Little Big Man

Little Big Man is delightfully over-the-top as a comedy, immensely engaging as a human drama, and truly extraordinary as an adventure western. That alone testifies to the uniqueness of this beautiful story, which hasn't aged a day in 42 years and would clearly deserve to be in the top 200 for its premise and idea. Dustin Hoffman is amazing, giving probably his best performance after Rain Man, and it would be hard to imagine the fate of the elusive Jack Crabb today without his innocent and determined face. But just as much he shines in front of the camera, Arthur Penn gives a great directorial performance and manages to inject such a range of feelings, colours and emotions into the narrative that even the 140 minutes seem short. Where are all the Oscar nominations, at least for the director and Hoffman...? (15/10/2012)

1970s cringe. I could quibble that creating a Forrest Gump character in the Wild West and lethargically floating the overall mood of the film back and forth constantly might be a great idea, but that's probably only for nostalgia fans and big admirers of Dustin Hoffman's over-the-top performance. The movie is objectively poorly written, unengaging, and fundamentally dysfunctional. Above all that, it's technically incredibly poorly shot; so many directorial and cinematographic errors all at once – I can't recall seeing anything like this anywhere else, in any other film. An absolute waste of time and a disaster. (15/09/2024)

Another one from the *1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die* list, so I didn’t hesitate. The premise is pretty wild right from the start—Dustin Hoffman, barely disguised as a 110-year-old man, tells a reporter his unbelievable life story from the Wild West. And "unbelievable" is definitely the right word, but that’s kind of the point. The filmmakers seemed to lose track of the timeline a bit, though—since Hoffman looks the same throughout, it feels like the whole story takes place over a week. Despite that, it’s a great tale. The comparisons to Forrest Gump are spot on, just with less memorable dialogue. (08/04/2021)

One of the few westerns that shatters the conventional view of the conquest of the Wild West as a heroic period in American history (the slaughter of an Indian village by ruthless American soldiers, General Custer as a psychopathic despot, etc.), and it also has many funny situations. Dustin Hoffman as a shy young man, a drunkard, an Indian, a bearded drifter or a centenarian old man – he is extremely convincing in all these roles. I think its his best film role. (01/06/2002)

Director Arthur Penn became famous mainly thanks to the film "Bonnie and Clyde", but he is also known for the film "Little Big Man". It's the story of a white boy who was raised by Indians, but his life definitely did not bring him an easy fate. We first meet Jack Crabb when he is around 120 years old and he begins to tell his story to a reporter. It doesn't seem like a significant story at first glance, but that's not the case. Jack Crabb immediately finds himself in the clutches of fate and is dragged by them for the rest of his allotted time. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/02/maly-velky-muz-1970-80.html (21/03/2013)