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Little Big Man
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OverviewAI-generated
Little Big Man is a 1970 American comedy drama and Western film directed by Arthur Penn. The cast includes Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, and Martin Balsam. The screenplay was written by Calder Willingham and Thomas Louis Berger, based on a work by Berger. John P. Hammond composed the music, while Dede Allen served as the film editor. The production was handled by CBS, Cinema Center Films, and Stockbridge-Hiller Productions.
Filmed in Billings, Crow Agency, the Crow Indian Reservation, and the Little Bighorn River, the narrative is set in South Dakota. The film features characters such as George Armstrong Custer and Wild Bill Hickok. It was distributed by Netflix and carries a PG-13 rating. The runtime is listed as 139 minutes in some records and 147 minutes in others.
The film received a Metascore of 63 and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music.
Synthesized by Vinony from 47 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.4Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Indians and fighting with General Custer.
Cast
- Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb
- Faye Dunaway as Mrs. Louise Pendrake
- Chief Dan George as Old Lodge Skins
- Martin Balsam as Mr. Merriweather
- Richard Mulligan as Gen. George Armstrong Custer
- Jeff Corey as Wild Bill Hickok
Themes
- based on novel or book
- fight
- indian territory
- settler
- native american
- orphan
- cheyenne
- 19th century
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7.5/10
39,376 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
91%
Metacritic
63/100
- Year
- 1970
- Runtime
- 139 min
- Genres
- Adventure, Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- PG-13
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 5 wins & 11 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Arthur Penn
- Screenplay by
- Calder Willingham
- Based on
- Little Big Man , by Thomas Berger
- Produced by
- Stuart Millar
- Starring
- Dustin Hoffman Martin Balsam Jeff Corey Chief Dan George Faye Dunaway
- Cinematography
- Harry Stradling Jr.
- Edited by
- Dede Allen
- Music by
- John Hammond
- Production company
- Cinema Center Films
- Distributed by
- National General Pictures
- Release date
- December 23, 1970 ( 1970-12-23 )
- Running time
- 147 minutes (uncut version) 139 minutes (edited version)
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $7 million
- Box office
- $31,559,552 (domestic)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Part of
- National Film Registry
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Movement
- New Hollywood
- Director
- Arthur Penn
- Screenwriter
- Thomas Louis Berger
- Cast member
- Don Brodie
- Composer
- John P. Hammond
- Cinematographer
- Harry Stradling
- Narrative location
- South Dakota
- Filming location
- Thousand Oaks
- Duration
- 147
- FilmAffinity ID
- 954314
- Distribution format
- video on demand
Show 11 more facts
- publication date
- 1970-12-14
- film editor
- Dede Allen
- title
- Little Big Man
- distributed by
- Netflix
- after a work by
- Thomas Louis Berger
- production designer
- Dean Tavoularis
- characters
- Wild Bill Hickok
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- review score
- 63/100
- box office
- 31600000
- capital cost
- 15000000
Sources (12)
via Wikidata · CC0
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Little Big Man is a 1970 American revisionist Western film directed by Arthur Penn, adapted by Calder Willingham from Thomas Berger's 1964 novel of the same title. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey and Richard Mulligan. The film follows the life of a white man who was raised by members of the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century, and then attempts to reintegrate with American pioneer society. Although broadly categorized as a Western, or an epic, the film encompasses several literary/film genres, including comedy, drama and adventure. It parodies typical tropes of the Western genre, contrasting the lives of white settlers and Native Americans throughout the progression of the boy's life.
Little Big Man is an early revisionist Western in its sympathetic depiction of Native Americans, and its exposure of the villainous practices of the United States Cavalry. The revision uses elements of satire and tragedy to examine prejudice and injustice. Little Big Man is an anti-establishment film of the period, indirectly protesting America's involvement in the Vietnam War by portraying the United States Armed Forces negatively.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Little Big Man” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.