I was eleven years old when this movie first came to theaters. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it on the big screen. My parents rented it sometime later when it was out on video cassette and I watched it with them. Truthfully, this is one of the greatest movies about Native American culture in addition to the unusually bonding friendship of a white eighteenth century Cavalry officer who is dwelling in seclusion on a prairie. John Dunbar is his name, and after encountering a grieving, suicidal Caucasian woman dressed in Native American flare who is bleeding to death after cutting herself, he takes her to a nearby Indian territory believing that she belongs to them. At first he is ordered to leave even though they take the woman back into their custody. Later when they find John's secluded place out on the prairie, they befriend him and begin to understand him better. From there, he is accepted into their tribe and eventually falls in love with the Caucasian woman that he found who's name is Stands With A Fist. Later, John discovers that her husband was killed, which explains her suicidal grievance in addition to the fact that when she was a little girl, her family got murdered by an evil Mohawk warrior cult, which resulted in her being taken into custody by the Sioux tribe. What I loved most was how Stands With A Fist was unsure about John at first, but then fell hopelessly in love with him later.
This undeniably was one of the greatest movies of 1990 and is still to this day one of my absolute favourites! I highly recommend it for anyone who has never had the opportunity of seeing it!
~Dutch