Little Big Man

In 1970, "Little Big Man," with its unique format was released. It was directed by Arthur Penn and stared Dustin Hoffman and was based on the popular novel by Thomas Berger. The film "Little Big Man," while fairly entertaining, was a poor representation of the key points of the novel.

In the novel Little Big Man, Berger creates a story that helps to explain the circular view of the Cheyenne, while portraying both the Indians and white man in an equally favorable light. This is also attempted in the movie, but with much less success. The portrayal of the Indians in the film seems to be interfered with by Arthur Penn's attempt to use the film as an anti-Vietnam platform.

The unique format of the movie is that a one hundred and twenty-two year old man, who is the aged main character Jack Crabb also known as Little Big Man, narrates it. The narrator helps the viewer navigate through Jack Crabb's trials as he attempts to find his identity. His attempts cause him to float back and forth between white culture and that of the Cheyenne. Additionally, every time that he is in a stage where he is living in the white culture it leads to a comical and interesting period in his life. These include his period as a gunfighter, when he travels with a tonic salesman and when he is drunk and lying in the street. While, when he is living a Cheyenne, he seems grounded and tends to be always in the same position with in the tribe. The way in which the humor about each group is used lends increasing the belief that the stereotypes about Indians are true. Most of the white characters are shown in a humors manner and they way they are made fun of if almost entirely a parody. While, the humor related to the Indians is handled more gingerly and carefully as if the writers are trying to not offend the Indians, which leads to the images seeming as completely accurate examples of the Indians lifestyles rather than a humorous and parody like image.

There are a variety of other interesting characters in the movie that lend to perceptions of both the Cheyenne and in general American Indians. One of these characters is Younger Bear, who in the beginning of the movie is a contrary and does all his general life tasks backwards, later on in the film he is married to Jack Crabb's missing wife. Younger Bears appears to be placed in the movie to serve a couple of purposes. First, when he does everything backward he seems inefficient and completely odd, by American standards. Additionally, he has held a grudge against Jack Crabb, since they were young, exhibiting another stereotype about American Indians that they are a somewhat violent and angry people. Another character is very typical to the traditional western is Old Lodge Skins, the spiritual and wise older Indian. His character really lends additional support for the common stereotypes, including the multiple times he smokes during the movie, his spirituality that is portrayed through his dreams and his dialogue. These characters add to the ideas about American Indians in discreet but powerful ways.

Another means through which the movie portrays Indians in a poor and inaccurate manner is during some of the battle scenes. For instance, during the one battle scene, the white army is using rifles and are able to kill many of the Indians, while the Cheyenne are using sticks to hit the soldiers as a way of embarrassing them. This is a very unrealistic scene because the Cheyenne had been exposed to the white men and their way of fighting for quite sometime so they would have been well aware of the use of weapons. Additionally, through their contact with white people they would have most likely been in possession of guns or other weapons themselves. Another scene in the movie that is about the Cheyenne and is quite unrealistic is when Sunshine leaves camp to have her and Little Big Man's baby she appears to be just walking out of camp, in the snow to have the child. This is an attempt to show the uncivilized and rash manner of the Cheyenne, which were common held perceptions of people at the time. These are just a couple of the examples of when the novel and the movie portray the Indians in manners that correspond to the typical stereotypical ideas of the time.

Little Big Man is really a great and interesting book. It is extremely impressive that the author of the Thomas Berger had never been to the area in which his book takes place and had no first hand experience with Indians that he was able to describe the areas and the Cheyenne's way of life more actually and more objectively then many other authors of the time. Although, the effect of the movie is not as impressive or as effective as the novel, most of this is related to the time constraints of the medium and the arterial motive of the director, who used the film as a means of protesting the Vietnam war.