Little Big Man (1970)

121 year old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) recounts his life in the old west. He claims to be the sole white survivor of Little Bighorn. He and his older sister Caroline are the sole survivors of Pawnee. They are taken in by the Cheyenne. Caroline escapes but Jack is adopted. He is captured by US troopers, apprentice with a snake-oil salesman, becomes a gunslinger after reuniting with Caroline, meets Wild Bill Hickok, marries and bankrupted store, follows Custer, reunite with the Cheyenne and then tricks Custer into Little Bighorn.This is part tall-tales, part satire, part historical reimagining and more accurate than most old western. It is smart and funny. It takes sharp jabs at the old image of Indians. Dustin Hoffman is brilliant in this new world western epic. It does take random turns which is part of its charm.

I remember very well Little big man being shot here in July 1969.Hoffman rented a house from a prominent local doctor.Went out one evening to where they were shooting and got a first hand look at why these Big Budget Movies cost so much to shoot,One scene that's in the movie that lasts about 8 seconds took over 4 hrs to get right.Veteran Stuntman Loren Janes and J,N.Roberts came over to our Motorcycle Dealership one evening and showed behind the scenes footage of Jane's stuntwork on movies like "How the west was Won" and Nevada Smith. He stunt doubled for Steve McQueen in almost all his Films.Movie was good but I thought it was too long needed some cutting.One local resident here that was a wagon driver had numerous scenes and thought he was going to have a good amount of screen time. Every scene he was in ended up on the cutting room floor. He was pretty devastated to say the least..s.m.

If, by chance you have not read the book, read the book after you see the movie. The book is thick and full of well researched history, and it takes the reader on a journey through time through the eyes of the fictitious Jack Crabb. See also too, The Return of Little Big Man, which picks up where the first story leaves off. Seeing the movie first will set the scenes and the characters in your mind.Even though the movie had to shorten the story out of necessity for time, it is a great story. Some of the historical sequencing is out of sequence (for example, Wild Bill was actually shot in August of 1876, after the Battle of the Little Big Horn). The characters are all great, especially Custer. Though I am sure that Richard Mulligan's crazy, comic Custer is a world away from the true Custer, it is a wonderful performance. This movie, though it has its humorous moments, is really about the history of the 1800's and the savagery and white man as the conqueror of the West beliefs that were a part of that history.The book is better than the movie, but the movie is great.

Dustin Hoffman is Jack Crabb, a 121 year old man who recites his colorful life story to a journalist. Jack and his sister survive an attack by Pawnee Indians in which their parents' are killed. They are rescued by a Cheyenne warrior, but his sister escapes and he is raised by them and given the name Little Big Man for obvious reasons. Hoffman is as good as he was in The Graduate, with the same cool demeanor.At sixteen, he is recaptured by the U.S. Cavalry and turns against his adoptive family in order to fit in with his fellow white men. He gets "civlized" by a Reverend Silas and his sexually voracious wife Louise(Faye Dunaway). Jack hits the road with a snake oil salesman and happens upon his sister who believes that he should be a gunslinger and when he meets Wild Bill Hickock and witnesses a shooting, he decides against that career.Next up, Jack marries a Swedish woman named Olga and opens a store with a guy who turns out to be a crook and so the store closes. George Custer tells him, go west young man, and on the way, their stagecoach is captured by Cheyenne Indians and Olga is taken away. He reunites with his old tribal chief but leaves to find his missing wife. He joins up with Custer's 7th calvary and witnesses the slaughter of women and children by the heavily armed U.S. forces and turns against them. It all leads up to the famous battle of Little Big Horn. Little Big Man is a true epic western, and one of the best.