Arthur Penn's unlikely balance of historical accuracy, sentiment, and absurdist epic purports to recount memories of one Jack Crabb, at 121 years the oldest-and only white-survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Shuffling between frontier towns and his adoptive Cheyenne family, Crabb's picaresque life showcases Dustin Hoffman's versatility while simultaneously undercutting just about every myth of the West. Penn's adaptation of Thomas Berger's 1964 novel feels today even more biting than at first release twenty years ago-due in no small part to the deadpan perfection of Chief Dan George, virtually the first Native American featured in a sound-era Western. Richard Mulligan's Custer is also a devastating comic gem. The emotional center of the film comes not with Custer's 1876 "Last Stand," but at the 1868 Washita River Massacre-rather more emblematic of the "Indian frontier." As novel and film both, Little Big Man is an enduring satire, a comedy with a sharp historical edge. Scott Simmon