Episode 107 - Dances with Wolves

The Kevin Costner vanity project "Dances with Wolves" beat
"GoodFellas" for Best Picture in 1990. That's right, this
three-hour goofy slog that was heralded as the first movie not to
have two-dimensional Native American characters, took home the
gold statue. The problem? Even if its Lakota characters had
actual names and dialogue, they're still depicted as Noble
Savages who seem more like cavemen than fleshed-out individuals.


Kevin Costner clownishly plays a Civil War Union soldier named
Lt. John Dunbar who goes on a suicide mission rather than have
his leg amputated and then is considered brave when he doesn't
die miraculously. This hero status then gives him the opportunity
to go to any military post he desires, and he chooses one out in
the Western American Frontier, because, as he says, "He wants to
see it before it's gone." Right, because he knew in 1863 that
Walmarts would soon be everywhere (just the first of many
heavy-handed environmental messages Costner shoves down our
throats). Dunbar then meets the Lakota tribe, befriends them, and
then eventually becomes one of them, shunning his American
identity forever.


Mary McDonnell plays Stands With A Fist, a white woman whose
family was killed by the Pawnee, and then was found and adopted
by the Lakota. Of course, she acts as a translator and then also
the love interest for him. Because she’s white, so what’s not to
love. Even though she looks like she was electrocuted.


Graham Greene plays Kicking Bird, the tribe’s holy man, who
befriends Dunbar and is also the adopted father of Stands With A
Fist (even though in real life she’s older than him). He’s
depicted as nice, but also incredibly simple. Just like all the
Lakota in this. And all the American soldiers for that matter.


Join us as we tear apart the historical inaccuracies in the film,
marvel at its goofiness, and also talk about how one of the
actors in this murdered his wife in real life later.


ALSO: Here's the NYT article Keating mentions at the end about
Costner being hated by the Lakota.


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This episode is sponsored by Jizz to Say I'm Sorry.


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