Little Big Man
Encyclopedia
Little Big Man is a 1970 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn
and based on the 1964
comic novel by Thomas Berger
. It is a picaresque
comedy
about a Caucasian
boy raised by the Cheyenne
nation during the 19th century. The film is largely concerned with contrasting the lives of American pioneers
and Native Americans
throughout the progression of the boy's life.
The movie stars Dustin Hoffman
, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway
, Martin Balsam
, Jeff Corey
and Richard Mulligan
. It is considered a revisionist Western
, with Native Americans receiving a more sympathetic treatment and United States Cavalry
soldiers depicted as villains.
Despite its satiric approach, the film has tragic
elements and a clear social conscience about prejudice
and injustice. Little Big Man is considered an example of anti-establishment films
of the period, protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War
by portraying the U.S. Military negatively. In her book Conversations with Pauline Kael, Kael says of the Vietnam War
's depiction in American films,
"It doesn't look at the facts of war, of what we were doing there. And that was the attitude of a lot of American films during the war years, even Westerns that deal with an early period of American life. The Americans are racists who shoot up the Indians for the careless joy of it-Little Big Man, for instance. It was a sophisticated criticism. The Indians, for instance, would have Vietnamese faces. The key girl we saw killed in slow motion in Little Big Man was definitely an Oriental." Arthur Penn has also stated in an interview featured on a TCM
promo that elements of the film were comments on American genocide depicting events "closest to The Holocaust."
), who recounts his colorful life story to a curious historian (William Hickey
). Among other things, Crabb had been a captive of the Cheyenne
, a gunslinger
, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok
(Jeff Corey
), and a scout for General George Armstrong Custer
(Richard Mulligan
). Having been adopted by the Cheyenne and reared in their culture, Crabb has perspective on both Caucasian and Native American
life in the 19th century.
Jack and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) had survived the massacre of their parents' wagon train
by the Pawnee. Found by a Cheyenne warrior, Jack and his sister are taken back to a Cheyenne village. Caroline manages to escape on horseback, but Jack is reared by good-hearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George). Life among the Cheyenne proves to be idyllic, though Jack unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear (Cal Bellini); however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack, who saves him from a Pawnee warrior. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he's short but very brave. When Jack is 16, he is recaptured by U.S. cavalry troopers and renounces his Native American upbringing in order to save himself. He is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake (Thayer David
) and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise (Faye Dunaway
), who tries to seduce Jack. Jack cannot accept the contradiction between Louise's piety and sexual appetite, and he eventually leaves the Pendrake household.
Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Merriweather (Martin Balsam
). The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Merriweather's products are fraudulent. One of the angry customers happens to be Jack's sister, Caroline. Once Caroline realizes that one of the men she helped to tar and feather was her brother, they reunite. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger
named the Soda Pop Kid (after his favorite beverage). Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and Caroline deserts him.
Jack next becomes a partner in a general store
and marries a Swedish
woman named Olga (Kelly Jean Peters). Unfortunately, Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel and Jack is forced to close the store. The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer happens upon the scene and suggests the couple re-start their lives further west. Jack and Olga set out, but their stagecoach
is ambushed by Cheyenne. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search for her. During his quest, he is reunited with Old Lodge Skins, who is overjoyed Jack has returned to the tribe. Younger Bear has become a contrary
(a warrior who does everything in reverse) and, having been humiliated by Jack years before, is still bitter. After a short stay with the tribe, Jack continues his search for Olga.
He eventually becomes a "muleskinner
" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, hoping to obtain information on Olga. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the 7th troopers begin killing women and children, Jack becomes enraged and turns on them. Nearby, Jack discovers a Cheyenne woman, Sunshine (Aimée Eccles
), giving birth. He saves Sunshine from the marauding troopers and returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, who has undergone another life change. No longer a contrary, Younger Bear is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga, who is now living as a Cheyenne woman. Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to remind her of their previous relationship. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees and has sex with all three; the first time all on the same night, exhausting Jack.
