‘Wolves’ and Violence

Regarding the letter by Lois Franz (Dec. 9):

Yes, we did have to see the cruelty to innocents committed in “Dances With Wolves,” for without it the film would have been just a piece of entertainment instead of the thought-provoking work of art that it is. I do not enjoy watching pointless or excessive violence on the screen, but I do respect Kevin Costner and screenwriter Michael Blake’s decision to be true and accurate to history, even if it means being a little gory.

The horse and wolf’s deaths symbolize the contempt of the earlier American Anglo-Saxons for the natural land and all the creatures that lived upon it; this contempt for the natural state was the basis for the mind-set of “manifest destiny” that destroyed the Sioux and many other Native American tribes. Also, what would a genuine study of the Sioux culture be without looking at the core of the culture, the buffalo hunt? It would be like watching a movie on American culture and not seeing one person eating a hamburger or going to a baseball game.

I recommend to Franz that, if she wants to see only entertaining movies, she rent “The Care Bears” at the local video store; that should be suitably unrealistic and unartistic for her.

MARLO PACULDO

San Clemente