Best South Dakota movies

A writer came up with the best movies (or TV shows) about South Dakota. Two of the five feature Indians.

The Fives:  Move aside AFI, here's a movie list South Dakotans can dig their teeth intoI put together my own list: The five best films made (in part) or featuring South Dakota.

5. "Into the Wild"
4. "Incident at Oglala"

This highly celebrated and controversial movie was one of the catalysts that propelled the Leonard Peltier case into a cause celebre worldwide. Robert Redford's film, which follows the path largely set out by author Peter Matthiessen in "In The Spirit of Crazy Horse" in examining Leonard Peltier's role--or lack, thereof, depending on whom you ask--in the murder of two FBI agents on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the tumultuous 1970s when Dick Wilson's goons and American Indian Movement sympathizers turned the reservation upside down with violence.

3. "Deadwood"
2. "Dances with Wolves"

If "Deadwood" was a boon to one town, Kevin Costner's "Dances With Wolves" was a boon to the entire state.

Filmed in South Dakota, "Dances With Wolves" epic examination of the post-Civil War westward expansion by the U.S. Army and one man's fictional encounter with Native American culture and his immersion into it was Costner's crowning achievement, both as an actor and as a director. The film was a hit among movie goers and among movie critics.

1. "North by Northwest"Comment:  I haven't seen Into the Wild or Deadwood, but I'd put Skins and Imprint on this list before Incident at Oglala and North by Northwest. Dances with Wolves and Imprint probably would be my top two.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.