Revealing mistake: In the extended version of the film during the buffalo hunt, there is a shot of a buffalo making a turn and in the distant horizon, you can briefly see a modern radio tower on top of a hill.
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Kevin Costner
Starring: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Lt. Dunbar (Costner) returns to his post after a long stay with the Sioux, to find that the post is being occupied by Union soldiers. They mistake him for a Sioux and shoot down his horse. As they take him away to have him killed, a bunch of the soldiers shoot Two Socks, and kill him. Wind in his Hair and a few other Sioux, catches up to them. They kill the soldiers and rescue Dunbar. Dunbar warns the tribe that he is now a target to the army, and that if they find him, they will surely wipe out the tribe also. Ten Bears believes him, but assures him that he doesn't exist as Lt. John Dunbar anymore, he is known as a Sioux warrior named Dances with Wolves. The soldiers closing in, find the abandoned camp of the Sioux, if not for Dunbar, they would've all been killed. Dunbar and Stands With a Fist (McDonnell) travel back to convince the white men to make peace with the Sioux.
David Dunn
More mistakes in Dances with Wolves
Major Fambrough: Sir knight? I've just pissed in my pants... and nobody can do anything about it.
Trivia: The wolf in the film was played by two different wolves. Neither knew how to howl, so a third wolf had to be brought in for the howling scene.
Question: Maybe I just missed something, but what's going on with Dunbar's military superior that he meets at the fort out west? He seems to think he's a king or something, referring to the frontier as the "realm" and Dunbar's travel companion as a "peasant." At the end of the scene he salutes Dunbar very sarcastically and then shoots himself. What does any of that have to do with the story?
Answer: So why was his journal so important to him? He knows lots of soldiers and many other whites are coming.
Answer: Because it documented his time at the fort and with the Indians and also what he learned from them during the period when he arrived before the Army did show up - This would have been crucial if there had been any trial which there was not as the Sioux rescued him from the situation.
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Chosen answer: It shows that the officer was mentally disturbed, and he was the only one in the fort who knew about Dunbar's assignment. It sets the story up so that Dunbar could live with the Indians without the Army interfering with his life (No one expected any communications to or from Dunbar).
Twotall