Little Big Man (1970)

Hollywood took notice when Sergio Leone and the Italian Spaghetti Westerns turned many western tropes upside down with their blurring of morality lines.   For the most part, those movies stayed away from the conflict between the white colonial pioneers and the native American Indians.   In 1970, Arthur Penn, used a fictionalized fable about the life of a 121-year-old man, to give an honest, more realistic depiction of this struggle.   The resultant film, “Little Big Man”, is one of the great revisionist westerns to have come out during the more open and gritty film movement that was emerging from Hollywood in the 1970s.

The 121-year-old man is Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman), who, as the film begins, is being interviewed for being the oldest man alive.   The tale he tells in the interview are the flashbacks the make up the film.   Crabb embellishes his stories with great wit and hyperbole, in order to liven up his life story for the reporter.  This life recollection begins as he and his family arrive in the West via horse drawn carriage, when he is only 9 or 10 years old.   The carriage is attacked by Marauding Indians.   The movie depicts two tribes of Indians.  A bad vicious tribe called the Pawnee, and a kind malevolent tribe called Cheyenne.  His parents are massacred by the Pawnee in the attack, and after hiding from the marauders, he is discovered and taken in by the Cheyenne.   His adolescence and coming of age occur while growing up with the Cheyenne.  These early scenes of Indian culture are for me the best parts of the movie.   Many years later, Kevin Costner would be highly influenced by this tender depiction of Indian life through the perspective of a white man, in his highly acclaimed film, “Dances with Wolves”.    The world depicted is a loving existence with nature that oozes with respect.   The enemy of the Cheyenne is not only the Pawnee but the white settlers who have invaded their land.    The Pawnee, as the bad Indians, are portrayed as collaborators against their own people.    Throughout the telling of his life, Jack will end up taken back into the world of the settlers, and then back again into the world of the Indians.   This happens to him on more then one occasion.   While living as a white man he tries his hand at many lifestyles, from gunfighter to business owner and homeless drunk.   He also worked as a scout for the infamous General Custer, and his claim at being the only white survivor of Custer’s last stand at Little Big Horn, adds historical interest to his life story. 

Crabb is named, “Little Big Man” by the Indians, (due to his small stature), and is taken in by the tribe leader, “Old Lodge Skin” (Chief Dan George).    I believe this is one of the first movies that casts a vast majority of the Indian characters with real Native Americans.  Dan George was a true Indian Chief from western Canada who started acting in Indian roles within Canadian TV.    After his role in “Little Big Man”, he would forever be typecast as a wise Indian leader.   Since he was an actual Native Canadian chief, his performance here as a tribal leader rings true, making his philosophical ramblings seem more enlightening than they actually are.    He is perfect as, “Old Lodge Skin”, who speaks in a poetic language about philosophy and life.    His large expansive face glows when he breaks into a smile, which he does each time he reunites with Jack.     The intelligent way his character is depicted is one of the aspects of the movie that make it shine.   Throughout the film, the native Indians are shown as being more humane and worthy then the white settlers, although massacres from both sides are depicted.

Hoffman for his part instills a lot of empathy and likeability into a character who does not really have any clear virtues.   He is an expert gunfighter who can’t stand the site of blood, an Indian fighter who is a coward, a scout leading his military troops into a trap, and a businessman taken advantage by his crooked partner.    He is neither brave or honorable and would be hard pressed in claiming any accomplishments about his life.   He is also a survivor and I believe Penn was making a point as to what it took to survive during the wild west.   It was not intelligence or skill, but rather luck and circumstance that are the most important elements of survival during those dangerous times.   It is Hoffman’s quirky chaotic performance that allowed me to care about his unremarkable character who is caught between two differing and opposite cultures.  

The movie is told through flashbacks that are visualized like various fables one would find in an old storybook from the same era.     Crabb’s life is depicted like a series of short stories, such as Crabb’s childhood with the Cheyenne, Crabb as a gunfighter, Crabb as a businessman, Crabb as a scout in Custer’s army, and Crabb in Custer’s last stand.   The stories are also chock full of interesting characters such as the preacher widow turned prostitute played by Fay Dunaway, a traveling con-artist salesman played by Martin Balsam, and an aging over the hill Wild Bill Hickok played by Jeff Corey.   These characters alongside Hoffman’s anti-hero instill a great deal of humor into the proceedings.   

Penn does a great job in mixing several genres within his movie.  From character study, social drama, goofball comedy, and violent action, “Little Big Man”, is one of the few movies that can successfully traverse them all.    That accomplishment makes this a highly entertaining movie that is fun to watch.