The camera pans to an extreme close up of the soldier in a final shot leading to the death of Twosocks, you can tell by the expression on the soldier’s face that he finds it funny. There is an extreme long shot of the wolf being shot and as Twosocks yelps with pain the soldiers cheer with excitement. The camera pans to a very long shot of the cart with Twosocks body laying in the foreground in a close up shot. The camera shows you Dances with wolves, the lower part of his face is covered up but you can tell he has given up all hope. Some soldiers run to have a look at the dead body of the wolf but an officer shoots at the soldier’s feet, to make them to come back.
There is an upward move of the camera so it looks down over the hill to show some Indians, the camera pans to an extreme close up of Wind in his hair who is covered in war paint, you can see the disgust in his face, the camera moves to Smiles a lot who is looking after the horses and it shows us the dead wolf again. The music becomes martial you can tell this because it has drumming in it.
The other sequence that caught my eye that also portrayed savagery is the killing of Christine’s family by the Pawnee Indians.
The sequence starts with an extreme close up of Stands with a fist’s head. Costner uses a flash back method to show Stands with a fist when she was a little girl, called Christine. The girl who plays Christine as a little girl is Kevin Costner’s real daughter. It is far more powerful to see how Christine became Stands with a fist with a flash back rather than to hear her saying it. The thing that hits you most is the way Costner dresses the children in white (which is the colour of innocence) and then he focuses on the children a lot to make an even bigger impact when they die.
The first thing we hear is her mother’s voice calling her in a kind of echo so you can tell it’s from her past. Stands with a fist moves her head towards the camera and you can tell she has been crying as she has been looking into her past trying to bring it back. The music now starts and it is very soft and gentle, there is a medium long shot of children playing with puppies and chicken, the little boy is dressed in white to show innocence, the music is still playing and you can just hear the grown ups talking and laughing under the music. Costner puts the grown ups voices behind the music as he doesn’t want them to break into the scene which is meant to focus on the children. The camera follows the children playing for a few seconds.
You can tell that something is wrong and that something bad is going to happen because the tempo in the music increases. The camera pans to a medium long shot of the picnic table where the settles are sitting. They all turn to something the audience cant yet see, the camera then moves up to show four Pawnees on horseback then the camera moves to show two white settles walking towards the Pawnee Indians. The white men are unarmed. The camera moves to behind Christine and Willy who are on top of a shed so it now shows everything they see, and then it moves to a close up of the children’s faces. They talk about what their fathers are doing and why they are talking to the Indians. The camera gives us a medium long shot of Pawnees approaching the white settlers, then it moves to a little girl dressed in white playing with the puppies, and back to Christine’s face. There is a medium long shot of the well and you can see a woman with two children behind the well and in the background you can see the four Pawnees and the two white men.
The music now changes, there is a lot more drumming and the tempo has increased. The camera does an extreme close up of the back of the two white men facing up to the Pawnees on horses. The white men turn to walk away. The Pawnee on the left pulls out his hatchet and throws it at one of the white men, the shot is played in slow motion while we hear the swishing of the hatchet and the thud it makes when it hits the white man. We suddenly go from an idyllic scene to men running and women screaming for their kids. The thing that makes this scene so bad is the mother’s screaming for their children and the whooshing of the flying hatchets, it is cacophony of sounds, the thing that stands out is Willy shouting ‘’Run Christine Run’’.
The camera stands still while Christine runs into the distance but then it moves back to the Indians as one Pawnee is off his horse and butchering someone with a hatchet, you can still hear Christine’s mum calling her.
The sequences end with a long shot of Christine still running and slowly disappearing like in the mist of time or like a ghost, being put back into the past; Christine is no longer Christine but ’’Stands with a fist’’.
The third sequence that I’m going to analyse is the exchanging of presents. This is not a stereotypical sequence, because Costner does show the Americans Indians being civilised. Through the uses of camera work, Costner mostly focuses on the build up of John Dumbar and Wind In His Hair’s friendship, because Wind In His hair at first didn’t really accept John Dumbar and throughout this sequence the two men start to build up a friendship. When the Indians do accept a present, they feel that in return they have to give back something, they see this more like a trade. Wind In His hair knows that John Dumbar will do no harm to any of his tribe as he has just saved Smiles A Lot who is Wind In His Hair’s brother.
The scene starts with a medium shot of the Indian village, with the background noise of songs, people laughing and dogs barking. This highlights that the tribe will survive another winter, as they were worried that they may not because they couldn’t find any buffalo. It’s very clear that the hero of the day is John Dumbar, the camera zooms on John Dumbar and Wind In His Hair who are both talking, then it pans on a close up of two dogs fighting over a bone. The American Indians would have eaten the dogs if they hadn’t found any buffalo.