One day during the winter season, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp. A now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins is saved by Jack, but Sunshine and their child are killed along with her sisters. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge. At a crucial moment, with knife in hand, Jack loses his nerve, and is mocked by Custer for it. Disheartened, Jack becomes the town drunk in Deadwood, South Dakota
. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to clean up. When Jack returns to the bar, Hickok is shot and killed. With his last breath, Hickok expresses a dying wish involving a widow he was having an affair with. Jack goes to see the widow, a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life.
Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit
. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. Poised at the edge of a cliff, he prepares to commit suicide
. Jack suddenly hears the faint chords of the traditional cavalry tune "Garryowen" echoing through a valley and spots Custer and his troops marching nearby. Jack decides to exact revenge. Custer, who remembers that Jack once tried to assassinate him, hires him as a scout, reasoning that anything Jack says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack leads the troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn
. Before the attack, Jack truthfully tells Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley of the Little Bighorn. Custer does not believe him and leads the 7th Cavalry to its doom. During the frantic battle, Custer begins to rave insanely. Ignoring the closing circle of warriors, Custer points his pistol at Jack. Before he can pull the trigger, Custer is killed by Younger Bear, who removes the unconscious, wounded Jack from the battle by carrying him to Old Lodge Skins' tepee. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that he will kill him the next time they meet.
Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill where the aged, weary leader decides to end his life. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit
, and lies down to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins sighs and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't". They return to his tepee to have dinner.
Jack's narrative ends and he dismisses the historian, while thinking with sadness about the memories of a world which is no more.
was a Native American leader bearing no resemblance to the Jack Crabb character. Little Big Man is known for his involvement in the capture and possible assassination of Crazy Horse
at Fort Robinson
in 1877.
The movie's portrayal of the Battle of Washita River
as a Custer-led massacre of women and children (which Penn compares to the Holocaust) is not entirely accurate as the camp was partially occupied by tribal warriors. The film, however, is consistent with historical records of other encounters between Indians and the U.S. Cavalry; the Cavalry's common tactic was to wait until the warriors had left the camp to hunt, or to lure the warriors away with assurances of good hunting, and then to attack the unprotected village. The two massacre scenes are historically reversed, the Sand Creek massacre
occurring first in 1864, where Colorado militia (not including Custer) attacked a peaceful contingent of Native Americans, killing more than 150 women, children and elderly men. (The Sand Creek Massacre was depicted in another 1970 revisionist Western, Soldier Blue
.) The Custer-led raid on the Washita occurred in 1868.
The film also presents an inaccurate representation of the death of Wild Bill Hickok
. Hickok was actually killed on August 2, 1876, while playing poker at the No. 10 Saloon in Deadwood
, South Dakota
. Uncharacteristically, Hickok had his back turned to the door. At 4:15 p.m., a gunslinger named Jack McCall walked in and shot Hickok in the back of the head. Hickok was famously holding a pair of black aces and black eights when he was shot, a set of cards thereafter called the "Dead Man's Hand
".
The film's depiction of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
as a lunatic at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
was intended as satire, though many of his quirks and vanities were inspired by contemporary observations. Custer's fatal tactics at the Little Bighorn were far more complex than portrayed in the film, which portrays him as having a searing hatred of Indians and as acting ruthless towards them in battle. In truth, while his actions before and during the battle remain controversial, even revisionist historians agree he was largely sympathetic to the cause of the Indian population and publicly opposed, to the detriment of his own career prospects, the Grant administration's policy of expansion into Indian lands.
