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Volume 1 (1999/2000)
Issue
1 (March 1999)
Issue
2 (Nov. 1999)
Issue 3 (Dec. 1999)
Issue 4 (Feb. 2000)
Issue 5 (March 2000)
Issue 6 (April 2000)
Issue
7 (May 2000)
Volume 2 (2000/2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2000)
Issue 2 (Oct. 2000)
Issue 3 (Jan. 2001)
Issue 4 (March 2001)
Issue 5 (April 2001)
Issue 6 (May 2001)
Volume 3 (2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2001)
Issue 2 (Nov. 2001)
Categories
Sport: 1
2 3
Lifestyles: 1 2
3
Commentary: 1 2
3
Review: 1 2
3
Writing: 1 2
3
Event: 1 2
3
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Alan Early
Marian College, Mohill, Co. Leitrim
The new English Leaving Cert Course includes
a list of five films to study. Alan Early reviews them:
Dances with Wolves
Cinema Paradiso
Room With A View
My Left Foot
The Third Man
Michael Blake originally planned this to be a novel but his good friend,
Kevin Costner, asked him to try the story as a screenplay. Blake decided
to do it as both and Costner directed the Oscar-winning film (Best Film
& Best Director) in 1990, receiving both critical and public acclaim.
Clocking in at a lengthy 183 minutes, it tells the tale of war-weary Robert
Dunbar who seeks peace in the American frontier. Here, he becomes friends
with a timid wolf and discovers a Sioux camp nearby. He endeavours to
become their friend, guessing words in the Sioux language but that can
only bring him so far. Fortunately a White girl adopted by the Sioux starts
to remember her English-speaking past and becomes a translator.
There are plenty of promising aspects to 'Dances With Wolves'. The visually
stunning landscape of the Prairie is something to behold. And the depiction
of the madness of war is both truthful and shocking, as illustrated when
a General shoots himself for no apparent reason. But there are also reasons
for complaint - for example, the view of the Sioux is historically inaccurate
as they were just as violent as their enemy, the Pawnee. (Also keep an
eye open for a collar on one of the wolves). The running time is also
too long - imagine having to sit through the 4 hour special edition! However,
it is an epic.
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