LITTLE BIG MAN
Little Big Man is a 1970 American western film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the novel Little Big Man by Thomas Berger. The film is largely concerned with contrasting the lives of American pioneers and Native Americans throughout the progression of the narrator’s life. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey, and Richard Mulligan. It is a revisionist Western: Native Americans are depicted sympathetically, and the United States Cavalry are depicted as villains. Little Big Man is an anti-establishment film of the period, indirectly protesting America’s involvement in the Vietnam War by portraying the U.S. military negatively. In 2014, Little Big Man was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. (More from Wikipedia)
Arlo Guthrie starred as himself in a movie called Alice’s Restaurant (1969) that brought the song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” to life better than anyone could have expected. It was directed by Arthur Penn whose other films include Bonnie and Clyde and Little Big Man. Other cast members include Pat Quinn, James Broderick, and M. Emmet Walsh. Stockbridge police chief William Obanhein (“Officer Obie”) appears as himself, as does the blind judge, James Hannon. Pete Seeger and his bandmate in the Weavers, Lee Hays are also in the film. Alice Brock has a cameo in the movie; as the song says, the name of her restaurant was never “Alice’s Restaurant” – originally it was called The Back Room.
(March 2016)
