Little Big
71 r
Junto
Oil
irony
Review by
ROLAND REED
This is the time - of the
American Indian in
Hollywood. Following hard
upon the films Flap from the
novel Nobody Loves a
Drunken Indian and the
controversial A Man Called
Horse comes Little Big Man
based on Thomas Berger's
novel with the same title.
Although Little Big Man,
like a A Man Called Horse has a
white man as its central
character, the potential for
controversy is lessened by the
straightforwardness of the point
of view.
Little Big Man is clearly and
absolutely the vision of a white
man living alternately in white
and in Indian society. The
onmiscient point of view and
seemingly historical
"objectivity" of A Man Called
Horse does not exist in Little
Big Man.
THE MAIN ACTION of
Little Big Man is framed by a
taped interview with
121-year-old Jack Crabb,
Indian fighter, white renegade
and sole white surviving
witness to the Battle of Little
Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand).
This cliche of a narrator
telling of the events of his past
life to lead into the body of
the film is successful largely
because of the technical
mastery of Dustin Hoffman's
vocal interpretation of the old
man-he sounds like a vigorous
and very hoarse crow-and the
make-up artistry of Dick
Smith, whose credit line should
be much more prominent.
THIS NARRATIVE
technique works well also
because Crabb's 121-year-old
insights provide delightful
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perspective to the events in his
life as he lives them from ages
10 to about 45. His wry
comments on his youthful
gullibility and innocence
provide some of the best
comedy in the film.
Calder Willingham's screen
play maintains the novel's
balance of seriousness, robust
comedy and dramatic irony
during the first three-fourths of
the film.
With the introduction of
George Armstrong Custer a
polemical tone, fostered by
script writer and director alike,
invades the film. The serious
aspects become melodrama
and diatribe, the comedy
becomes cartoon farce and the
razor edge of the irony is
transformed into a bludgeon.
Or as a local wit observed, "the
film, after sliding with perfect
balance down the bannister of
irony, finally castrates itself on
the newel post."
Berger's powerful ending is
blurred and colored by a pure
Hollywood honey-filter: the
really good live on. To his
credit, Willingham's script
generally provides motivation
and resolution for the
condensed episodes.
ARTHUR PENN's direction
shows a strong sense of rhythm
and pace. He used contrasting
shot durations, alternate scenes
of brightness and darkness,
intimacy and panorama to hold
audience attention. These
elements also compliment the
internal conflicts of the hero
who is alternately drawn to
white and Indian ways of
life-to comfort and adventure.
Martin Balsam's snake-oil
peddler scenes do not
adequately represent Jack's
disillusionment with the white
world. Too little of the
extreme poverty and hardships
of Indian life is realistically
portrayed to justify Jack's
betrayal of his friends when he
defects to the material comfort
of the white society.
The films's condensation of
the novel suffers most in this
area.
CHIEF DAN George as Old
Lodge Skins maintains great
dignity in a pretty salty, comic
role in spite of the
uncharacteristic triteness of
lines like, "My heart soars like
a hawk" (which even surpasses
Father Hopkins's, "My heart in
hiding stirred for a bird").
The Chief also has some of
the best lines. He expresses his
frustration at the never ending
white plague: "There seems to
be an endless supply of white
men while the number, of
Human Beings is extremely
limited."
Dustin Hoffman's portrayal
of the piccaresque hero's 35
year progress from innocence
to spikey cynicism is generally
believable with the style of the
film, but at times the brevity
of individual episodes gives him
too little time to establish his
characterization at a specific
age before he is thrown into a
later time period.
These limitations, detract
from, but by no means destroy
the film's unique and
entertaining vision of the old
West "like it wuz."
Little Big Man opens Friday
at the Varsity Theater.
Noon - Kappa Kappa Psi, Union
12:30 p.m.- Inter Varsity
Christian Fellowship.Union
2:30 p.m. - CSL Comm. on
Student Organizations,
Union
2:45 p.m. - Awards Day,
Union
3:30 p.m. - Awards Day
Reception, Union
3:30 p.m. - Builders College
Days, Union
3:30 p.m. - Union Coffee
House Comm., Union
5 p.m. - Corncobs, Union
6 p.m. Special Services
Tutoring, Union
6 p.m. Union Program
Council, Union
6:30 p.m. - Campus Crusade
for Christ, Union
7 p.m. - IFC Rush Comm.,
Union
7 p.m. - Graduate Student
Association, 228 Andrews
Hall
7p.m. - Opening, Student Art
Show, Sheldon Gallery
7 p.m. - Blueprint Interviews
Staff & Meeting, Union
7:30 p.m. - English Dept.
Ronald Watkins, Union
7:30 p.m. - Math Counselors,
Union
7:30 p.m. Circle K, East Union
7:30 p.m. - Ag. Economics
East Union
8 p.m. - Human Relations
Insight League, Union
8 p.m. - Free Univ. Issues &
Confrontations, Union
9 p.m. - Ag. Advisory, East
Union
9:30 p.m. - Young Americans
for Freedom, Union
9:30 p.m. - Mortar Board,
Union
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PAGE 6
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1971
