History Awesome / DancesWithWolves

* John Dunbar's failed suicide attempt. Just the glorious way he spread his arms out free while riding in front of the Confederates who, miraculously, just keep missing him. Rifled muskets of that era being far more accurate than the smoothbores of only a few decades earlier, Dunbar's survival of that ride is a real eyebrow raiser.

* During Dunbar's rescue, the soldier who helped Elgin rein in the others takes an arrow to the chest but shrugs it off and rides forward, shooting.
* The rescue scene when the Sioux party ambushes the transporting convoy and proceeds to wipe out the whole platoon of soldiers.
** Special mentions to John Dunbar killing [[{Jerkass}} Spivey]] in a slow painful death as payback for abusing him and lying about his journal while he was captured, interrogated, and being transported.

* The rescue scene when the Sioux party ambushes the transporting convoy and proceeds to wipe out the whole platoon of soldiers. Special mentions to John Dunbar killing Spivey for abusing him while he was captured and being transported.

* John Dunbar's failed suicide attempt. Just the glorious way he spread his arms out free while riding in front of the Confederates who, miraculously, just keep missing him. While bullets at the time were still notorious for curving to the point where most shots missed, Dunbar's survival of that ride is still an eyebrow raiser.

* John Dunbar's failed suicide attempt. Just the glorious way he spread his arms out free while riding in front of the Confederates who, miraculously, just keep missing him.
** Actually, bullets at the time were still notorious for curving to the point where most shots missed (however, the meneball bullet was still a ''lot'' better at going straight than ammunition from previous wars). Even so, Dunbar's survival of that ride is still an eyebrow raiser.

* After Wes Studi's Pawnee kills Stone Calf, he is shot with an arrow by Smiles a Lot, Otter, and Worm. He then charges them on horseback and Smiles a Lot is the only one to stand his ground.

* John Dunbar is captured in [[GoingNative full Sioux dress]] by [[EvilArmy US soldiers]]. They aren't being very polite with their interrogation, so Dunbar gives up trying to tell them about his orders, and decides to tell them in the Lakota language who he has become:

* The spectacular Buffalo Hunt, made all the more grand by John Barry’s majestic musical score.

* There is the moment when John is charged with helping protect the camp's women, children and seniors while the men are on campaign. Suddenly, it is discovered that a Pawnee war party is coming to attack and they will not leave survivors. At that, John tells the camp that he has a cache of rifles buried and he and a boy frantically search for and dig it up. As a result, the Pawnee get a ''big'' surprise when they expect to do an easy massacre, only to find their would-be victims are equipped with state of the art personal firepower and mowing them down.

** Actually, bullets at the time were still notorious for curving to the point where most shots missed (however, the meneball bullet was still a ''lot'' better at going straight than ammunition from previous wars). Still, Dunbar's survival of that ride is still an eyebrow raiser.
* John Dunbar is captured in [[GoingNative full Sioux dress]] by [[EvilArmy US soldiers]]. They aren't being very polite with their interogation, so Dunbar gives up trying to tell them about his orders, and decides to tell them in the Lakota language who he has become:

** Actually, bullets at the time were still notorious for curving to the point where most shots missed (though still a ''lot'' better than ammunition from previous wars). Still, Dunbar's survival of that ride is still an eyebrow raiser.

* John Dunbar's failed suicide attempt. Just the glorious way he spread his arms out free while riding in front of the Confederates who, miraculously, just keep missing him.