FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Wuchak Released in 1970 and directed by Arthur Penn, "Little Big Man" is narrated by 121 year-old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman), who details a tall tale of his colorful exploits in the Old West. Events include: Growing up with the Cheyanne, his adoptive family/tribe; a religious period with a striking hypocritical woman (Faye Dunaway); working as a snake oil huckster; living as a (funny) gunslinger who meets Wild Bill Hickok (Jeff Corey); working for General Armstrong Custer (Richard Mulligan); his many conversations with this loving adoptive grandfather (Chief Dan George); and many more.This is a historically significant Western, coming out at the height (and twilight) of the hippie movement, and the movie reflects this. The first act is great because it's so different, mixing comedy with drama. There are some genuinely amusing moments. As far as production values go, this was top-of-the-line for 1970. For instance, young Hoffman convincingly passes for a crotchety old man. Unfortunately, the second and final acts definitely meander, likely because Crabb is rambling out his (dubious) life story. This is the main reason for my mediocre rating. Another problem is that there's zero balance with the ideology. The European Americans are corrupt one way or another, and sometimes evil incarnate, while the Natives are generally painted as super-virtuous. But I have to give the movie credit for the first Old West sequence, which depicts the aftermath of a savage Indian raid. Then there's the "gay" Indian. Why sure!So the movie's a mixed bag. It's notable and unique enough to make it worth seeing, but its flaws mar its overall impact.The movie runs 147 minutes and was shot in Alberta, Montana and California.GRADE: C

kaaber-2 I saw "Little Big Man" when I was eleven, and oh, how I loved it. I was outraged at the treatment of the American Indians and full of contempt for the US cavalry.Only when my enthusiasm for the film – which I saw numerous times – induced me to study the historical facts of the matter did I realize that this film (along with "Soldier Blue" from about the same time) was actually about the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam war and had very little to do with the 19th century Indians of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne Indians in "Little Big Man" as portrayed by Arthur Penn are kind and peace-loving believers in co-existence, and they wouldn't be out of place on Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s San Fransisco. We are even led to believe that warfare, to the Indians, consisted only of slapping the enemy with a stick (counting coup) and otherwise leaving the foe unscathed. On the other hand, the film offers no excuse for any of the white people we encounter. Main character Jack's foster father, the Reverend Pendrake, is a religious fanatic, his wife is nymphomaniac (and later turns up in a whorehouse), Jack's sister Caroline is equally sex-starved, his wife is a harpy, and to top it, Jack encounters con men, deranged generals (Custer) and what not. Caucasian culture is depraved and cowardly and murderous, as opposed to the Indians. "Little Big Man" beautifully depicts the hippie-happy dream of life among the Prairie Indians. For historical facts, such as the thousands of years of warfare among warring tribes on the plains, mutual atrocities and genocide among the natives, we have to look elsewhere. "Little Big Man" just leaves us to curse Columbus, and contemplate the great place America could have been without the white man.

mike48128 My tastes have changed over the years. The last time I saw this was the edited-for-TV version and now recently, uncut on TCM. I liked it before; I didn't like it this time. It's like watching M*A*S*H in that it lulls you into thinking it's a comedy and then it gets very bloody and graphic. Gunfighter battles and Indian massacres. At least one part of the story is true: Custer did wipe out 210 innocent "Human Beings" (as the tribe calls itself) for almost no reason at all. However, most of the colorful parts of the movie seem to be tall tales. (Example: he makes love to 4 Indian squaws at once.) It reminds me of Cecil B. DeMille's "The Plainsman" in that the storyline is illogical. He meets up with the same colorful characters over and over again: Mr. Merriweather (Martin Balsam). Mrs. Pendrake (Faye Dunaway), who becomes a whore. "Olga", his fiery red-haired ungrateful wife, who becomes an Indian squaw for his "sworn enemy" Indian brother. Wild Bill Hickok, who dies unexpectedly. Chief Dan George, as "Grandfather", was nominated for an Oscar and deserved it. At the end an outstanding "dazed and confused" portrayal by Richard Mulligan as an egotistical and crazy General Custer. (Was the real Custer really that stupid?) Too long and too contrived for me. Dustin Hoffman's acting is very uneven. It's brilliant at times yet unpolished and unfunny.

billcr12 Dustin Hoffman is Jack Crabb, a 121 year old man who recites his colorful life story to a journalist. Jack and his sister survive an attack by Pawnee Indians in which their parents' are killed. They are rescued by a Cheyenne warrior, but his sister escapes and he is raised by them and given the name Little Big Man for obvious reasons. Hoffman is as good as he was in The Graduate, with the same cool demeanor.At sixteen, he is recaptured by the U.S. Cavalry and turns against his adoptive family in order to fit in with his fellow white men. He gets "civlized" by a Reverend Silas and his sexually voracious wife Louise(Faye Dunaway). Jack hits the road with a snake oil salesman and happens upon his sister who believes that he should be a gunslinger and when he meets Wild Bill Hickock and witnesses a shooting, he decides against that career.Next up, Jack marries a Swedish woman named Olga and opens a store with a guy who turns out to be a crook and so the store closes. George Custer tells him, go west young man, and on the way, their stagecoach is captured by Cheyenne Indians and Olga is taken away. He reunites with his old tribal chief but leaves to find his missing wife. He joins up with Custer's 7th calvary and witnesses the slaughter of women and children by the heavily armed U.S. forces and turns against them. It all leads up to the famous battle of Little Big Horn. Little Big Man is a true epic western, and one of the best.