The character of Jack Crabb is partially based on Curley
, one of Custer's Native American
scouts from the Crow tribe. Curley rode with Custer's 7th Cavalry into the valley of the Little
Bighorn, but was relieved of duty before the final attack, retreating to a nearby bluff and witnessing much of the action. Many conflicting stories of the era embellished Curley's participation, stating in several cases that he disguised himself with a Cheyenne blanket to escape the immediate field of battle. He was interviewed many times, with some writers claiming him to be the only surviving witness from the U.S. side of Custer's Last Stand. Curley gave several variations of his participation in the battle, and the accuracy of his later recollections has been questioned.
and included revolutionary false eyelids that could blink along with the actor's. Due to editing, and much to Smith's chagrin, no blinks were visible in the finished film. Of the makeup, Hoffman was quoted in Life
as saying, "I defy you to put on that makeup and not feel old". The role of Chief Old Lodge Skins was initially offered to Marlon Brando
, Paul Scofield
and Laurence Olivier
, all of whom turned it down. The Little Bighorn battle scenes were filmed on location in Montana near the actual battle site.
The old Indian chief dies at the end of the novel but not in the film. In an interview Arthur Penn explained the change: "We thought long and hard about this and in the first draft of the script he does die, but this death would have introduced an element of sadness into the film and we didn't want this. The film would have become dramatic, even melodramatic, instead of being picaresque. I also wanted to show that not only were the Indians going to be destroyed, but they were also condemned to live. On the whole, audiences like their entertainment dramatically compact and homogenous, but I want the opposite. A film should remain free and open, not with everything defined and resolved."
's 400 movies nominated to be on their list of America's greatest 100 movies In his December 15, 1970 review, Vincent Canby of The New York Times
called the movie, "Arthur Penn's most extravagant and ambitious movie, an attempt to capture the essence of the American heritage in the funny, bitter, uproarious adventures of Jack Crabb." Roger Ebert
, of the Chicago Sun-Times
, agreed, giving the film four stars out of four stars, and describing Little Big Man as "an endlessly entertaining attempt to spin an epic in the form of yarn."
. He won multiple honors for his performance, including the Producers Guild of America Award
, the National Society of Film Critics Award
and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor.
Hoffman won third place for his performance with the Producers Guild of America
and was nominated as Best Actor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
. The screenplay by Calder Willingham
was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award
as Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium.
Arthur Penn
Arthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
and based on the 1964
1964 in literature
The year 1964 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Jean-Paul Sartre becomes head of the Organization to Defend Iranian Political Prisoners....
comic novel by Thomas Berger
Thomas Berger (US novelist)
-Biography:Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Berger was in Europe with the United States Army and then studied at the University of Cincinnati, and at Columbia University. He worked as a librarian and a journalist before publishing his first novel, Crazy in Berlin, in 1958. Berger may be best known for...
. It is a picaresque
Picaresque novel
The picaresque novel is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
about a Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
boy raised by the Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
nation during the 19th century. The film is largely concerned with contrasting the lives of American pioneers
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
and Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
throughout the progression of the boy's life.
The movie stars Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
, Martin Balsam
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
, Jeff Corey
Jeff Corey
Jeff Corey was an American stage and screen actor and director who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s.-Biography:...
and Richard Mulligan
Richard Mulligan
Richard Mulligan was an American television and film actor best known for his role as Burt Campbell in the 1970s sitcom Soap and later as Dr. Harry Weston on The Golden Girls and its spin-off Empty Nest.-Early life:He was born in New York City, the younger brother of director Robert Mulligan...
. It is considered a revisionist Western
Revisionist Western
The Revisionist Western, Modern Western or Anti-Western traces to the mid 1960s and early 1970s as a sub-genre of the Western movie....
, with Native Americans receiving a more sympathetic treatment and United States Cavalry
United States Cavalry
The United States Cavalry, or U.S. Cavalry, is the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army. The role of the U.S. Cavalry is reconnaissance, security and mounted assault. Cavalry has served as a part of the Army forces in every war in which the United States has participated...
soldiers depicted as villains.