The camera is placed at the back of John Dumbar and Wind In His Hair and it follows the two men as they approach the tepee where the story telling is being done. The American Indians were great storytellers, from them this was a way of teaching their younger generation and preserve the history of the tribe. The Indians had a strong oral tradition they used animal skins and painted pictures on them to help tell a story, they used pictures because they didn’t know how to write The camera focuses on the two men for a few seconds while they are trying to communicate despite the language barrier, they make themselves understood by the use of signs. John Dumbar is encouraged to tell the story of the buffalo again. There is an extreme close up of Wind In His Hair, where you can see in his eyes that his attention is on something else. As the camera pans on John Dumbar he realises that Wind In His Hair is looking at the buttons on his jacket. A close up of Wind In His Hair is taken when he’s touching the buttons, Wind In His Hair didn’t try to ask about the jacket he just touched it because Indians liked shiny things. This is the first real sign of friendship and It comes from John Dumbar asking him if he wanted to try the jacket on. There is an extreme close up of Wind In His Hair eating buffalo; you can see in his face that he is amazed that he can take the jacket. The camera stays focused on Wind In His Hair’s face as he throws the bone to the ground. Wind In His Hair takes off his breastplate, the breastplate that means a lot to Indians as it’s part of their culture and gives it to John Dumbar.
The camera slowly moves away from the extreme close up of Wind In His Hair, so we can see John Dumbar Giving Wind In His Hair his jacket and him putting it on. In return Wind In His Hair gives John Dumbar his breastplate, John Dumbar takes the gift that he has been given, he takes it so he does not offend Wind In His Hair.
In this sequence Costner is highlighting that if you want to mix cultures you have to make it work by learning each others languages, and making signs to understand each other and exchange gifts. Stereotypically Wind In His hair is portrayed like an Indian savage warrior. At first he didn’t like John Dumbar and he didn’t want to befriend him.
John Dumbar said ‘’good trade’’ when they hade done the trade. You can see that he doesn’t really understand what he said by the way the camera does a close up on his face. The camera goes behind them as they go. John Dumbar learns his first word ‘’kanji’’ which means ‘once more’.
For several seconds the camera stays on both men as they enter the tepee, as they are walking in, a close up of an Indian is shown. In this sequence there is no music only human sounds and natural noises. The Indians good humour helps to bring the two cultures together; John Dumbar finds it easy to fit in. There is a lot of humour between John Dumbar and Wind In His Hair. A close up of the two different men is made, Costner uses humour to show that there is some kind of understanding between them. The sequence shows a different side of Wind In His Hair, as he is the stereotypical savage, but you see a very nice man under all of the war paint on his face. There’s a medium shot of where John Dumbar is being the centre of attention and he is happy. This is then followed by a quick sequence of shots of different members of the tribe to highlight that John Dumbar has been accepted. The members of the tribe all look at him’
This is the point when the happy noises stop, and you get different close ups of the Indians. Then the camera goes behind an Indian and a medium shot of John Dumbar is taken. When the two men stand up it all goes quiet. We notice a dramatic change in the background noises as all goes completely quiet when John Dumbar realises that someone is wearing his hat. This part of the sequence starts wit lots of noise, and goes to a little less noise then the noises stop. John Dumbar and Wind In His Hair both rise and the camera rises with them. This is a traumatic point in the sequence and things could go horribly wrong. In the medium close up of John Dumbar we see that he’s trying to talk over the remaining noise. You can see that John Dumbar is looking at a camera, which is behind one of the Indians. The viewers can see what the problem is with a close up of the Indian wearing John Dumbar’s hat. The camera does a lot of panning between John Dumbar and the Indian who is wearing his hat. When the Indian starts to talk there is silence, he said ‘’I found it, so it’s my hat’’. Wind In His Hair at this point becomes more concerned about what could happen; you can see this when the camera does a close up of his face.
The camera slowly moves on to a close up of Stands With A Fist, she’s looking at John Dumbar. It then changes to a close p of Wind In His Hair; he can tell what could happen. Wind In His Hair’s eyes look like he’s been crying this is caused by the fire in the tepee, this effect is very realistic as fire makes your eyes water when confined in a small environment. Wind In His Hair gets up, the camera follows him. There is a meaningful close up of the two men standing next to each other, this shot points out the differences between the two men for example the facial hair, the Indians have no facial hair and the Americans do. In the camera shot the two men are made to look the same height, this highlights that they are equal.
Wind In His Hair acts as a go between trying to sort out the problem of the taken hat. There is a close up of Ten Bears. Wind in his hair talks to the Indian who took the hat, the Indian then looks to Ten Bears for support and Ten Bears (the chief) nods and the Indian agrees to the approval of the chief, The Indian has to give something back in return for the hat. There is a medium long shot of the two friends, Wind In Hair and John Dumbar in the left side of the shot and the other Indian on the right side of the shot, from this you can tell that the Indian is going to give in. we then have a close up of the Indian looking at his knife to show that the knife means a lot to him. The camera stays on the two friends.
John Dumbar uses a Lakota word, which is very important as Wind In His Hair uses the expression ‘’good trade’’. The use of this expression is the right place of the sequence, which is showing that Wind In His Hair wants to be John Dumbar’s friend. The noises then start to pick up again.
Kevin Costner has showed you a knew meaning to the word savagery. Stereotypically the Indians were bad and the American were peaceful but I know it was not like that Costner has made this film to show you that not everything is what it seems and you cannot put labels on things you don’t know anything about.
Colleen Wells
