“Little Big Man takes its title from the central character, Jack Crabbs, a frontier veteran of 121 years whose experiences make him an unlikely but nonetheless fascinating figure of the Old West. The intrigue of Crabbs' reminiscences is shaped more by the nature and scope of his fluctuating circumstances than by bona fide case studies of heroism. Yet his life reads like an epic far surpassing the life and times of greater names: kidnapped twice (as a boy by the Cheyenne and years later by the U.S. Army), married twice (first to a Swedish immigrant and then to an Indian woman and her sisters), he worked as a Cheyenne warrior, a shopkeeper, snake-eyed gunslinger, cavalry scout, buffalo herder, gambler, and drunk; associated with legends, among them Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and General Custer (whom he tried to murder); and was witness to historic events, the most notable being the massacre at Little Big Horn.
“Little Big Man is a complexly structured satire exposing the disparity between reality and mythology in the Old West. In a land where the tales walk as tall as the Waynes and Coopers, Jack Crabbs/Dustin Hoffman (as Sight and Sound points out) more closely resembles Candide. Caught between two conflicting cultures, this hero shifts identities with a passive, almost fatalistic grace and humor.” --L.A. Thielen