Despite its satiric approach, the film has tragic
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
elements and a clear social conscience about prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
and injustice. Little Big Man is considered an example of anti-establishment films
New Hollywood
New Hollywood or post-classical Hollywood, sometimes referred to as the "American New Wave", refers to the time from roughly the late-1960s to the early 1980s when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America, influencing the types of films produced, their production and...
of the period, protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
by portraying the U.S. Military negatively. In her book Conversations with Pauline Kael, Kael says of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
's depiction in American films,
"It doesn't look at the facts of war, of what we were doing there. And that was the attitude of a lot of American films during the war years, even Westerns that deal with an early period of American life. The Americans are racists who shoot up the Indians for the careless joy of it-Little Big Man, for instance. It was a sophisticated criticism. The Indians, for instance, would have Vietnamese faces. The key girl we saw killed in slow motion in Little Big Man was definitely an Oriental." Arthur Penn has also stated in an interview featured on a TCM
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
promo that elements of the film were comments on American genocide depicting events "closest to The Holocaust."
Plot
The film is framed by the reminiscences of 121-year-old Jack Crabb (Dustin HoffmanDustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
), who recounts his colorful life story to a curious historian (William Hickey
William Hickey (actor)
William Edward Hickey was an American actor. He was best known for his Oscar-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston 1985 film Prizzi's Honor, as well as the voice of Dr...
). Among other things, Crabb had been a captive of the Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
, a gunslinger
Gunslinger
Gunfighter, also gunslinger , is a 20th century word, used in cinema or literature, referring to men in the American Old West who had gained a reputation as being dangerous with a gun...
, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
James Butler Hickok , better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized.Hickok came to the West as a stagecoach...
(Jeff Corey
Jeff Corey
Jeff Corey was an American stage and screen actor and director who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s.-Biography:...
), and a scout for General George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
(Richard Mulligan
Richard Mulligan
Richard Mulligan was an American television and film actor best known for his role as Burt Campbell in the 1970s sitcom Soap and later as Dr. Harry Weston on The Golden Girls and its spin-off Empty Nest.-Early life:He was born in New York City, the younger brother of director Robert Mulligan...
). Having been adopted by the Cheyenne and reared in their culture, Crabb has perspective on both Caucasian and Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
life in the 19th century.
Jack and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) had survived the massacre of their parents' wagon train
Wagon train
A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. In the American West, individuals traveling across the plains in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance, as is reflected in numerous films and television programs about the region, such as Audie Murphy's Tumbleweed and Ward Bond...
by the Pawnee. Found by a Cheyenne warrior, Jack and his sister are taken back to a Cheyenne village. Caroline manages to escape on horseback, but Jack is reared by good-hearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George). Life among the Cheyenne proves to be idyllic, though Jack unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear (Cal Bellini); however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack, who saves him from a Pawnee warrior. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he's short but very brave. When Jack is 16, he is recaptured by U.S. cavalry troopers and renounces his Native American upbringing in order to save himself. He is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake (Thayer David
Thayer David
Thayer David was a film, stage and television actor. He was best known for his work on the cult ABC serial Dark Shadows and as the fight promoter George Jergens in the Oscar-winning movie Rocky . He also appeared as Count Arne Saknussemm in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1959...
) and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise (Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
), who tries to seduce Jack. Jack cannot accept the contradiction between Louise's piety and sexual appetite, and he eventually leaves the Pendrake household.
Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Merriweather (Martin Balsam
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
). The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Merriweather's products are fraudulent. One of the angry customers happens to be Jack's sister, Caroline. Once Caroline realizes that one of the men she helped to tar and feather was her brother, they reunite. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger
Gunslinger
Gunfighter, also gunslinger , is a 20th century word, used in cinema or literature, referring to men in the American Old West who had gained a reputation as being dangerous with a gun...
named the Soda Pop Kid (after his favorite beverage). Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and Caroline deserts him.
