Little Big Man is a 1970 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the 1964 novel by Thomas Berger. It is a picaresque comedy and drama about a Caucasian boy raised by the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century. The film is largely concerned with contrasting the lives of American pioneers and Native Americans throughout the progression of the boy's life.
The movie stars Dustin Hoffman, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey and Richard Mulligan. It is considered a Revisionist Western, with Native Americans receiving a sympathetic treatment uncommon for Western films in previous decades. Many of the United States Cavalry soldiers are depicted as villains. Despite its satiric and comedic approach, the film has tragic elements and a clear social commentary about prejudice and injustice. Little Big Man is considered an example of anti-establishment films of the period, subtly protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War by portraying the U.S. Military negatively. In her book Conversations with Pauline Kael, Kael says of the Vietnam War's depiction in American films, "It doesn't look at the facts of war, of what we were doing there. And that was the attitude of a lot of American films during the war years, even Westerns that deal with an early period of American life. The Americans are racists who shoot up the Indians for the careless joy of it-Little Big Man, for instance. It was a sophisticated criticism. The Indians, for instance, would have Vietnamese faces. The key girl we saw killed in slow motion in Little Big Man was definitely an Oriental." Arthur Penn has also stated in an interview featured on a TCM promo that elements of the film were comments on American genocide depicting events "closest to The Holocaust."
Glumačka postava:
Dustin Hoffman
Faye Dunaway
Chief Dan George
Martin Balsam
Richard Mulligan
Cal Bellini
Plot:
Jack Crabb is about 100 years old as the film begins. A collector of oral histories asks him about his past. He recounts being captured and raised by indians, becoming a gunslinger, marrying an indian, watching her killed by General George Armstrong Custer, and becoming a scout for him at Little Big Horn.
Trailer:
http://www.videodetective.com/movie_tra ... 001070.htm
Poster:
