gkeith_1 I am working my recent Ohio State B.A. in American History Degree into this movie: "Battle of Greasy Grass" is the Native American name for the Battle of Little Big Horn. It is now 2015. I never watched this movie before.I majored in History at OSU because I love history of movies, theatre, actors and actresses. In my History Degree, I have further studied their lives against historical events such as wars, depressions, etc. At Ohio State, I have studied Native American History, Civil War History, Western History, etc. Custer was a miscalculating, inept army officer busted down from General to Lieutenant Colonel. As is shown by Errol Flynn in They Died With their Boots On, Custer was a flamboyant God's Gift to Women. The Plains Indians (Cheyenne, Pawnee, etc.) were a unit I studied, including Custer's Little Big Horn.Custer and U.S. Grant were both West Point graduates; Custer was last in his class. Was he that stupid? In this film, he wears a bright red scarf and yellow suit in the final battle, saying to the Native Americans, "Here I am. Come and get me." At any rate, Grant was president, and jealous Custer wasn't. Grant died from throat cancer, but Custer was cut down on the battlefield.U.S. Grant: I wrote a biographical paper on him. He was no more alcoholic than other 19th century men, who drank more alcohol because it was purer than drinking water. His childhood hobby was raising horses. As a West Point cadet, he met his wife, Julia Dent Grant, his roommate's sister. He became a Civil War general and later U.S. President. When Grant was terminally ill with throat cancer, he wrote his autobiography to give Julia an income after his demise. Mark Twain had it published posthumously, giving Julia a substantial royalty check.American West: After the Civil War, army generals were posted to the western frontier. Custer had even fought at Gettysburg. It was thought that God wanted Americans to expand west to the Pacific Ocean.So here comes naïve young man Jack Crabb (fictional) into this melee of Cheyenne, Pawnee, settlers, army adventurers, gamblers, gunslingers, snakeoil salesmen, prostitutes. Jack is a sly dog. Did he really have five wives, four at once? Jack meets new Mrs. Robinson: Faye Dunaway. A gay Native American man wants to be Jack's Wife Number Six.This is a very funny movie, powerful and philosophical. History courses are now taught from Native American point of view. Little Big Horn was disastrous for the army, with Custer's reputation suffering.Historical fact: At Little Big Horn, many tribes gathered for their ginormous annual Sun Dance religious ceremony. They were still warriors. They knew Custer was coming. Custer figured they would be a small number, and he would slaughter them all. Thousands of Natives were at the Sun Dance, and they cleaned Custer's clock. They were very organized and calculating. Custer did not live to savor any victory.

gogoschka-1 This was one of the first neo- or revisionist-westerns and it really is a bit of a shame younger audiences mostly don't seem to know it: this is classic seventies gold. Arthur Penn, one of the driving forces behind the so called New-Hollywood (he also directed 'Bonnie and Clyde'), delivered a masterpiece - with a fantastic Dustin Hoffman. It's an epic, tragic tale - but one told with an often very funny voice. Part satire, part honest look at America's dark and untold history, the tone and narrative structure of this film were ground-breaking. And it still looks fresh: the script, the acting, the camera, the music: everything still oozes quality more than 40 years later. A timeless classic. 9 stars out of 10.Favorite Films: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054200841/Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/Favorite Low-Budget and B-movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

mark.waltz The American Indian, Native American, predecessors living here before the arrival of the Europeans, whatever name is acceptable by those who had already discovered where they were rather than those who simply renamed what was already there. This is a sensitive salute to the people of the land, spiritual in their own natural way, that may not have needed Christians from Europe to tell them how to live their lives and worship. To these "human beings", the white man is a dangerous fool, yet they are not above showing those truly interested in how their traditions had shaped their lives long before they were basically decimated by the military moving their way into territory already taken through nature, not through a paper deed.For Jack Crabb, the 110 year old survivor of Custer's Last Stand, he means to tell the truth about his findings, having been brought up by the Cheyennes after all but him and his sister were massacred by the Pawnees. Dustin Hoffman essays this part with sensitivity and grace, convincingly aging from teen to octogenarian, tells his story to the seemingly exploitive reporter, played by a younger, but very recognizable William Hickey. Jack was basically raised by the Cheyennes until captured by the military and turned over to a minister and his much younger wife (Faye Dunaway, looking striking here), then ending up with a traveling medicine salesman (Martin Balsam) before heading back to see the people who raised him, especially the wonderful adoptive grandfather, played warmly by Chief Dan George in a well-deserved Oscar Nominated performance.You can see why the natives referred to the Caucasians the way they do, and over a century later, you may want to shake your head at the evil that many white men do in the name of conquest, power and greed. This is a film to make you really think of where our world has gone in just a short period of time since our ancestors separated from England and took over what is now known as North America. The lives of the Cheyennes are a noble one, from the adoptive brother who resents Hoffman for having saved his life and owes him a life, after which he feels he can freely kill Hoffman without being considered evil, to the sweet and honored homosexual native who stayed at home with the women yet was never shamed for it by the warriors in his tribe.There's also the various women in Hoffman's life, from his very masculine sister (who seems to long to be ravished by a man, any man), his Swedish wife who ends up being kidnapped by Indians in a raid on their stagecoach (and ends up in the most ironic of places), and Ms. Dunaway, teaching Hoffman the values of chastity yet not quite following that rule herself. Then, there's the single or widowed young Cheyenne women who all openly lust for Hoffman in their quest to become mothers, and this leads to the battle lead by George Armstrong Custer (played by the usually comic Richard Mulligan in a way that will totally surprise you) where everything comes together that changes the destiny of history for the natives given land by the government but suddenly forced to fight to keep it.Sometimes, the film seems like it was edited in a way that cut out several key scenes, probably deemed necessary at the time by its extreme over-length. Even at almost 2 1/2 hours, it never seems to drag, unlike the similar "Dances With Wolves" which flowed from situation to situation and always seemed to be concluding before heading into a new area of its story. The wonderful Jeff Corey has a nice small role as Wild Bill Hickcock, and like Dunaway, Balsam and Mulligan, you always hope they will turn up in later scenes to further spice things up for the wonderfully hero essayed excellently by Hoffman who even here as a young actor shows the chops of a veteran.

billcr12 Dustin Hoffman is Jack Crabb, a 121 year old man who recites his colorful life story to a journalist. Jack and his sister survive an attack by Pawnee Indians in which their parents' are killed. They are rescued by a Cheyenne warrior, but his sister escapes and he is raised by them and given the name Little Big Man for obvious reasons. Hoffman is as good as he was in The Graduate, with the same cool demeanor.At sixteen, he is recaptured by the U.S. Cavalry and turns against his adoptive family in order to fit in with his fellow white men. He gets "civlized" by a Reverend Silas and his sexually voracious wife Louise(Faye Dunaway). Jack hits the road with a snake oil salesman and happens upon his sister who believes that he should be a gunslinger and when he meets Wild Bill Hickock and witnesses a shooting, he decides against that career.Next up, Jack marries a Swedish woman named Olga and opens a store with a guy who turns out to be a crook and so the store closes. George Custer tells him, go west young man, and on the way, their stagecoach is captured by Cheyenne Indians and Olga is taken away. He reunites with his old tribal chief but leaves to find his missing wife. He joins up with Custer's 7th calvary and witnesses the slaughter of women and children by the heavily armed U.S. forces and turns against them. It all leads up to the famous battle of Little Big Horn. Little Big Man is a true epic western, and one of the best.