Dustin Hoffman Learns the Ways of the Cheyenne in Little Big Man

The Western genre was slowly fading away by the early 1970’s; at the very least, it wasn’t as huge as it was in the heyday of John Wayne (although he still made some films in the 70’s.) It is no surprise that the few Westerns made around this time were more revisionist, or unusual, compared to the classic movies. Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch gave us a mean, graphically bloody vision of the Old West, far removed from the heroic plots of previous decades of films. And Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man turns the tables on frequent Western depiction of American Indians, by making them into sympathetic characters while making white people into the enemy.

Well, not all white people -- our main character is, in fact, a white guy by the name of Jack Krabbe, played by Dustin Hoffman. At the beginning of the film, he is at the ripe old age of 121, and is in what appears to be a rest home of some sort, when a researcher visits him in hopes of getting some stories about what life was like in the frontier. Jack, at this point, claims that he was one of the sole survivors of Custer’s Last Stand, that he knew Wild Bill Hickok, and that he lived with the Indians. The researcher isn’t convinced that he wants to hear these “tall tales”, but Jack insists that the tape recording machine be turned on so he can tell his story...........

When Jack was a little boy, most of his family were mowed down by a group of renegade Indians, leaving only Jack and his older sister as survivors. Later on, a member of a Cheyenne tribe notices the children, and takes them away to be taken care of by the Cheyenne tribe. Right away, we sense the quirky tone of this movie when the older sister adamantly believes that these peaceful and harmless Cheyenne natives are just waiting for the proper moment when they will rape and violate her, and, a few minutes later, the older Jack comments to us that “She never did have no luck with men.”

The older sister sneaks away from the camp in her self-deluded fear, leaving Jack behind to be fully taken in as a member of the tribe. He grows up with the Cheyenne, and even becomes involved in their skirmishes with both other tribes and with white men -- the Chief (played by Chief Dan George) dubs Jack “Little Big Man” -- “little in body but big in spirit” -- the Chief and Jack have much mutual respect for each other, and throughout the film they share many meaningful conversations.

Much of the film is episodic in nature, as Jack witnesses the contrast between the genuine nature of the Cheyenne, and the assorted hypocritical, deceitful, self-righteous, violent, authoritative natures of the white folk. During a battle with a group of American soldiers, Jack is taken away by the soldiers, and given to a supposedly religious household, so he can learn a proper, Christian lifestyle. Jack catches his first glimpse of religious hypocrisy through the wife of this Christian couple, played by Faye Dunaway, who talks the talk, but, through her generally flirtatious nature and her affairs with others, definitely does not walk the walk.

His other experiences with the white man include his apprenticeship with a con man who sells tonics of dubious nature to gullible citizens (and who also seems to be missing another body part or appendage every time he has a new scene in the movie!). Later on, Jack has a run-in with Wild Bill Hickok, who inspires him to try to become a gunfighter for a time. And throughout the movie, Jack has numerous encounters with General Custer (a very good Richard Mulligan, best known for Soap and Empty Nest), culminating in the famed event popularly known as Custer’s Last Stand, but, in reality, is a huge massacre in which the Natives essentially turn the tables on the white army.

All of these experiences show Jack that the white people, who talk about being superior and being more sophisticated and civilized than those “savages”, aren’t fit to be in this world. The chief of the Cheyennes talks about how the white man essentially wants to deny life, they want to destroy anything that does have life, which includes not just nature, but innocent people, as seen during a massacre that includes Jack’s own Cheyenne wife. At the same time, even the more smaller stories involving Jack’s encounters with white people show that these white people aren’t so hot -- a con man profiting by selling dangerous chemicals to people promised healthy results, a wild west legend who is nothing more than a trigger-happy paranoid, a woman who mouths the language of the Bible and morals while she messes around with everything in sight. The Cheyenne Indians, at least, are consistant and truthful, and they have respect and understanding for nature, human and otherwise -- they would gladly live in peace, and not concern themselves with what is going on, if only the white world would leave them alone.

Clearly, then, this is a movie of its time. Even though the movie takes place in the Old West, and a lot of the subject matter would be at home (although perhaps treated differently) in an older Western, perhaps one made by John Ford, I’m certain that some of the counterculture viewers of 1970 would have felt some of the content to reflect their feelings at the time. Much of the white people depicted here were in positions of authority, either through the military or religion, while the natives are communal, free-loving (Jack, at one point, has four “wives” all sleeping in the same tent), and avoid all of the trappings of “society”.

The tone of this movie is interesting. While there are quite a few violent sequences, and some tragic moments -- most notably, as I said before, a violent, heartless massacre of women and children orchestrated by Custer’s men -- much of the movie is a quirky comedy. Even some of the violent bits are played, not as grim, but as almost wacky. An Indian attack on a chuck wagon holding Jack, his new Swedish wife, and a bunch of other people, is basically a punchline to Custer’s line saying that it is safe to travel West. Later on, before and during Custer’s Last Stand, Custer is ultimately shown as a grandiose, egotistical fool -- a dangerous fool, mind you, but still a fool. People die and die around him, yet Custer cracks up in a sequence of absurd, violent comedy.

Many other amusing bits of comedy involve Jack’s life with the Natives. One Native, who as a youngster avoided battle to stay with the women, grows up to be essentially a Cheyenne version of the flamboyant gay man. Some of the conversations between Jack and the chief are quite funny, especially when they talk about women. And Jack finds himself in a long-running feud with another Cheyenne, Younger Bear, who has always resented him after Jack saved his life -- apparently, that punctured Younger Bear’s pride, and, ever since, he’s never been able to reconcile himself with that wounded pride. These sequences are treated more as human comedy than as anything particularly serious.

The performances are quite good, especially that of Chief Dan George. The fact that he is a genuine elderly native, and not some Hollywood actor, adds much realism to his character. (the Internet Movie Database claims that the original choice for this role was Marlon Brando!) I also was pretty impressed by seeing Richard Mulligan, who I’ve only known from sitcoms, take on the role of Custer -- it’s clear that Mulligan was a good character actor. Faye Dunaway ably plays the sexually strong, but morally weak, religious wife, but she, despite her high billing in the cast, only shows up for about 20 minutes of this entire movie. Dustin Hoffman is certainly well-suited to the tragic-comic nature of this story, although I think I was more impressed by seeing and hearing him play a 121-year old man in the modern-day sequences.

Overall, Little Big Man is a very good, and interesting Western. I’m not going to go so far and say it’s the best Western ever made, although it does contain elements that are original and unique to itself. Let’s just say that, as with many of John Ford’s films, and pictures such as The Wild Bunch, Little Big Man is in the same class.