Little Big Man
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Movie Reviews of Little Big Man
Movie Review: tragicomic take on the demise of the Indians and their culture
Summary: 5 Stars
Ever since I saw it when it came out, this has been one of my all-time favorite films. I recently got to re-watch it with a family member who had never seen it before, which re-opened my eyes to this masterpiece. It can be watched throughout one's life with great profit.
It is hard for people to imagine when this came out, in 1970 or so. At that time, Spaghetti Westerns were the norm, with tough heroes, 2-dimensional bad guys, unfailingly savage Indians, unambiguously just causes (of pioneer-colonizers), and very very little humor. This film violated many of the norms of the genre. As Jack Crabb went through his innumerable identities, it was both hilariously funny and extremely sad, an exploration of our notions of the wild west and a cry for understanding.
Crabb starts as an adopted Cheyenne indian, introducing the viewer to a wonderful culture and, as the film progresses, to a deep philosophy that is radically different from the white American. In particular, he has a wonderful relationship with the humourful though deeply concerned chief Lodge Skins. This man was a revelation to me, a highly intelligent leader who was also a mystic seer, full of a unique brand of ancient wisdom. Now you can argue that he is typical of 60s new agey romanticism, but he is far too subtle to be pegged. Indeed, through Crabb's Cheyenne friends and later his wife, Sunshine, I got a sense - for the first time in my life - of what we lost in colonizing the west and wiping out the ancient cultures there. I began to ask myself questions that have preoccupied me to this day. I hope my children will do the same. Indeed, I had not ever conceived of the idea that the indian tribes could have different cultures and customs in 1970.
In his white-man incarnations, Crabb explores the full gamut of identities available to him: religious zealot, flimflam man, gunslinger, dry goods dealer, and indian scout. While in many ways satiric, the portraits in my opinion are also extremely well drawn, getting the viewer to question the stereotypes with which we grew up of our civilization's path and our sense of moral righteousness. It is a monument to the vision of Penn. Even our heros, like the Custer whom I had idolized in the Errol Flynn film or Wild BIll Hickok, are thrown in relief against the incredible dignity, playfulness, of depth of the Cheyenne.
Underneath it all is a humanistic philosophy that gets the viewer (or at least everyone I have ever discussed it with) to question their behavior and world view. While unfailingly funny, the core of the film is horrifically tragic.
Recommended with the greatest enthusiasm.
Movie Review: One of the funniest and yet saddest movies you will ever see
Summary: 5 Stars
Dustin Hoffman plays the character Jack Crabb, a man now well beyond one hundred, whose entire family was massacred on the great plains by a tribe of Pawnee when he was only ten.
He relates his incredible story throughout the movie in the form of narration to a disbelieving reporter, especially doubtful over Crabb's claim to being the sole white survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn, in Crabb's own words, "popularly knowed as Custer's Last Stand."
He and his sister are taken in by a tribe of Cheyenne (who call themselves the "Human Beings"), where he spends his early years, until one of the many twists and turns of his life put him back in the company of whites, this time by a firey preacher and his less than virtuous wife, played by Faye Dunaway.
I don't want to give away too much of the story by detailing more of odd turns his life subsequently takes, but he does go back and forth between the worlds of the whites and the Cheyenne.
The other notable actors in this movie are Martin Balsam, Chief Dan George, and Richard Mulligan (what a performance!), who plays Custer.
Crabb has multiple close brushes with death, and there are lots of funny situations, including one where he meets none other than William Butler "Wild Bill" Hickock.
However, while very funny, there are some moments of sickening brutality, as the Cheyenne are steadily squeezed out by the likes of the ambitious Custer.
This is a complex story that effectively uses the juxtaposition of humor with tragedy to give life to both.
Hoffman's performance is simply astonishing, going from a very young teen, to a young man, to middle aged, to drunk, to hermit, to very old man.
Hoffman's old man makeup is remarkable, and Hoffman himself screamed for an extended period before filming the parts with him in the makeup to give his voice that raspy and harsh old man's quality.
This is one of those movies I always just come back to watch each year or so, as it is just so good.
It is based on the excellent Thomas Berger novel, which I have also read, and there are a few key differences, notably the relationship between Crabb and Hickock, and what happens to Hoffman's "grandfather" Cheyenne chief Old Lodgeskins.
Hoffman's skill as an actor is in little doubt, but his performance here is quite possibly his greatest in a long line ("Kramer vs. Kramer," "Rainman," "Tootsie") of great performances.
If you enjoy complexity in a story and a wonderful sense of wry humor, you will love this movie.
Movie Review: Classic tragic comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film again after a hiatus of 25 years recently, and it held up very well. No doubt the fans of the Berger book hated it, but as a movie it comes off very well. It stands as one of the great absurdist movies in the contrasts it draws between the white man and the Indians. And the Indians aren't all good--the Paiutes are portrayed as bad Indians--as bad as the whites. But the strength of the movie is in its hilarious and often tragic comparisons between the two cultures, and we see the absurdity and complexity of the white man's ways thrown into relief by comparison with the simplicity of the Indian ways. The dialog is sometimes totally demented and resembles nothing so much as the European theater of the absurd transplanted to the American west. In one of the greatest ironic/satirical movie roles of all time, Chief Dan George delivers many of these lines, such as when he comments on one of his wives (I think I have it more or less correct, but cut me some slack): "Snake woman cooks dog well, and has very soft skin. But the problem with snake women is that they copulate with horses. She denies it, of course, but she is lying. This is why I call her, "woman who does not like horses"." LOL. Some day I'm going to have to read the book just to see if it was toned down for the movie.
