O Pequeno Grande Homem

53. LITTLE BIG MAN (western, 1970) From his Hospital bedside 121-year old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) recounts his exploits to a reporter: Captured by Cheyenne Indians at the age of 10 he's integrated into their 'alien' society and made the son of Indian 'Old Lodge Skies' (Chief Dan George). Proving his courage despite his short stature he's given the name of 'Little Big Man'. During the Indian Wars Jack is returned to white society. There he works as a shopkeeper, gunfighter, and finally used as an Indian Scout. The latter landing him under the command of General Custer (Richard Mulligan), who's putting together an army to fight the Indians at Little Big Horn.

Critique: Extremely enjoyable, epic western directed by Arthur Penn. Praised for its depiction of Native Americans, it has biting satirical (and political) touches, saddled with farcical historical accounts of the Indian Wars. The once controversial aspects were meant to represent the ideologies of the time, but it has not lost any of its grit.

What I like the most is its unique interpretation of Indians. Never in the long cycles of American westerns were Indians presented as almost alien, coming across as a mythical people whose ignorance of political maneuvers and technology proved their downfall. A very bitter and sad farewell swansong to what war and genocide has taken away.

Atypical cast delivers strong passages but you won't forget the 2-standout roles of General Custer as portrayed by the maniacal Richard Mulligan and 'Old Lodge Skies' played by the philosophical Chief Dan George.

QUOTES: Old Lodge Skies: "There is an endless supply of white men. But there has always been a limited number of 'human beings'. We won today, we won't win tomorrow."

Little Big Man (1970)

Well, this was destined to be a headliner--Arthur Penn directing (after "Bonnie and Clyde") and Dustin Hoffman (after "The Graduate" and "Midnight Cowboy"). And it's a comedy in the wackiest way. Hoffman is a survivor from Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand) and this is an invented life up to that point, told from memory to man with a tape recorder at the age of 123.

And the old (old!) Hoffman is pretty terrific, mostly in the narration, but including some pretty caked on make-up, too. Most of the movie is a young Hoffman as both Indian and White Man (alternating, depending on how he gets miraculously saved from one disaster after another). It's a farce, yes, but there are overtones of tragedy throughout (the annihilation of a race can only be so funny for so long) and there are some truly violent scenes, mostly of Indians being slaughtered by the Army.

It might help to know this is a metaphor of sorts about the brutality of the Army in Vietnam, which was raging at the time. It does make it all less frivolous. But it's also just fine as a crazy retelling of the last great famous Indian War, and the events (more or less) leading up to it. Hoffman is terrific in his usual way, and the support around him funny, especially the old Indian Chief, played by Chief Dan George. The two other big stars appear only briefly, Faye Dunaway in a couple scenes, and Martin Balsam in one. It's really Hoffman's film, and Penn's, too, with a grand and complex range of scenes inside and out, night and day, city and wide open country.

It didn't strike me as a brilliant film, or even as funny as it could have been, but it's endlessly engaging and there are some witty and funny moments sprinkled all through. It is long, and I might not call it slow even though it feels like it drags here and there, for sure.

Long before FORREST GUMP, there was LITTLE BIG MAN. Jack Crabb rubbed shoulders with some of the Wild West's most famous (and infamous) characters. Dustin Hoffman, as Crabb, is at his very best here. It helps that the movie is also beautifully written and directed. At once dramatic and funny and poignant, LITTLE BIG MAN is one of those rare movies you want all of your best friends to see. Do them (and yourself) a favor and track down a copy: the only one who'll be disappointed is that guy who just doesn't like anything...

My parents purchased a VHS copy of Little Big Man for me when I was 14 and, because it was a western, I didn't touch it for two years, in spite of their belief in its greatness. When I finally watched the film, I was astounded to find a film that was funny, angry, violent, and moving simultaneously. It turned out that my parents were, in fact, correct. Little Big Man was great.

I've gone back to the movie several times since that first viewing and it continues to entertain and affect; for me, a film that has emotional resonance well after the first viewing is rare and, though it does not always point to greatness, it often does.

Every element of the film is fantastic. The acting, by Hoffman and Dan George in particular, is amazing, as is Penn's direction. The story picaresque and always fascinating. There simply is no weak component to this movie.

I must also commend the film as a literary adaptation. I am not the most supportive critic of the Thomas Berger novel upon which the film is based. I find its thematics confused; it cannot decide whether or not it wants to revise western mythology or further it and, in that way, it fails for me. Calder Willingham's adaptation removes the ambivalence inherent in the novel and thereby writes one of the first and greatest revisionist Hollywood Westerns.

Little Big Man is a great movie, as I have said, and it deserves much more notoriety than it receives. This is, I fear, a film that too few people of my generation know. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it as an excellent and entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

One of the greatest American films of the 70's, a long but enjoyable western epic told with verve and insight. Dustin Hoffman excels in one of his early film roles, throwing himself into its physical demands with obvious enthusiasm and in the process creating one of his most endearing characters.

But he had to be on his toes in the face of much scene-stealing by a host of experts, including Richard Mulligan as the screwiest Custer you'll ever see, Martin Balsam as the eternally optimistic Mr. Merriweather, and Chief Dan George as Old Lodgeskins, a noble, wise and very funny Native American patriarch. This, along with "Bonnie and Clyde," represented the pinnacle of Arthur Penn's directing career: he handles the tonal shifts from comedy to tragedy with unerring control. Beautifully photographed and scored, with a wry, picaresque script by Calder Willingham from Thomas Berger's novel. Memorable images abound, from the rousing stagecoach chase, to an erotic bath delivered by the beauteous Faye Dunaway, to the horrific attack on a snowbound Indian village by the U.S. Cavalry, accompanied by a sprightly fife-and-drums march, to George's dignified ritual of death under threatening skies that doesn't quite turn out the way he planned. A funny, poignant tale, skillfully told, and a reminder of the fragility and randomness of life and love.