Jack next becomes a partner in a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
and marries a Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
woman named Olga (Kelly Jean Peters). Unfortunately, Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel and Jack is forced to close the store. The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer happens upon the scene and suggests the couple re-start their lives further west. Jack and Olga set out, but their stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
is ambushed by Cheyenne. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search for her. During his quest, he is reunited with Old Lodge Skins, who is overjoyed Jack has returned to the tribe. Younger Bear has become a contrary
Contrary (social role)
A Contrary was a member of a Native North American tribal group who adopted behavior that was deliberately the opposite of other tribal members. The Contraries were found among the historical Amerindian tribes of the Great Plains...
(a warrior who does everything in reverse) and, having been humiliated by Jack years before, is still bitter. After a short stay with the tribe, Jack continues his search for Olga.
He eventually becomes a "muleskinner
Muleskinner
Muleskinner was a bluegrass supergroup, active during early '70's.-Early history:In the late '60's, Peter Rowan and David Grisman played together in a psychedelic band Earth Opera. The band didn't last longer than couple of years and Rowan went on to join Seatrain, where he met Richard Greene...
" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, hoping to obtain information on Olga. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the 7th troopers begin killing women and children, Jack becomes enraged and turns on them. Nearby, Jack discovers a Cheyenne woman, Sunshine (Aimée Eccles
Aimée Eccles
Aimée Eccles was born on January 1, 1949 in Hong Kong. -Movies to her career:*Little Big Man 1970*Pretty Maids All in a Row 1971*Ulzana's Raid 1972*Paradise Alley 1978*The Concrete Jungle 1982-References:...
), giving birth. He saves Sunshine from the marauding troopers and returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, who has undergone another life change. No longer a contrary, Younger Bear is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga, who is now living as a Cheyenne woman. Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to remind her of their previous relationship. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees and has sex with all three; the first time all on the same night, exhausting Jack.
One day during the winter season, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp. A now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins is saved by Jack, but Sunshine and their child are killed along with her sisters. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge. At a crucial moment, with knife in hand, Jack loses his nerve, and is mocked by Custer for it. Disheartened, Jack becomes the town drunk in Deadwood, South Dakota
Deadwood, South Dakota
Deadwood is a city in South Dakota, United States, and the county seat of Lawrence County. It is named for the dead trees found in its gulch. The population was 1,270 according to a 2010 census...
. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to clean up. When Jack returns to the bar, Hickok is shot and killed. With his last breath, Hickok expresses a dying wish involving a widow he was having an affair with. Jack goes to see the widow, a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life.
Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. Poised at the edge of a cliff, he prepares to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Jack suddenly hears the faint chords of the traditional cavalry tune "Garryowen" echoing through a valley and spots Custer and his troops marching nearby. Jack decides to exact revenge. Custer, who remembers that Jack once tried to assassinate him, hires him as a scout, reasoning that anything Jack says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack leads the troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
. Before the attack, Jack truthfully tells Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley of the Little Bighorn. Custer does not believe him and leads the 7th Cavalry to its doom. During the frantic battle, Custer begins to rave insanely. Ignoring the closing circle of warriors, Custer points his pistol at Jack. Before he can pull the trigger, Custer is killed by Younger Bear, who removes the unconscious, wounded Jack from the battle by carrying him to Old Lodge Skins' tepee. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that he will kill him the next time they meet.
Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill where the aged, weary leader decides to end his life. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit
Great Spirit
The Great Spirit, also called Wakan Tanka among the Sioux, the Creator or the Great Maker in English, and Gitchi Manitou in Algonquian, is a conception of a supreme being prevalent among some Native American and First Nations cultures...
, and lies down to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins sighs and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't". They return to his tepee to have dinner.
Jack's narrative ends and he dismisses the historian, while thinking with sadness about the memories of a world which is no more.
