Little Big Man

Name: Little Big Man
Genre: Adventure, Drama, History, War, Western
Released: December 23, 1970
Duration: 139 min
Rating: 63
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway

1970

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Ratings

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7.6

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7.6	Your Score
7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Ratings

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Little Big Man

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Movie Details & Credits

National General Pictures | Release Date: December 23, 1970 | GP

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway

Summary: The 121-year old sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand tells about everything from his adoption by Cheyenne Indians to his marriages and friendship with Wild Bill Hickok. (Paramount Pictures)

Director: Arthur Penn

Genre(s): Adventure, Drama, History, War, Western

Rating: GP

Runtime: 139 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

Arthur Penn's Little Big Man is an endlessly entertaining attempt to spin an epic in the form of a yarn. Read full review

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Hoffman is uncharacteristically charming in a demanding role; the supporting cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Chief Dan George as a befuddled patriarch who takes the supernatural as a matter of course. Read full review

S. K.

It also accomplishes that rarest achievement, the breathing of life into an ossified art form. The '70s has its first great epic. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Little Big Man is a sort of vaudeville show, framed in fictional biography, loaded with sketches of varying degrees of serious and burlesque humor, and climaxed by the Indian victory over Gen George A. Custer at Little Big Horn in 1876. Read full review

Dave Kehr

The dual point of view is used effectively, though it's less valid as social criticism (where Penn's observations tend toward facile revisionism) than as an index of the uncertainty that characterizes most of Penn's heroes. Read full review

Empire Kim Newman

Episodic western with a great performance from Hoffman. Read full review

Vincent Canby

The film tries to cover too much ground, even though Calder Willingham's script eliminates or telescopes events and characters from the Berger novel. Read full review

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User Reviews

Bisharps

Sep 13, 2021

A movie everyone needs to see. So glad my dad made me watch it. I could not recommend it more.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

oscarr

Feb 18, 2012

Best movie ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

OscarOrNot

Feb 18, 2012

Good movie and acting

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

nick

Apr 12, 2009

Good movie, but i think the Indians should have been a little more "authentic", it would have been a little more captivating to the audience.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

ReviewCritic

Feb 18, 2012

A great performance from Hoffman, and a great historical movie itself.

5 of 5 users found this helpful50

Compi24

Nov 28, 2012

In "Little Big Man", Arthur Penn creates a very diverse epic that is a showcase of great performances - Namely, the legendary Dustin Hoffman. Penn used this movie as an anti-establishment message against the United States' involvement in Vietnam and in doing so he creates an incrediblyIn "Little Big Man", Arthur Penn creates a very diverse epic that is a showcase of great performances - Namely, the legendary Dustin Hoffman. Penn used this movie as an anti-establishment message against the United States' involvement in Vietnam and in doing so he creates an incredibly frightening portrait of how the U.S. military treated Native Americans during 19th Century America. That being said, it makes this film all the more provocative. Despite this fact, the movie also posesses a good deal of satire, which I found to be particularly funny actually. Overall, "Little Big Man" is a sprawling, entertaining, powerful epic yarn.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

AlexGuyUS

Dec 8, 2022

Terrible movie. Near the end I thought I was watch a blooper reel. I was honestly surprised when I found out the movie was still going on.

Bad acting, story didn't make any sense.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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