could include the Lord of the Rings movies, which are very impressive in their extended versions, although I contend that at least Fellowship was better in its shorter theatrical form). In this case, some of the scenes were just extra time that didn’t add to the film or story in any way (including a scene of Stands With a Fist first seeing her husband’s dead body), some didn’t make any sense at all (Kicking Bird taking Dances With Wolves on a trip with him, where they didn’t do anything), and some added material to the story (a new scene showed the previous soldiers at Fort Sedgwick and why they left). That last scene really bothered me because I felt it was better just never knowing why the fort was abandoned. Maybe it will grow on me eventually.

Anyway, it was good seeing this fantastic movie again. I always get a little choked up when Wind in His Hair calls out to Dances With Wolves at the end. "Dances With Wolves. I am Wind In His Hair. Do you see that I am your friend? Can you see that you will always be my friend?"