与狼共舞

 
  The movie Dances with Wolves is an extremely well written story about a veteran of the civil war who is trying to get on with his life. During the story Lieutenant Dunbar is trying to get past all of the savage actions that he was forced to proceed with during the most terrible war America has ever witnessed. He is shipped out to an abandoned post on the frontier where he is supposed to be fighting the Indians but instead he decides to make friends with them. He decides to be friends with them because he is tired of fighting. In the end he becomes one of the tribe and has a nice wife who was also adopted by the tribe. In the end all he wanted is to live freely and peacefully. This is one of the best written books that I have read in a long time, it keeps the readers interest which can be a very hard task at times.

  The director depicts Dunbar as a strong human character, who despite his surrounding circumstances, has lived productively and organized his week-days. Later he becomes friends with an Indian tribe and soon he finds his love. My favorite part of the movie is the development of the main character, because the audience are gradually introduced to a dynamic, handsome individual with a strong soul. When I watch the movie I learned about the life and traditions of Native Americans.

  The movie illustrates how important it is to change one's identity in order to survive in a different culture. The overall tone of the story is encouraging. This is an honest tale that describes relationships between an American soldier and Native Americans. The Comanche, a Native American tribe, is depicted here as real people. We gain access to the life of the main character through his intimate thoughts and feelings.

  What's most impressive about the film is how realistic it is. The world of the Native Americans comes to elegant life with incredible detail. Moreover, its leisurely pace, the subtitles, the wide-open spaces, the landscapes ... the physical aspects alone of this movie were enough to turn my head completely around. To say nothing of the score, the photography, the writing, the characters, the acting, and Kevin Costner's lovely, skillful, controlled direction.

  Anyway, I like the movie which makes me smile, laugh and sometimes want to cry.

  看这部电影之前心情极度低落，拖着有些疲惫的身心坐在屏幕前有点呆滞。
  影片开始于战场，可能是它们的硝烟太过于猛烈，致使我暂时忘却了自己的疼痛，很快跟上了电影的节奏。男主角因为残腿对人生失去了希望，于是他跨上马狂奔向两军对垒的战场之间，这之前两军都在静静地等待，等待一个开火的好时机。这匹像脱了缰狂奔的野马的突然出现，使枪炮开始奏起了交响乐，就像赛跑场上的起跑枪鸣一样有效。而邓巴这方的军队看着自己的战士“勇敢”地冲向敌军，大受鼓舞，因此而打了个胜仗。可谁知道，邓巴的此举却是为了死。多么的讽刺！
  而当我看着邓巴高举着双手，像是在对生命和阳光做最后一次的拥抱，和那匹马奔驰在战壕的时候，泪水狂泻下来，止不住的流。心想，邓巴这样的决绝到底有多深？
  也许是哭出来后心中的郁结也被冲刷而去，就更能平静下来好好地欣赏完这部佳作。
  狼是种孤独的动物，邓巴想死的心也是孤独的。而电影名字为与狼共舞，是否是说他俩在经历了某种奇迹之后都不再孤独？其实人都是孤独的，而那个让你被孤立的人就是人自己。我那时的不快乐是自己造成，很多事是怪不得别人的。这部电影虽然讲的是印第安人，美国西部的世界，但是我看到了生活的某些指向标。很有意义的一部电影，喜欢一次一次地观看，怎么都不生厌。

