Dustin Hoffman is Jack Crabb, a 121 year old man who tells his life story to a historian that has come to visit him to find out what it was like to live amongst the Native Americans. The beginning and ending ten minutes of the film are in the present day, while the rest of it takes place over the course of Jack Crabb’s long life. He begins his story when he was ten. His family was murdered, but he managed to survive along with his sister. He is taken in by a Native American tribe, and has a father figure in Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George).
Life is going well, but the whites continues to push the Natives. One day Little Big Man, aka Jack Crabb, is confronted by a white man and he has to convince him that the natives kidnapped him to avoid being killed. This leads to him being ‘adopted’ as a young man by Mrs. Pendrake (Faye Dunaway) and her husband. A seemingly very Christian family, Mrs. Pendrake teaches Jack about reading and writing and all sorts of “civilized” beliefs and things.
Jack would eventually go back to his tribe, who thought he was dead, and stay with them for several more years, taking on a wife (four, actually) and a child. His flip-flopping between living with the natives and being with the whites is interesting, something few, if any, others have experienced. And his reasons for going to and fro is intriguing as well, but ultimately, he realizes that his people — the natives — are being treated inhumanely by the whites and there seems to be no way for the natives to live in peace.
Little Big Man does a great of balancing the difficult subject of this dark time in the American past with a good dose of light-hearted drama and comedy. I think if the film were too much one way or another it would not have been nearly as watchable, or as memorable. As it stands, it keeps you engaged for all of its 139 minutes and gives reason for thought on other examples of prejudice and inhumane activity. In a way, you go from a fairly light-hearted experience to a more serious, thought-provoking one, a combination not all that many films I have seen have been able to achieve.
As for the Blu-ray release, it’s bare bones. Fortunately, the presentation quality isn’t bad at all. The image quality is bright and colorful, and looks great for the most part. Audio is English 5.1 DTS-HD with French mono also included, and only English subtitles. Both the image and sound quality get the job done, but a near complete lack of extra features is a huge letdown. Expect just the theatrical trailer, nothing else, with this release. Depending on how well this sells, you can pretty much expect a re-release with more features, so it may be wise to rent this one.
To the summary…