If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

One of the best movies and westerns of the 70's and if not for all time. Little Big Man has a slow and dull beginning but it soon emerges into a souring hawk. The movie however cannot completely be described as a western, it might take place in a western time, but it certainly does not build itself up around the usual western motifs. The conflicting sides the main character is thrown into makes for a good solid plot. There are issues that come up in terms of cinematography and overextending scenes but the movie redeems itself through the story, which is both creative and captivating. Overall a great movie that definitely took me by surprise.

121 year old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) recounts his life in the old west. He claims to be the sole white survivor of Little Bighorn. He and his older sister Caroline are the sole survivors of Pawnee. They are taken in by the Cheyenne. Caroline escapes but Jack is adopted. He is captured by US troopers, apprentice with a snake-oil salesman, becomes a gunslinger after reuniting with Caroline, meets Wild Bill Hickok, marries and bankrupted store, follows Custer, reunite with the Cheyenne and then tricks Custer into Little Bighorn.This is part tall-tales, part satire, part historical reimagining and more accurate than most old western. It is smart and funny. It takes sharp jabs at the old image of Indians. Dustin Hoffman is brilliant in this new world western epic. It does take random turns which is part of its charm.

I remember very well Little big man being shot here in July 1969.Hoffman rented a house from a prominent local doctor.Went out one evening to where they were shooting and got a first hand look at why these Big Budget Movies cost so much to shoot,One scene that's in the movie that lasts about 8 seconds took over 4 hrs to get right.Veteran Stuntman Loren Janes and J,N.Roberts came over to our Motorcycle Dealership one evening and showed behind the scenes footage of Jane's stuntwork on movies like "How the west was Won" and Nevada Smith. He stunt doubled for Steve McQueen in almost all his Films.Movie was good but I thought it was too long needed some cutting.One local resident here that was a wagon driver had numerous scenes and thought he was going to have a good amount of screen time. Every scene he was in ended up on the cutting room floor. He was pretty devastated to say the least..s.m.

Strange as it may seem, I was impressed with how similar the basic plot construction is to that of the well-regarded '41 film "Sullivan's Travels", which has nothing to do with Native Americans nor genocide. What they have in common is the main character(Jack, in the present case) plunged into an alien culture, then several times going back and forth between these cultures. For a time, they seem a lost soul, unsure of their identity as a member of one or the other culture. They also have the commonality of ironic coincidences as a recurring determinant of their drifting lives. There are, of course, some major differences in the character of the film. Clearly, the unexpected reappearance of numerous characters in Jack's life is a central theme of this film, which may well, as one reviewer suggested, symbolize the Native American's view of the universe as an endless series of recurring cycles.Some reviewers make the extravagant claim that this is the first film to clearly portray Plains 'Indians' as relatively desirable people, if not without some foibles. In contrast, their European conquerors were, on the whole, a crazy, greedy, arrogant, hypocritical bunch. But there were previous well known films that presented western 'Indians' as 'good guys', including the John Ford films: "Fort Apache" and, most relevantly, "Cheyenne Autumn",released 7 years earlier. The latter two dealt with conflict between the Cheyenne and US cavalry, in which the cavalry, along with most European settlers, were presented as 'the bad guys'. Of course, "Soldier Blue", also released in 1970, was another presumably Vietnam War-inspired take on the massacre of Cheyenne by US cavalry. In some respects, it more resembled "Cheyenne Autumn", while in other respects, it more resembled the present film. The '51 "Across the Wide Missouri" also presented an intimate portrait of Plains 'Indians'. Like Old Lodge Skins(OLS), Chief Bear Ghost in that film had had his fill of deaths from warfare, and was resigned to accept the fate of his people as eventual wards of a country governed by Europeans.One of the striking ironies is that OLS and Jack, who have suicidal thoughts at times later in the film, are the only ones spared in Custer's second annihilation of a Cheyenne village. OLS's belief that he can make himself invisible, in plain sight to the cavalry, appears to work. However, his later belief that magic can also make him die when he wants doesn't work. Both he, perhaps as a symbol of 'Indians' in general, and Jack will presumably live to see the Plains 'Indians' subdued, but not quite exterminated, forced onto reservations lacking their vital bison. Thus, OLS recognizes that the Indian's victory at Little Big Horn is their Pearl Harbor equivalent. Like the later Japanese, he knew that they were ultimately doomed in their struggle with the US military. Incidentally, I doubt it mere coincidence that Jack's Cheyenne name means Little Big Man, and that he is the only apparent survivor of the 7th cavalry massacre at Little Big Horn.I haven't seen any comments on a possible relationship between Younger Bear's seemingly irrelevant period of of being an obsessive contrary(doing the opposite of every normal thing), and Custer's later assumption that Jack, as his mistrusted scout, will advise him the opposite of what is favorable in relation to the 'Indians' at Little Big Horn. As a result, Custer is wildly overoptimistic in his assessment of his chances against the 'Indians'. But, instead of blaming himself for mistrusting Jack's information, he wants to shoot Jack. Custer, as well as Bill Hickok, can be interpreted as representing the bullying, overconfident, trigger-happy US military in the Vietnam War, as well as the 'Indian' wars.The presentation of European vs. Cheyenne women in Jack's life is perhaps the most unbalanced aspect of the film. The European women are all extreme types. His older sister Caroline is presented as rather mannish, the Cheyenne first assuming her to be a man, and not interested in having sex with her after discovering their mistake. Later, she reemerges in Jack's life as the leader of a vigilante group out to do justice to Jack and his quack medicine business partner. Later, she appears to attempt an incestuous relationship with Jack, before teaching him to be the best gunslinger in the West. But she can't change Jack's effeminate pacifist personality, thus eventually deserts him.Meanwhile, Jack comes under the influence of hypocritical, adulterous, nymphomaniac Louise, totally miscast as the wife of a bible-thumping 'Indian'-hating preacher, later to reappear to Jack as a widowed prostitute. Then, there is Olga, his rather stupid Scandinavian wife for a short while, before stolen by Cheyenne, to become the shrewish wife of Younger Bear. In contrast, his 4 Cheyenne widowed sister wives are presented as good women. Unfortunately, all were soon massacred, perhaps also symbolizing the infamous recent My Lai massacre in Vietnam.