应该说，最初的时候，邓巴中尉是以文明者的形象出现在这片土地上的，他的军装衣料考究，他写日记，他拥有一切文明人都拥有的特质。而那些印第安土著的苏族人则衣不蔽体、身上涂满象征民族图腾的颜料、手拿原始的弓箭，看的时候甚至会暗暗担心这些人会不会是远古的食人族，会把这个孤零零的白人吞的连骨头都不剩。
但人是耐不住寂寞的种群，套用一句哲学的话来讲——人具备社会的属性，哪怕这个“社会”仅仅是一个印第安的部落。草原的生活让邓巴首先结识了一头狼，而正是与这头狼的接触使得印第安的苏族人开始认可他的存在，并由此诞生了他的印第安名字——与狼共舞，这个名字同时还是这部电影的片名以及主题。印第安苏族的野蛮形象也在邓巴的融入中一点点淡化，这群人热爱自然、热爱自己生活的家园、相互依赖、相互信任，构成的事一个和谐自然的大家庭。这是邓巴从未接触和感受过的，他一步步走进这个家庭，成为这个家庭的一份子。
所以，当有外敌入侵的时候，邓巴义不容辞的拿出了文明社会文明进步的标志——枪，这些枪帮助苏族人取得胜利的同时，苏族的单纯与原始开始不复存在。
下一步就显得那么理所当然，白人的军队开始进驻这片土地，这些接受过文明教育的人在一开始就用武力对待他们的同胞，仅仅是因为邓巴的穿着打扮是印第安土著的打扮。他们对他拳脚相加，他们把他的日记一页页撕开当做厕纸，他们向“两只白袜”开枪，不是为了衣食，仅仅是为了找乐子狂欢。当他们被印第安人全部收拾掉的时候，你会觉得他们是那么活该，那么罪有应得。
可是，一个无可挽回的悖谬就这样出现了。表面上，印第安的一个孩子干掉了一个美国士兵，而事实上，这个孩子却因为杀掉一个人而变成了白人文明侵蚀掉的第一个受害者。
当白人的枪声在这片土地上响起的时候，印第安文明注定会伴随着这一声枪响烟消云散。影片的结尾用字母向我们揭示：十三年后，他们的家园毁了，野牛群也消失了。在内布拉斯加州罗宾逊堡，最后一群苏族人归顺了白人，伟大的平原马背文明消失，美国边疆成为历史。
看到这，真的很难说清，究竟谁是代表了野蛮，谁又代表了文明。看似文明的白人却在暴力血腥的对待着自己的同胞，对待草原上的生灵；而看似野蛮的印第安土著反而明白对自然的索取不能过量，明白要爱护自己极爱那个中的每一个成员。但是那个时代一去不复返了，印第安的混血后裔今天活跃在美国影坛，主演世界闻名的爱情魔幻电影《暮光之城》，不知道当他被问到这段历史的时候，会作何感想。
自由宣言的火炬下，那些土著的文明，包括印第安、也包括墨西哥，他们的贡献功不可没。不知道美国电影学会将这部电影评为奥斯卡最佳影片的时候，是不是想向那些被野蛮侵占的文明表达一丝微弱的悔恨与歉意。

when you come across the term “a native American”, I just wonder, what kind of image will you form in your mind? Feather headdresses, exposed chest, a spear in his hand. And what kind of cognition will you have? cruel, bloody, primitive, animal, beast.
Well, I have to admit that I used to depict American Indians in that way. But I have overcome these biases and corrected my opinion about the aboriginals and the white since I watched the film dance with wolves.

Dances with wolves, directed and starred by Kevin Costner, is a 1990 epic film which is set in US civil war in the mid-19 century. A United States Lieutenant John Dunbar travels to the American Frontier to find a military post. There he is supposed to fight against the Indians whereas he tries to make friends with them because of loneliness and tiredness of battle. They visit each other once in a while and their communication is quite difficult because of language barrier. Later, with the help of a white woman who is taken by the Sioux tribe as a young orphan, Dunbar establishes a rapport with the tribe’s medicine man called kicking bird. As he stays with these Indians, he finds himself drawn to the lifestyle and customs of the tribe. So he helps them locate a migrating herd of buffalo and defends the settlement against a Pawnee raiding party, which eventually makes him a hero and accepted as a full member of the tribe with a new name, dance with wolves. Peaceful life ends when the white men appear on the prairie. Dunbar is arrested by the reinforcing army troops as a deserter and later rescued by warriors from the tribe. At the end of the story, Dunbar decides to leave the tribe with his wife, in order to protect the rest and find a resolution to the white-Indian conflict.

The story itself is a touching one, but it’s not the most impressive part of the film to me. It is the depiction of the tribe, the representation of the aboriginal culture and the comparison between the white men’ behavior and the Indians’ one that leave a deep impression on me. Viewing from the director’s perspective, the Indian tribe was not as primitive as we thought, and the Native Americans were not as cruel and stupid as we learned from textbooks. They had their own culture, unique but not that inferior. They had their own ethic, exotic but harmless. Just as dance with wolves himself said in the film: “I have never known people so eager to laugh, so devoted to family, so dedicated to each other. And the only word came to mind was harmony.” Ironically, whenever and wherever the acknowledged civilized and educated white men appear, there are always wars, battles, lies and conflicts, either at the beginning of the film or the end of the story. The director’s brave and honest presentation of the racial conflict backs us to question: whether different cultures can be equally valuable? Even if not, is it humanitarian to slaughter in the name of progress?

It entertains. It educates. It provokes and persuades, moves and motivates. That’s the attraction of Dance with wolves.