Actors - Little Big Man

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	Actors - Little Big Man

Little Big Man is a book and later, a movie in 1970. It is black comedy about a boy raised by the Cheyenne Nation and simulataneously an American in the frontier territories. A major part of the film involves contrasting the way the Americans live and the way the Native Americans live.

The story is presented as centarian Jack Crabb recalls several facets of his long and unusual life; including being a gunslinger, a homesteader, a snake-oil salesman, a scout for General George Custer, and sidekick to Wild Bill Hickock. The central theme, however, being his adoption by the Cheyenne, enabling him to view both the white and Native American cultures of the 19th century with equal puzzlement. Despite its comedic approach, it contains many dramatic moments and a clear social commentary about prejudice and injustice.

Based on a 1964 novel by Thomas Berger, the movie starred Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George. It is a "revisionist" Western where American Indians receive a more sympathetic treatment than the soldiers who are depicted as lunatics or uncultured barbarians.

Reaction

Critical reviews of the film are mostly positive. Film critic Roger Ebert calls Little Big Man "endlessly entertaining attempt to spin an epic in the form of a yarn. It mostly works. When it doesn't -- when there's a failure of tone or an overdrawn caricature -- it regroups cheerfully and plunges ahead. We're disposed to go along; all good storytellers tell stretchers once in a while, and circle back to be sure we got the good parts."

Historical Basis

The depiction of a lunatic Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the Little Big Horn is not regarded as historically accurate. The scenes depicting the massacre of an Indian village is based on the Sand Creek Massacre, where 150 or more women, children, and elderly men were killed--and who had sought and been promised peace by the U.S. Army.

Awards

Chief Dan George won awards for his film role from the Producers Guild of America, the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. He was also nominated for an award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Golden Globes. Hoffman won third place with the Producers Guild of America, and was nominated for an award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

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