When Little Big Man was released in 1970 it was amidst a changing landscape in both the movie industry and America itself. The "studio system" in Hollywood had faded away and traditional genres like the western were dying a slow death. To make big money with a western you needed star appeal as was the case with films like "True Grit" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Needless to say Little Big Man was not a huge box office success, but it is a beautiful and unique American classic as well as being the first mainstream western to portray Native Americans as real people and not stereotypes. The story depicts events on both sides leading up to the battle of little bighorn as told through flashbacks by Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman at his best), the 121 year old soul white survivor. Jack is like a fly on the wall of many momentous events from the wild west, almost like a western version of Forrest Gump.
At the beginning of the film the old version of Crabb (Hoffman, in an incredible make-up job) tells an interviewer to turn on his tape recorder and shut up and he'd tell the story of the "human beings". The human beings he is referring to are the Cheyenne Indians, a tribe that Jack knew well as he had been raised by the Cheyenne after his family was "wiped-out" by another tribe.
This is where his serpentine story starts as we are introduced to all the Cheyenne characters with which Jack's path will cross time and time again. Jack is raised by Old Lodgeskins (the incredibly good Chief Dan George) who gives him his name and teaches him the ways of the Cheyenne. Jack is captured back by the whites as a teenager after an Indian battle, raised by preachers wife Louise Pendrake (Faye Dunaway), and from this point on he goes back and forth between the whites and the Cheyenne as his story unfolds.
Jack continually will come across people from his past and each time it happens it changes the direction of his life; he meets a snake oil salesman (Martin Balsom, perfectly cast) with one eye, and each time he meets him again he's missing another body part "you're getting whittled down pretty good Mr. Meriwether" then he ends up being abducted by his long lost sister who teaches Jack how to shoot and thus he becomes a gunslinger and is befriended by Wild Bill Hickok (Jeff Corey). Eventually he ends up joining the Army, the 7th cavalry under George Custer (Richard Mulligan, manic and hilarious), who is portrayed as an egocentric oddball, which probably isn't far from the truth. Custer claims he can tell a mans occupation by just looking at him and says a job-seeking Jack is a muleskinner (he's wrong of course), when Jack finally humors him and says he is right, Custer gleefully bellows "hire the muleskinner" before riding off.
There are two climatic scenes and both involve the 7th Cavalry and Custer,the first is the attack on the Washita River of Cheyenne women and children. This scene is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking as Jack gets Lodgeskins to make a run for the river by convincing him he is invisible (funnier than I can convey in words), and after escaping Jack watches helplessly as the soldiers murder his wife and baby.
The second climactic scene is the battle of Little Big Horn, as Custer is convinced anything Jack (now a scout) tells him will be wrong and sneeringly tells his horrified aide that Jack is the "perfect reverse barometer". It's hard to put into words just how insightful and ironic that scene is right before the battle the voice-over of Jack says "I had him now, but what I had wasn't a knife but the truth" while the pitiful Custer is all pomp and arrogance, too proud (and stupid) to realize Jack is telling the exact truth, and the poor aide can see the whole thing coming but can do nothing as Custer's bloated ego leads them all to their doom.
One of the great things about Little Big Man is seeing the recurring characters all having their destinies fulfilled, whether its Lulu becoming a prostitute and then going to live with her aunt, or Meriwether losing his limbs one by one, or Hickok getting gunned down in Deadwood holding his aces and eights, or Custer being turned into a "greasy spot" on Medicine tail coulée.
Well, then there's old Lodgeskins, who had often made mention of it being "a good day to die". At the end he wants Jack to walk with him up the hill to die but then it starts raining and he opens his eyes "am I still in this world?" yes, grandpa answers Jack "jesshhh, I was afraid of that". Old Lodgeskins has been through hell, but he's a survivor.
Jack Crabb is a survivor too. And a choirboy, a snake oil salesman, a gunslinger, a merchant, a drunk, an Indian scout and yes of course, a muleskinner.
At the beginning of the film the old version of Crabb (Hoffman, in an incredible make-up job) tells an interviewer to turn on his tape recorder and shut up and he'd tell the story of the "human beings". The human beings he is referring to are the Cheyenne Indians, a tribe that Jack knew well as he had been raised by the Cheyenne after his family was "wiped-out" by another tribe.
This is where his serpentine story starts as we are introduced to all the Cheyenne characters with which Jack's path will cross time and time again. Jack is raised by Old Lodgeskins (the incredibly good Chief Dan George) who gives him his name and teaches him the ways of the Cheyenne. Jack is captured back by the whites as a teenager after an Indian battle, raised by preachers wife Louise Pendrake (Faye Dunaway), and from this point on he goes back and forth between the whites and the Cheyenne as his story unfolds.
Jack continually will come across people from his past and each time it happens it changes the direction of his life; he meets a snake oil salesman (Martin Balsom, perfectly cast) with one eye, and each time he meets him again he's missing another body part "you're getting whittled down pretty good Mr. Meriwether" then he ends up being abducted by his long lost sister who teaches Jack how to shoot and thus he becomes a gunslinger and is befriended by Wild Bill Hickok (Jeff Corey). Eventually he ends up joining the Army, the 7th cavalry under George Custer (Richard Mulligan, manic and hilarious), who is portrayed as an egocentric oddball, which probably isn't far from the truth. Custer claims he can tell a mans occupation by just looking at him and says a job-seeking Jack is a muleskinner (he's wrong of course), when Jack finally humors him and says he is right, Custer gleefully bellows "hire the muleskinner" before riding off.
There are two climatic scenes and both involve the 7th Cavalry and Custer,the first is the attack on the Washita River of Cheyenne women and children. This scene is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking as Jack gets Lodgeskins to make a run for the river by convincing him he is invisible (funnier than I can convey in words), and after escaping Jack watches helplessly as the soldiers murder his wife and baby.
The second climactic scene is the battle of Little Big Horn, as Custer is convinced anything Jack (now a scout) tells him will be wrong and sneeringly tells his horrified aide that Jack is the "perfect reverse barometer". It's hard to put into words just how insightful and ironic that scene is right before the battle the voice-over of Jack says "I had him now, but what I had wasn't a knife but the truth" while the pitiful Custer is all pomp and arrogance, too proud (and stupid) to realize Jack is telling the exact truth, and the poor aide can see the whole thing coming but can do nothing as Custer's bloated ego leads them all to their doom.
One of the great things about Little Big Man is seeing the recurring characters all having their destinies fulfilled, whether its Lulu becoming a prostitute and then going to live with her aunt, or Meriwether losing his limbs one by one, or Hickok getting gunned down in Deadwood holding his aces and eights, or Custer being turned into a "greasy spot" on Medicine tail coulée.
Well, then there's old Lodgeskins, who had often made mention of it being "a good day to die". At the end he wants Jack to walk with him up the hill to die but then it starts raining and he opens his eyes "am I still in this world?" yes, grandpa answers Jack "jesshhh, I was afraid of that". Old Lodgeskins has been through hell, but he's a survivor.
Jack Crabb is a survivor too. And a choirboy, a snake oil salesman, a gunslinger, a merchant, a drunk, an Indian scout and yes of course, a muleskinner.