Little Big Man (1970)

Dustin Hoffman is Jack Crabb, a 121-year-old man who tells the story of the Wild West as he knew it to an interviewer who wants to know about the Indian way of life.

Jack’s story begins when he and his sister are the lone survivors of an Indian attack. They’re taken in by the Cheyenne. The sister runs off; Jack is left behind.

From that point on, Jack bounces from the Indian way of life to the white man’s world depending on what he needs to do to survive.

He goes through a gunfighter period, a religious period and spends time as a storekeeper, mule skinner and assistant to a snake oil salesman.

And he spends a good deal of time with the Indians, learning from his adopted grandfather Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George) and experiencing his only happy family life with a young Indian widow named Sunshine (Aimee Eccles).

But all the time, the Indian way of life is threatened, regardless of the promises of the white man.

One of the main threats: the glory-seeking Gen. George Armstrong Custer (Richard Mulligan).

Dustin Hoffman as Little Big Man, Cheyenne warrior in Little Big Man (1970)

Chief Dan George as Old Lodge Skins, welcoming Little Big Man back home in Little Big Man (1970)

Review:

Wonderful film told tale tall style as remembered by Jack Crabb. In dissecting the myths of the West, director Arthur Penn serves up plenty of humorous moments and plenty of memorable characters.

And while his film can’t match the violence in “Soldier Blue,” released the same year, his portrayal of the cavalry’s attack on and Indian camp full of defenseless women and children comes off as more effective because some of those being killed are characters we’ve met.

As for those memorable characters, there’s Chief Dan George in the role of an Indian chief who dreams the future, Faye Dunaway as a supposedly pious pastor’s wife who winds up working in a whorehouse, Martin Balsam as the swindler who keeps losing body parts and Richard Mulligan as the egomaniacal Gen. Custer.

There are lots of others too. And try forgetting the scene in which Jack’s Indian wife, Sunshine, invites her three sisters into their tee-pee. As for the film’s title — Little Big Man is Jack’s given Indian name.

Aimee Eccles as Sunshine, suggesting Little Big Man take her three sisters as wives as well in Little Big Man (1970)

Faye Dunaway as Louise Pendrake, averting her eyes at the appropriate moment in Little Big Man (1970)

Directed by:
Arthur Penn

Cast:
Dustin Hoffman … Jack Crabb
also Little Big Man
Faye Dunaway … Louise Pendrake
also Lulu Kane
Chief Dan George … Old Lodge Skins
Martin Balsam … Mr. Merriweather
Richard Mulligan … Gen. Custer
Jeff Corey … Wild Bill Hickok
Aimee Eccles … Sunshine
Kelly Jean Peters … Olga Crabb
Carole Androsky … Caroline Crabb
Robert Little Star … Little Horse
Cal Bellini … Younger Bear
Ruben Moreno … Shadow That Comes in Sight
Steve Shamayne … Burns Red in the Sun
William Hickey … Historian
James Anderson … Sergeant’
Jesse Vint … Lieutenants
Alan Oppenheimer .. Major
Thayer Davis … Rev. Silas Pendrake
Philip Kenneally … Drugstore owner
Ray Dimas … Young Jack Crabb
Alan Howard … Jack Crabb as adolescent

Runtime: 139 min.

Richard Mulligan as Gen. Custer, en route to the Little Big Horn in Little Big Man (1970)

Martin Balsam as Mr. Merriweather, the shyster who keeps on losing body parts in Little Big Man (1970)

Memorable lines:

Jack Crabb, getting crabby with interviewer and pointing to his camera: “You just turn that thing on and shut up. You’ll learn something. I knowed Gen. George Armstrong Custer for what he was. And I also knowed the Indians for what they was. One hundred and 11 years ago, when I was 10 years old …”

Jack Crabb, on growing up with the Cheyenne: “For a boy, it was a kind of paradise. I wasn’t just playing Indian, I was living Indian.”

Jack Crabb, coming upon an Indian village after a cavalry attack: “I don’t understand it, grandpa. Why would they kill women and children?”
Old Lodge Skins: “Because they are strange. They do not seem to know where the center of the earth is.”

Cal Bellini as Younger Bear, the Cheyenne brave who becomes a contrary after having his life saved by Jack Crabb in Little Big Man (1970)

Robert Little Star as Little Horse, the Cheyenne man who invites Little Big Man to share his teepee in Little Big Man (1970)

Jack Crabb, upon catching Louise Pendrake fornicating with a shopkeeper: “That was the end of my religious period. I haven’t sung a hymn in 104 years.”

Jack Crabb: “I took up with a swindler, named of Alardyce T. Merriweather. After Mrs. Pendrake, his honesty was downright refreshing.”

Caroline, after Jack decides to end his “gunfighter period:” “There ain’t nothing more useless in this world than a gunfighter who can’t shoot people.”

Ray Dimas as young Jack Crabb with his sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) after being captured by Cheyenne in Little Big Man (1970)

Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb, at 121 years old and telling tales of his Wild West experience in Little Big Man (1970)

Jack Crabb: “It was downright discouraging. If it wasn’t the Indians trying to kill me for a white, it was the whites trying to kill me for an Indian.”

Jack Crabb, of Custer: “The time had come to look the devil in the eye and send him to hell where he belonged. The only question was — how to get him there.”

Old Lodge Skins: “There is an endless supply of white men. But there always has been a limited number of human beings.”

Chief Dan George as Old Lodge Skins, realizing he’s captured a female, not a young man in Little Big Man (1970)

Thayer Davis as Rev. Silas Pendrake, the man trusted to deliver religion to young Jack Crabb in Little Big Man (1970)

Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb, finding himself in the hands of Louise Pendrake (Faye Dunaway) for the first time in Little Big Man (1970)

Carole Androsky as Caroline Crabb, teaching Jack Crabb the gunfighter’s squint in Little Big Man (1970)

Jeff Corey as Wild Bill Hickok, after gunning down a man in Jack Crabb’s presence in Little Big Man (1970)

Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb, in his squinty-eyed gunfighter phase in Little Big Man (1970)

Kelly Jean Peters as Olga Crabb, Jack Crabb’s white wife, later captured by Indians in Little Big Man (1970)

Dustin Hoffman as Little Big Man, coming across Sunshine (Aimee Eccles) giving birth in Little Big Man (1970)

Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabbs, warning Custer about the danger he’s facing in Little Big Man (1970)