Little Big Man

"Either the most neglected hero in history or a liar of insane proportion!"

1970 2h 19m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 750

WesternComedyAdventureDrama

Synopsis

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Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.

“Either the most neglected hero in history or a liar of insane proportion!”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Dustin Hoffman
Jack Crabb
Faye Dunaway
Mrs. Louise Pendrake
Chief Dan George
Old Lodge Skins
Martin Balsam
Mr. Merriweather
Richard Mulligan
Gen. George Armstrong Custer
Jeff Corey
Wild Bill Hickok
Aimée Eccles
Sunshine
Kelly Jean Peters
Olga

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Arthur Penn
Writers: Calder Willingham
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 6

ERA

Did you know

56 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Arthur Penn, shot by Harry Stradling Jr.. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Dede Allen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 6

CAST

Did you know

Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway and Chief Dan George carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 6

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Either the most neglected hero in history or a liar of insane proportion!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 6

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0065988 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Arthur Penn directs. Harry Stradling Jr. behind the camera. Dede Allen cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

156 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Arthur Penn, shot by Harry Stradling Jr.. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Editor Dede Allen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
4Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway and Chief Dan George carry the top of the cast.
5Marketing tagline: "Either the most neglected hero in history or a liar of insane proportion!".
6IMDB entry: tt0065988 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Classified under 8 themes, including "based on novel or book", "fight", "indian territory", "settler".

The technical file

Cinematography: Harry Stradling Jr.
Editing: Dede Allen
Production design: Dean Tavoularis
Makeup / hair: Terry Miles
Runtime: 139 min · 2h 19m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $15,000,000
Box office: $31,559,552
Return: 210% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Little Big Man (1970)

Awards

National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Arthur Penn

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2018-09-02
★ 7/10
There is an endless supply of white men. There has always been a limited number of human beings. Little Big Man is directed by Arthur Penn and written by Calder Willingham. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Chief Dan George and Richard Mulligan. Arthur Penn's Little Big Man is tagged with many filmic sayings, be it revisionist or anti Western etc, it's a picture much cherished for its oddly quirky slyness. Allegorical movies are now in this day and age ten a penny, but back in 1970, with the Vietnam War in vivid focus, that wasn't the case. Marking this out as a provocative and ambitious venture. Penn has fun debunking and poking fun at the myths of the Old West via an array of pungent characters that Jack Crabb (Hoffman) meets in his lifetime. All of which leads to the question hanging in the air, that of is Jack Crabb the sole white man survivor of Custer's last stand at Little Big Horn? The portrayal of the Indians, here the Cheyenne, is superlative by way of the fact that they are the sensible spiritual race, the whites on the other hand are emotionally corrupt in comparison. It gets a little heavy handed at times and really half an hour could have been shaved off the running time and still the pic would have had the same effect. But great performances, the quirks and the potent thematics make for a fine piece of film making. 7/10
CinemaSerf2024-09-10
★ 7/10
This is quite a fun series of escapades told by way of a flashback interview from the ostensibly 121 year old "Crabb" (Dustin Hoffman) who is the last survivor of George Custer's ill-fated battle at the Little Big Horn. His not entirely convinced interviewer asks him about his lively life and we embark on his times as a white man who became an Indian before being "rescued" again before some toing and froing between them all set against the pioneering culture of the settlers encroaching on the ancient territories of the natives and of the ensuing hostilities that culminated with "Yellow Hair" Custer's calamitous campaign against the Sioux. Along the way we meet an array of interesting characters like "Wild" Bill Hickok (Jeff Corey), the force of nature that is "Mrs. Pendrake" (Faye Dunaway) as well as the dapper, slightly foppish, General himself (Richard Mulligan) but it's really the sagely old chief (Chief Dan George) whose stoicism in the face of the advancing of modern times is both engaging to watch and poignant as he begins to symbolise both a disappearing and an emerging way of life. There's loads of room for romantic interludes, the odd bit of bad news and by the end of this, I was starting to believe that however implausible many of his recounted adventures might have seemed - who knows, maybe he's really who he claims to be? It's a bit long, but most of the time the quirkiness of the story and it's pace carry it along entertainingly as a simplistic pastiche of US history that Hoffmann holds together really quite well, even if his characterisation as a gunslinger is maybe just a bridge too far. It has dated, and personally I'd have liked to have seen more of the ancillary characters developed a bit more - it'd have been great with the likes of Strother Martin, Jack Elam and Walter Brennan in there too, but it's still well worth a watch.