Cast
- Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
as Jack Crabb - Faye DunawayFaye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
as Mrs. Pendrake - Chief Dan George as Old Lodge Skins
- Martin BalsamMartin BalsamMartin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
as Mr. Merriweather - Richard MulliganRichard MulliganRichard Mulligan was an American television and film actor best known for his role as Burt Campbell in the 1970s sitcom Soap and later as Dr. Harry Weston on The Golden Girls and its spin-off Empty Nest.-Early life:He was born in New York City, the younger brother of director Robert Mulligan...
as Gen. George Armstrong CusterGeorge Armstrong CusterGeorge Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class... - Jeff CoreyJeff CoreyJeff Corey was an American stage and screen actor and director who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s.-Biography:...
as Wild Bill HickokWild Bill HickokJames Butler Hickok , better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized.Hickok came to the West as a stagecoach... - Aimée Eccles as Sunshine
- Kelly Jean Peters as Olga Crabb
- Carole Androsky as Caroline Crabb
- Robert Little Star as Little Horse
- Cal BelliniCal BelliniCal Bellini is a former actor, a Malay originally from Singapore, who was cast in roles of mostly foreigners, American Indians, or ethnic minorities, primarily on American television between 1960 and 1986....
as Younger Bear - Ruben Moreno as Shadow That Comes in Sight
- Steve Shemayne as Burns Red in the Sun
- William HickeyWilliam HickeyWilliam Hickey may refer to:*William Hickey , English lawyer and author of a famous set of memoirs*William Hickey , American actor...
as Historian
Historical basis
The historical Little Big ManLittle Big Man
Little Big Man is a 1970 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the 1964 comic novel by Thomas Berger. It is a picaresque comedy about a Caucasian boy raised by the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century...
was a Native American leader bearing no resemblance to the Jack Crabb character. Little Big Man is known for his involvement in the capture and possible assassination of Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
at Fort Robinson
Fort Robinson
Fort Robinson is a former U.S. Army fort and a present-day state park. Located in the Pine Ridge region of northwest Nebraska, it is west of Crawford on U.S. Route 20.- History :...
in 1877.
The movie's portrayal of the Battle of Washita River
Battle of Washita River
The Battle of Washita River occurred on November 27, 1868 when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 7th U.S...
as a Custer-led massacre of women and children (which Penn compares to the Holocaust) is not entirely accurate as the camp was partially occupied by tribal warriors. The film, however, is consistent with historical records of other encounters between Indians and the U.S. Cavalry; the Cavalry's common tactic was to wait until the warriors had left the camp to hunt, or to lure the warriors away with assurances of good hunting, and then to attack the unprotected village. The two massacre scenes are historically reversed, the Sand Creek massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, were resigned to negotiate peace. The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites...
occurring first in 1864, where Colorado militia (not including Custer) attacked a peaceful contingent of Native Americans, killing more than 150 women, children and elderly men. (The Sand Creek Massacre was depicted in another 1970 revisionist Western, Soldier Blue
Soldier Blue
Soldier Blue is a 1970 American Revisionist Western movie directed by Ralph Nelson and inspired by events of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre in the Colorado Territory....
.) The Custer-led raid on the Washita occurred in 1868.
The film also presents an inaccurate representation of the death of Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok
James Butler Hickok , better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized.Hickok came to the West as a stagecoach...
. Hickok was actually killed on August 2, 1876, while playing poker at the No. 10 Saloon in Deadwood
Deadwood
Deadwood may refer to:in geography*Deadwood, Alberta, hamlet in Alberta, Canada*Deadwood, California , several unincorporated communities in California, United States*Deadwood, Oregon, unincorporated community in Oregon, United States...
, South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
. Uncharacteristically, Hickok had his back turned to the door. At 4:15 p.m., a gunslinger named Jack McCall walked in and shot Hickok in the back of the head. Hickok was famously holding a pair of black aces and black eights when he was shot, a set of cards thereafter called the "Dead Man's Hand
Dead man's hand
The dead man's hand is a two-pair poker hand, namely "aces and eights". This card combination gets its name from a legend that it was the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok, when he was murdered on August 2, 1876, in Saloon No. 10 at Deadwood, South Dakota.According to the popular...
".
