Answer the following question: Build a movie plot around this: How does Colonel William Ludlow feel about indian wars? He has grown tired of the carnage and futility of war.
Answer:
This is a wonderful yet heartrending period piece, as told by an elderly Native American through a collection of family letters he accumulated and saved over time.The right and proper Colonel William Ludlow, (Anthony Hopkins), a veteran of the Native American wars that took place in the late 19th century, has grown tired of the carnage and futility of war. Moreover, he detests the governments and their greed that propagated the battles he has fought. In the opening sequence, the teepees have been struck, the fires, billowing white smoke as they symbolically die out, along with the hope and freedom of "the People."At first glance, the viewer might believe he is observing the remnants of the Colonel's last battle. Then a child is seen by his side, and the mood changes as the realization that the look in his eyes is not one of the victor, but that of sadness as he has come to know and respect the People, and forcing them from their home has brought him to his breaking point. He tosses his saber and sheath into the ground in disgust, viewing his humbled former enemy, and turns his back to the camera, and on his former life. The scene is similar to "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" in that the Native Americans, those who survived, are seen defeated and disheartened, abandoning what was once their home. The look on the "victorious" Colonel's face as he views his one time enemies says it all.Hopkins takes his wife, (Cristina Pickles) three sons, (Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas), and trusted Cree guide, One Stab, (excellent perfomance by Gordon Tootoosis, who also narrates), and his family on a quest to "lose the madness over the mountains and begin again." Although filmed almost entirely in British Columbia, the setting for the film is the mountains near Helena, Montana. The scenery alone is reason enough to let yourself become lost in this film; temporarily lost from the madness.The story unfolds as the boys are still in their teens, and the youngest of the three, Samuel, (Thomas), is constantly watched over...