Challenging role for Hoffman

Press, 16 May 1984, Page 14

Challenging role for Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman stars as Jack Crabb, a 121-year-old white man and the sole survivor of Custer’s last stand, in “Little Big Man,” the powerful historical film about the development of the West, screening on One at 8.35 tonight. Based on Thomas Berger’s novel, much of the narrative unfolds in flashbacks seen through Crabb’s eyes. The film deals with the treatment of the Indians by the white man and climaxes with General A. George Custer’s famous last stand at Little Big Horn. Custer is portrayed as the psychotic he clearly was.

Steven Scheuer describes the film as “one of the few American films up till this time (1970) that didn’t patronise or caricature the Indians, and it benefits from a good screenplay by Calder Willingham.” Crabb was a young

pioneer, adopted Indian, drinking pal of Wild Bill Hickok, medicine-show hustler and soldier. Scheuer also says that special credit should go to the make-up artist, Dick Smith, for the extraordinary make-up he created for Dustin Hoffman.

Also starring are Faye Dunaway, Richard Mulligan, Martin Balsam and Chief Dan George.

The career of the director, Arthur Penn, came to an important junction in 1958, says TVNZ. During that year he directed “Two For the Seesaw,” the first of several successful plays he would stage on Broadway, and he turned out his first film, “The Left-handed Gun,” an off-beat view of Billy the Kid emphasising psychology and character study. The film, starring Paul Newman as the outlaw, was enthusiastically received in Europe but went largely unnoticed in the United States. This indifferent reception resulted in a temporary halt to Penn’s film work, but he returned in 1962 with a beautifully acted screen version of “The Miracle Worker,” which won the best actress

Academy Award for Anne Bancroft and the best supporting actress Oscar for Patty Duke.

“Bonnie and Clyde” in 1967 was an unqualified hit both with the public and the critics, and finally focused attention on Penn’s special gifts as a director. Like “Bonnie and Clyde,” several of Penn’s other films have dealt with past periods in terms applicable to the current political and social climate, and many see his films of the 60s as the most “relevant” screen work of the tumultuous decade. In 1969- he made “Alice’s Restaurant,” followed by “Little Big Man” in 1970. As if to confirm his reputation as a spokesman for the traumatic 60s, it was five years before Penn turned out his next feature film, “Night Moves,” a stark and perceptive modern thriller about a Los Angeles private eye.