The film's depiction of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
as a lunatic at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
was intended as satire, though many of his quirks and vanities were inspired by contemporary observations. Custer's fatal tactics at the Little Bighorn were far more complex than portrayed in the film, which portrays him as having a searing hatred of Indians and as acting ruthless towards them in battle. In truth, while his actions before and during the battle remain controversial, even revisionist historians agree he was largely sympathetic to the cause of the Indian population and publicly opposed, to the detriment of his own career prospects, the Grant administration's policy of expansion into Indian lands.
The character of Jack Crabb is partially based on Curley
Curley
Ashishishe , known as Curly , was a Crow scout in the United States Army during the Sioux Wars, best known for having been one of the few survivors on the United States side at the Battle of Little Bighorn. He did not fight in the battle, but watched from a distance, and was the first to report the...
, one of Custer's Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
scouts from the Crow tribe. Curley rode with Custer's 7th Cavalry into the valley of the Little
Bighorn, but was relieved of duty before the final attack, retreating to a nearby bluff and witnessing much of the action. Many conflicting stories of the era embellished Curley's participation, stating in several cases that he disguised himself with a Cheyenne blanket to escape the immediate field of battle. He was interviewed many times, with some writers claiming him to be the only surviving witness from the U.S. side of Custer's Last Stand. Curley gave several variations of his participation in the battle, and the accuracy of his later recollections has been questioned.
Production
Hoffman holds the record for portraying the greatest age span of a single character, playing Jack Crabb from the age of 17 to 121, a difference of 104 years. To obtain the hoarse voice of a 121-year-old man, Hoffman sat in his dressing room and screamed at the top of his lungs for an hour. The makeup for the ancient Crabb was created by Dick Smith from foam latexFoam latex
Foam latex is a lightweight, soft form of latex which is used in masks and facial prosthetics to change a person's outward appearance. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first films to make extensive use of foam latex prosthetics in the 1930s...
and included revolutionary false eyelids that could blink along with the actor's. Due to editing, and much to Smith's chagrin, no blinks were visible in the finished film. Of the makeup, Hoffman was quoted in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
as saying, "I defy you to put on that makeup and not feel old". The role of Chief Old Lodge Skins was initially offered to Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, Paul Scofield
Paul Scofield
David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE , better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen...
and Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
, all of whom turned it down. The Little Bighorn battle scenes were filmed on location in Montana near the actual battle site.
The old Indian chief dies at the end of the novel but not in the film. In an interview Arthur Penn explained the change: "We thought long and hard about this and in the first draft of the script he does die, but this death would have introduced an element of sadness into the film and we didn't want this. The film would have become dramatic, even melodramatic, instead of being picaresque. I also wanted to show that not only were the Indians going to be destroyed, but they were also condemned to live. On the whole, audiences like their entertainment dramatically compact and homogenous, but I want the opposite. A film should remain free and open, not with everything defined and resolved."
Reception
Little Big Man has garnered generally positive reviews. It is among AFIAmerican Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
's 400 movies nominated to be on their list of America's greatest 100 movies In his December 15, 1970 review, Vincent Canby of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the movie, "Arthur Penn's most extravagant and ambitious movie, an attempt to capture the essence of the American heritage in the funny, bitter, uproarious adventures of Jack Crabb." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, agreed, giving the film four stars out of four stars, and describing Little Big Man as "an endlessly entertaining attempt to spin an epic in the form of yarn."
Awards and nominations
Chief Dan George was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor in a Supporting RoleAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
. He won multiple honors for his performance, including the Producers Guild of America Award
Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 4,700 members of the producing establishment worldwide...
, the National Society of Film Critics Award
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor.
Hoffman won third place for his performance with the Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 4,700 members of the producing establishment worldwide...
and was nominated as Best Actor by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
. The screenplay by Calder Willingham
Calder Willingham
Calder Baynard Willingham, Jr. was an American novelist and screenwriter. He cowrote several notable screenplays, including Paths of Glory and One-Eyed Jacks ....
was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
as Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium.
External links
- Little Big Man at Turner Classic MoviesTurner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...