This is one of the strangest Westerns I have ever seen. Think about it--Dustin Hoffman in a Western!! Despite this very odd casting, the film works and works very well due to an amazing script that defies most of the previous film clichés about the Old West.

The film begins with Hoffman and his sister being discovered by a Cheyenne Indian following a Pawnee Indian massacre of a wagon train. Despite stereotypes to the contrary, the Cheyenne mean them no harm and welcome the orphans into the tribe. The sister insists they only brought her to the tribe to rape her and she seemed a tad disappointed when they didn't. This wasn't at all politically correct, but was pretty funny--as were many other moments throughout the film.

Hoffman spends many years with the tribe and is accepted and loved. However, eventually he is "rescued" by Whites and returned to "civilized" life--at which point it's pretty obvious that Hoffman was better off with the tribe. In fact, repeatedly throughout the film, he returns to the Indians and he always seems both happier there and to feel they are indeed the civilized ones. This way of re-framing things was the best aspect of the movie--getting the audience to appreciate the Indian culture and ways--seeing civilization is not just determined by inventions and modern conveniences, but attitude and moral development. This re-framing was especially unique because it so often showed life from a fresh Indian perspective--particularly how the killing of Custer and his troops at Little Big Horn wasn't necessarily a massacre like it is so often portrayed. Because of this style and attitude, the film is very similar to DANCES WITH WOLVES, though I think it's a better film because of its injection of humor and because it was more accurate historically. In DANCES WITH WOLVES, the Indians are a bit over-idealized and you also have far less insights into their thinking.

Overall, a very strange Western due to its style an unusual perspective, but nevertheless one of the great films of the genre due to excellent writing, acting, direction--heck the whole package!

Dustin Hoffman with Little Big Man joined the ranks of such players as Jeanette MacDonald, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward Judd. What he had in common with them is that he played a man greatly aged with make up reminiscing about his youth which was quite a colorful one. Later on Cicely Tyson and Emilio Estevez joined this select bunch.

Poor Hoffman just can't find himself a niche in the world of the west either with white men or with Indians. He finds himself in the Dakota Territory of the 1870s and makes the acquaintance of such people as Wild Bill Hickok and George Armstrong Custer, a couple of old west legends who met famous premature deaths in the same year of 1876. And of course some lesser people in mostly low places.

Hoffman gets some great support from people like Martin Balsam as a medicine show conman whom he spends some time with and Faye Dunaway as the widow woman who takes the orphan Hoffman in and explains and demonstrates the facts of life. Jeff Corey plays Wild Bill Hickok who explains to Hoffman he really doesn't have the right stuff to be a gunfighter.

Best of all is Richard Mulligan as the controversial General George Armstrong Custer whose ambitions for military glory led to the massacre at Little Big Horn. Mulligan is ambitious and will not take good advice. Watching Little Big Man in the scenes with Mulligan it was like looking at Donald Trump campaigning for president. Just like The Donald, Mulligan will not listen to anyone other than himself. In fact you mostly have to use reverse psychology to get Mulligan to do things your way. Hoffman may be a misfit, not unlike his character in The Graduate, but he learns to play Mulligan like a piccolo.

Little Big Man is a different and entertaining look at the old west and Hoffman is superb. But the one to really watch in this is Richard Mulligan. He steals the film in whatever scene he's in.

121 year old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) recounts his life in the old west. He claims to be the sole white survivor of Little Bighorn. He and his older sister Caroline are the sole survivors of Pawnee. They are taken in by the Cheyenne. Caroline escapes but Jack is adopted. He is captured by US troopers, apprentice with a snake-oil salesman, becomes a gunslinger after reuniting with Caroline, meets Wild Bill Hickok, marries and bankrupted store, follows Custer, reunite with the Cheyenne and then tricks Custer into Little Bighorn.

This is part tall-tales, part satire, part historical reimagining and more accurate than most old western. It is smart and funny. It takes sharp jabs at the old image of Indians. Dustin Hoffman is brilliant in this new world western epic. It does take random turns which is part of its charm.