Dustin Hoffman

Faye Dunaway

Chief Dan George

Martin Balsam

Richard Mulligan

Jeff Corey

Aimée Eccles

William Hickey

Alan Oppenheimer

Lou Cutell

M. Emmet Walsh

James Anderson

Jesse Vint

Thayer David

Philip Kenneally

Jack Bannon

Ray Dimas

Alan Howard

Jack Mullaney

Steve Miranda

Ken Mayer

Kelly Jean Peters

Carole Androsky

Robert Little Star

Cal Bellini

Ruben Moreno

Steve Shemayne

Arthur Penn

Calder Willingham

Dede Allen

Stuart Millar

Harry Stradling Jr.

Gene Lasko

Jeannie Epper

Loren Janes

John Paul Hammond

Gary McLarty

William H. Burton Sr.

Roydon Clark

Denny Arnold

Gary Combs

M. James Arnett

Mickey Gilbert

Joe Finnegan

Jerry Gatlin

James M. Halty

Tommy J. Huff

Glenn Randall Jr.

J.N. Roberts

Julie Ann Johnson

Fred Waugh

Stan Barrett

Donna Hall

Kent Hays

Clifford Hutchison

Fred Lerner

Alex Green

Stephanie Epper

Alan Gibbs

Walter Wyatt

Dean Tavoularis

George R. Nelson

Angelo P. Graham

Logan Frazee

Les Kimber

Thomas Berger

Mike Moder

Lynn Del Kail

Terry Miles

Dick Gallegly

Dick Smith

Adventure

Western

Comedy

Drama

Little Big Man

Cinema Center Films

Stockbridge-Hiller Productions

United States of America

English

based on novel or book

fight

indian territory

settler

native american

orphan

cheyenne

19th century

There is an endless supply of white men. There has always been a limited number of human beings.

Little Big Man is directed by Arthur Penn and written by Calder Willingham. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Chief Dan George and Richard Mulligan.

Arthur Penn's Little Big Man is tagged with many filmic sayings, be it revisionist or anti Western etc, it's a picture much cherished for its oddly quirky slyness. Allegorical movies are now in this day and age ten a penny, but back in 1970, with the Vietnam War in vivid focus, that wasn't the case. Marking this out as a provocative and ambitious venture.

Penn has fun debunking and poking fun at the myths of the Old West via an array of pungent characters that Jack Crabb (Hoffman) meets in his lifetime. All of which leads to the question hanging in the air, that of is Jack Crabb the sole white man survivor of Custer's last stand at Little Big Horn?

The portrayal of the Indians, here the Cheyenne, is superlative by way of the fact that they are the sensible spiritual race, the whites on the other hand are emotionally corrupt in comparison. It gets a little heavy handed at times and really half an hour could have been shaved off the running time and still the pic would have had the same effect. But great performances, the quirks and the potent thematics make for a fine piece of film making. 7/10

CinemaSerf

This is quite a fun series of escapades told by way of a flashback interview from the ostensibly 121 year old "Crabb" (Dustin Hoffman) who is the last survivor of George Custer's ill-fated battle at the Little Big Horn. His not entirely convinced interviewer asks him about his lively life and we embark on his times as a white man who became an Indian before being "rescued" again before some toing and froing between them all set against the pioneering culture of the settlers encroaching on the ancient territories of the natives and of the ensuing hostilities that culminated with "Yellow Hair" Custer's calamitous campaign against the Sioux. Along the way we meet an array of interesting characters like "Wild" Bill Hickok (Jeff Corey), the force of nature that is "Mrs. Pendrake" (Faye Dunaway) as well as the dapper, slightly foppish, General himself (Richard Mulligan) but it's really the sagely old chief (Chief Dan George) whose stoicism in the face of the advancing of modern times is both engaging to watch and poignant as he begins to symbolise both a disappearing and an emerging way of life. There's loads of room for romantic interludes, the odd bit of bad news and by the end of this, I was starting to believe that however implausible many of his recounted adventures might have seemed - who knows, maybe he's really who he claims to be? It's a bit long, but most of the time the quirkiness of the story and it's pace carry it along entertainingly as a simplistic pastiche of US history that Hoffmann holds together really quite well, even if his characterisation as a gunslinger is maybe just a bridge too far. It has dated, and personally I'd have liked to have seen more of the ancillary characters developed a bit more - it'd have been great with the likes of Strother Martin, Jack Elam and Walter Brennan in there too, but it's still well worth a watch.

Little Big Man (1970) trailer

Little Big Man - "You Go Down There"

Little Big Man( 1970)

Either the most neglected hero in history or a liar of insane proportion!

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A review by John Chard

Written by John Chard on Sun Sep 02 2018

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