Last night I watched Dances with Wolves again. I forgot how long it is - over 3 hours - but it was so interesting that I didn't notice the time at all. I'm working my way through the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Films. This is #75 on the first version of the list.
I remember when it first came out in 1990 (20 years ago - good heavens!). It must have been around Thanksgiving when the sister who is almost exactly 6 years younger came to town, as she has, off and on (mostly on) for T-Day all these years. A good movie has been part of our tradition, and that year we picked Dances with Wolves. I have a mental picture of her in the movie theater parking lot as we walked in the dark back to our car. We had run out of superlatives for what we had just seen and were continuing in silence when my sister let out a genuine blood-curdling war whoop! It was the perfect "review."
She's coming to town again this Thanksgiving and I'll be adding this memory to my list of things to be grateful for.
Posts
The reason I like that movie so much is the landscape on which it was filmed. I love the Dakota plains. I think perhaps we imprint on the first landscapes we see as a child. For me a tall grass prairie is one of the most beautiful landscapes that there is. The scene where the brave is standing in the prairie and his hands absentmindedly skim the tops of the grass is very evocative for me.
ReplyDeleteYes! Those of us who ever lived in the grasslands of North Dakota felt right at home watching DWW. I know I thought it was beautiful sometimes - tremendous puffy white clouds in a big sky, and amazing sunsets - but I also remember (age 6-9) once in a while feeling very frightened and alone on the planet if I got too far out of town (Bismarck) into the prairie. --Maj. Reader
ReplyDeletethe grasslands ARE fabulous, but what I loved most of all about living in North Dakota was the meadowlarks.
ReplyDeleteXE: That's what's so sad about being too young to appreciate things like wonderful birds. Birds didn't get picked up on my 9-yr-old radar apparently. --Maj. Reader
ReplyDeleteYeah, that IS a good memory. I just felt like ... I was "bursting" when I came out of that movie. It was a neat movie and then... SUCH a nice evening when we got out of the theater, that... I just had to let it out! ha ha!
ReplyDeleteyou lived in a different area and a more built-up time....our house on 2nd street N in fargo was just a block or two from a huge empty field that ran all the way to the river. that's where the birds nested, and where they sang their hearts out. we even had some little quail dancing in a circle in our backyard once.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! You can be "Dances With Quail!"
ReplyDelete