The all-star cast all turn in great performances and Hoffman turns in possibly the best performance of his career, and certainly the most wide ranging one in going from a teenager to a 120-year old man during the course of the movie. The other stars were also great and there's not a false note among them. Martin Balsam doesn't always get as much credit as he should having spent his entire career in character-actor roles, but here he is superb as the eternally optimistic snake oil salesman who is continually losing body parts, eventually becoming peg-legged, one-handed, and one-eyed. Faye Dunaway plays a seductive and naughty preacher's wife and she's the perfect choice for this role. Also notable were Jeff Corey as Wild Bill Hickok and Richard Mulligan as the ambitious but narcissistic General Custer. By the way, just a little trivia here, Custer graduated at the bottom of his West Point class, but still made general at a very young age. One thing you could say about the Old West was that there were certainly opportunities for quick advancement that don't exist today. :-)
Overall a great movie that has stood the test of time.
Movie Review: An American Film Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
A true American classic. It explores the violence, narcisissm, greed, sexual dysfunction, and the plain old human dumbness that made this country great. Sounds like a total downer, right? No. This story is wrapped in the glow of the Old West with a beautifully filmed, concisely scripted series of tales that follow Dustin Hoffman who represents modern America, caught up in the sins and lies of our fore-fathers, as he grows from child to man as a white man living among the Indian tribes. The Indians are not portrayed steroetypically as savages or as The Noble Braves. They are people too, people filled with self doubt, greed, longings for power and love and a desire to survive and to maintain their culture. Just as the whites are not portrayed as blind greed powered scythes sweeping down the cultures that lie before them as we supposedly conquered the west. The white man is portrayed as brave, as callow, as confused, as sexually repressed, as truely caring people. People, like their counter parts in the Indian culture, caught up in something so big that they find it impossible to sweep away the veil of confusion that hangs before their eyes when they view the world around them. This film is like our history, at times enlightening, at times confusing, sometimes enthralling, other times repulsive, sometimes joyous, but more often as life really is, filled with sadness and confusion and frustration. Those emotions we feel every day of our lives. As man has done every day since his first sentient thought. This movie is a treasure, much like King Kong, Citizen Kane, The Wild Bunch, The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever, West Side Story, Pinnochio, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Dirty Harry. All films that stood at the lead of changing cinema of their times. They were among the first to reflect new ideologies, new mind sets, new experiences in our culture in their stories, their look and their audeience appeal. When this comes out on DVD, I hope it is done with justice, with the extras and the opportunities to learn why this film is so important to our cinema through the extras such as voice overs and narrations to be enjoyed once we have absorbed the film itself. Grab this one right away, you will always find it worth watching from the first time to the last time you choose to view it. This film is Amercia personified, both the good and the bad. Nuff Said.Movie Review: Little Big Man
Summary: 5 Stars
Dustin Hoffman gives one of his best performances (although, almost all of his performances are wonderful) in Little Big Man, a kind of western/comedy/road movie. You know those movies where you follow a character around from misadventure to misadventure while they meet a large share of quirky characters. Recent examples of those kind of films would be Jesus' Son and Breakfast on Pluto; Little Big Man is also one of those kinds of movies. When the film opens we meet 121-year old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman), who looks like Grandpa from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. Jack is about to give an interview to a guy who wants to know about indians; Through flash-backs and voice-over Jack tells his story. As a boy, Jack and his family are ambushed by a group of indians but saved by another group (the Cheyenne). With only his sister and him, they go off to live with the indians but his sister escapes quickly leaving Jack all alone. As Jack proves his merit to the indians, he earns the nickname Little Big Man. After a battle where he is almost killed by a white man, he is brought into town and sent to live with two-overly religious people Mr. and Mrs. Pendrake. While Mr. Pendrake is an old religous man, Mrs. Pendrake (Faye Dunaway) is quite different. She appears to be a religious fanatic, but there's something else there as well. After catching her with another man, Jack ends up with a traveling "healer" named Mr. Meriweather who is prone to losing various body parts. After that debacle, he's reunited with his sister and becomes a gunslinger but after watching Will Bill Hickok (Jeff Corey) gun down a man, he quits that too. This is all in the first hour alone and this movie runs over two hours long. I'm not a big fan of movies involving cowboys and indians and such; But this movie is actually pretty good. It's very entertaining, all the characters are great, the performances are wonderful, the script is solid. Faye Dunaway isn't even in the movie that long, but she's a scene-stealer in this film for sure. This movie, which features Dustin Hoffman aging from 10 years old to 121 years old holds the world record for doing so. It's the longest anyone's lived on film apparently. It's an interesting film, it's funny and it's hard to not to enjoy.
GRADE: A