与鸭共舞

屠杀印第安人奴役黑人排斥华人，这就是美国的人权历史。关于黑人反抗的影片尤其多，正面印第安人的毛鳞凤角，华人的基本没有。当年能拍出这么一部影片，无论从创作方式还是价值观念都是一次创举。只可惜，印第安人已然几近绝种。
关于忠诚、勇气、理解、友谊、爱情以及人性的善恶面，人类文明的进程就是伴随着杀戮和剥削而来。影片配上业已消逝的神秘西部处女地的美丽画面以及无与伦比的约翰·巴里式恢宏配乐，珍惜回味那仅存的良知和美好吧~
赛德克巴莱加上与狼共舞让我对土著居民有了可能偏正面的具体形象。踢鸟和吐吐沫多有诸多相似之处。让人想到人类社会原始状态与现代的异同，以及亲近融入自然的状态。

 
  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.

西部片后期的经典之作《与狼共舞》（Dancce With Wolves）是好莱坞明星凯文，科斯特纳自导自演的剧情长片，影片描述在美国南北战争末期，北军中尉邓巴与拉科塔印地安人的故事，电影的对白多使用拉科塔印第安人语言，配以英语字幕，这在当时的美国电影圈很罕见。

本片获得七座奥斯卡金像奖，票房也大获成功，象征着西部片在好莱坞的复兴。2007年，此片因为它「文化上、历史上、美学上」的重要价值，被选为美国国家电影保护局典藏。

《故事开篇》是美国南北战争战场，战事焦灼之际北方联邦军的一名军官约翰邓巴（凯文科斯特纳饰演）的脚已血肉模糊受伤严重，他忍痛穿上军靴， 犹如壮士赴死般毅然策马奔驰穿梭在南军的枪林弹雨中，他奇迹般毫发无伤平安而归，并强势助力北军转败为胜。

在众人认为他即将受到拔擢赏识，军途一片光明美好时，他却自愿请调到充满危险与未知的西部荒原边疆驻守。这跌破众人眼镜的选择完全缘自他对战争的厌弃与质疑。于是一个孤独寻求生命价值的英雄踏上一段探索与凡俗价值截然不同的旅程。

但当他随着补给蓬车抵达边疆营地时，却发现此地早已被弃守，基于一丝希望，于是他单独留守在该营地里，并开始自己在荒野上打理生活，也与一只狼结成朋友（此狼因脚上有两片白毛而被他称为「双袜」），邓巴中尉的营地离一个拉科塔营区不远，他也逐渐发展出与拉科塔人的友谊。

在碉堡驻守时，邓巴逐渐认识这群印地安人，学习他们的语言之后，他对印地安人的认识也由原本的疑惧转为钦佩、向往，最后，他离开营地与印地安人一同生活。这段无疑是表达了反战的思想，两种不同文化的人，如何因开放的心胸，善意的互相尊重彼此帮助，进而成为互相欣赏平等的好朋友。而不是相互攻击的仇敌。片中邓巴和拉科塔好手捕捉野牛的一场戏，镜头以仰角拍摄硕大的野牛奔驰时中箭倒地朝镜头冲来的瞬间，低沉有力的撞击声和扬起的大片尘土不仅满足渴望刺激的视觉与听觉享受，也衬托出印地安人英勇矫健的身手。而本片也精心安排呈现出许多南北战争时期白人和印地安人的生活文化，让观众能看见当年草原上印第安文化的风貌。

在白人和印第安人、印第安不同部落间，战争仍然是无法避免的重要篇章。历史上，白人残暴大量屠杀了印第安人，死于印第安人仇恨报复下的白人也不少，反战者唾弃战争，仍然无法避免弱者为反抗强权压迫侵略，保护家族而勇敢抵抗的战争，这也是导演认同师出有名的战争。做为英雄人设的主角当然是为公义扶弱的一方，他投入为保护拉科塔而抵抗美军与猎头族的阵营。

最后邓巴与妻子颠踬跋涉在冰雪漫漫的险峻峡谷中，企求将事实真相公诸于世。这里象征人类为追求正义和平的道路是何等的崎岖困难，也是英雄无法避免责无旁贷的生命道路。

《与狼共舞》是独立制片体系下的作品，虽然没有庞大制作预算，但是呈现的却是一部不输好莱坞电影的杰作。本片有深刻浓厚的人文视野，中心主题严肃的探讨反思了战争、英雄、正义、生命等等重要价值传递表达十分成功。镜头大量摄取美西草原的壮丽开阔自然风光，整体呈现出一部气势磅礴的史诗经典作品。

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.