Little Big Man Movie Review

The “Little Big Man” is a 1970 movie which was directed by Arthur Penn, produced by Stuart Miller and written by Calder Willingham. The movie is the adaption of the novel by Thomas Berger. Little Big Man, which is based upon the epic comic novel, is regarded by many film critics as an ambitious attempt by Arthur.

The movie tries to present American legacy in a comic and comprehensive way. The movie depicts the comic, sour and hilarious adventures of Jack Crab who is a 120 years old person who was a white man brought up by Native Americans.

The movie which adorned the big screens of Paramount and Sutton Theatres yesterday attempts to accommodate too many dimensions of the novel making it a blend of comic as well serious elements. The plot of the movie has the element of “how the west was won” from the stand point of a white man. The theme of the novel tries to portray the disastrous consequences of American imperialism in a comic but stingingly satirical manner.
Jack Crab (Dustin Hoffman) narrates the story that he was the only remnant of Custer’s Last stand. He was ten years old when he was adopted by the Cheyenne. His mentor Old Lodge Skins named him as Little Big Man and raised him as a “natural human being”. When he grows up he is thrown in to the world of whites where he is trained as a gunfighter under the tutelage of Wild Bill (Thayer David). He then gets married.

By chance he returns to the Cheyenne and he prefers the life of a “Human Being” there. White people play havoc under the command of General George A. Custer (Richard Mulligan) at Little Big Horn. Crab now becomes highly convinced by the statement of his mentor who once told him “There is an endless supply of White Men, but there has always been a limited number of Human Beings.”

Little Big Man