University of Virginia Library

More Comments On 'Big Man'

But an unsatisfactory visual
climax doesn't mean an
unsatisfactory emotional climax. As
I said. "Little Big Man" is a dream
told by Jack Crabb and Arthur
Penn. If you doubt it remember
several scenes and shots. (1) The
title credits and end scene where
Crabb and Liveskins walk to the
camp: notice the series of dissolves
in which a medium shot becomes a
long distance shot. (2) the Indians
chasing the stagecoach, the editing
is abrupt and jumpy. (3) Custer's
first attack, set against the desolate
wintery landscape, while a fife and
drum (perhaps an anachronism?)
plays "The White Cockade:" the
entire sequence dissolving into a
white blankness.

There are more examples, but I
was talking about the climax at
Little Big Horn. It is a culmination
of madness that might have been
noticeable earlier in the film, but
was not obvious. Custer is raving
mad and screams at Crabb,
believing him to be President Grant.
It seems deserving that Custer and
the army should end this way.
But...

Earlier when Liveskins has asked
who was responsible for an attack.
Penn answered by showing a
knapsack with "US" stenciled on it.
No periods for United States, just
"US." Not only us lily-whites
either. "Ah, the black white-man.
He is not as ugly as the white, but
they're just as crazy," Liveskins
tells Jack.

Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway in "Little Big Man"

And what are we responsible
for? "The genocide of the
Indians," a character explains to
the 120 year old Crabb. The
"rubbing out" of the redman. But a
good many of Penn's Cheyenne,
especially Sunshine, look like
yellow men. It is a simple step to
substitute "Indochina" in that
second sentence, and I think Penn
would like us to make that
substitution.

Such an interpretation will not
satisfy everyone and "Little Big
Man" can be viewed in any number
of ways. I could suggest considering
Jack Crabb as an American ideal of
virtue and perseverance. He
struggles with all his jobs and is
persistent in his hunt for his wife.
He avoids the temptations of drink
(not for long) and Lulu Cain. There
are a few gaps in that theory, but I
am sure it could be developed
further.

Like Pauline Kael, I, and
possibly others, had hoped "Little
Big Man" would be both a critical
and popular success. Something like
a final recognition of Penn's talents.
I do feel that Penn will have no
trouble finding a bucker for his
next project, and I hope he uses an
original script for whatever it is.
While I'll hold that there are several
minor flaws in the film (Little
Horse, the first gay Indian I've seen
on screen is one of them), I must
say that "Little Big Man" certainly
ranks as one of the best films of
1970. Regardless of what one feels
about the film, he will come away
deep in his own thoughts, trying to
find a meaning for what he has
seen, just as Jack Crabb in the final
shot sits in heavy silence after
having told us his life.

(Now at the University)