1). Does anyone know how much actual Sioux was spoken in the movie? I have noticed (on multiple viewings, obviously), that many of the actors end their sentences with the same phrase (or sounds). Especially Costner… The sound is something like “el-lo”… Often, with the preceding words, it sounds like “yellow”, with the accent on the second syllable.
I have wondered if this was an actual way the Sioux spoke, and this was the way they ended their sentences, or, more likely, it was a couple of syllables put together for non-Sioux speakers to sound more “Sioux-like”. Graham Greene also did it, as did many of the actors, however some never use it. That made me wonder if some of the actors actually spoke Sioux.
If anyone can actually speak Sioux, it would be great to know how accurate the translation was. It always sounded very authentic to me, especially some of the older characters who would speak on occassion (the old woman who spoke in the tent after their fight with the rival tribe, when Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist sneak off to be together was especially convincing, because she makes a strong throat sound, almost the same as the sound the French make when speaking.)
2) was there any explaination for the scene with the crazy officer who sent DWW to the fort on the frontier and then blew his brains out? I have never been able to come to any real conclusion as to why the scene was necessary… Was it to show that people who were assigned to remote posts went crazy over time? Or was it to indicate that people who were assigned to these posts were unstable in some way, and if they were valuable as soldiers, they would be fighting in the Civil War?
I know it may have no deeper meaning, and it was just a dramatic way to send him off to the unknown, but it has always made me wonder if there was any reason why Costner made that scene the way he did.
If you don’t know, but have a theory, please share it.
I don’t know about the language, but the officer who killed himself was at that point in the story the only one who knew where Costner was going. If I recall correctly, he folded up the orders and put them in a drawer and then shot himself. Bear in mind it’s been 20 years or so since I saw the film, but I seem to recall that the gist of it was that nobody knew where Costner was and thus he could spend a long time on his own.
White people be crazy. You’ve got him. The post (the one Costner was going to) commander seen in the director’s cut. The guy who took Costner to the post was eccentric as hell. The degenerates among the guys that captured Costner. The guys who shot his wolf.
Hence why Costner sadly lingers over the body of the only decent white guy in the relief corps.
The Lak[sup]h[/sup]ota language uses “enclitic particles” at the ends of sentences to 1) affirm the speaker’s gender and 2) indicate what kind of sentence it is.
The particle yeló means masculine speaker, declarative sentence; yo is the same but with stronger emphasis.
Similarly ye means feminine speaker, declarative sentence; *kštó *is the same but with stronger emphasis. Etc.
I asked the same question in the thread why did the officer piss in his pants. But I wasnt really satisfied with the answers.
If you want to say that war makes people crazy, it seems to me that the scene was a completely unrealistic and illogicial way to show it.
In real life, people would have come running immediately after hearing the gunshot, and in real life there would have been what we today call a “paper trail”. Even back then, the govermnent would have signed contracts with civilian suppliers for purchases of a wagonload of supplies and payment to the driver…
(interesting fact: over a half century earlier, when the country was much,much more primitive, the Lewis and Clark explorers carried government contracts authorizing them to pay for supplies from beaver traders, etc.)