Simplicity At Its Best

This past week, I was doing some clean-up in my kitchen. Of course the television was on (as it always is). I have it strategically set up so I can watch it while cooking, etc. I thought I’d find something to watch that would take an hour or so. Flipping through channels, nothing caught my attention until I came to Dances With Wolves. And to my glee, it had just started! Kitchen cleaning would have to wait. I took up residence in my comfy lazy-boy and gave myself the gift of the afternoon.

Now, if any of you have ever read any of my interviews in the past, if asked I will ALWAYS state this movie is my all-time favorite. No other has ever captured my imagination and pulled at my emotions like this story. I’m a nut for anything historical and even crazier about real romance. I bet I’ve seen Dances With Wolves at least fifteen times. I even have the sound track, which I’m listening to as I write this blog.

Dances With Wolves is simplicity at its best.

It is a sweeping epic western that defied all the odds. Who would have ever dreamed a two and a half hour movie with English subtitles could win numerous Oscars and Golden Globes? There were no pyrotechnics, but instead campfires. One could almost smell the charred wood and the wispy trails of smoke. There were no blue screens with hurricane force fans off to the side as an actor sat atop a fake horse, but actual riders on horseback racing hell-bent across a prairie. There was no computer animation where characters shot through the sky or where unearthly monsters leapt past the camera lens.

Yet there were times during this modern classic that I sat on the edge of my chair, my breath hitched in my throat. There were times I swiped at my tears and moments I chuckled to myself. And it was partly due to the beautiful, breathtaking windswept vistas of South Dakota and Wyoming. It was due to a perfectly told story, a statement of truth as to what happened during a period of US history, a journey on the screen that pulled at my heartstrings.

Being a writer, to me the movie, Dances With Wolves, is a perfect example of how the most important thing is always the story, is always the emotional connection a viewer or reader has with the characters, and goes to show if a story captures your imagination then greatness is defined. And it can be done without all the modern day fanfare. It can be real and honest.

Yup, simplicity at it’s very best.

Ruby