Unlike the faceless "savages" of previous decades, the film portrayed Native Americans as a complex society—what the Cheyenne call the "Human Beings".
Critics often note that the film reimagined Native life as a "countercultural idyll," turning the Cheyenne into "surrogate hippies" who practiced free love and environmentalism to appeal to the 1970s audience. Vietnam in a Cowboy Hat Little Big Man
While ostensibly a tall tale about 121-year-old Jack Crabb, (1970) remains one of the most culturally significant films for how it single-handedly demolished the "heroic" myth of the American West. The "Flower Power" Indian Unlike the faceless "savages" of previous decades, the
Rather than a martyr, General Custer is portrayed as a vainglorious, "raving lunatic," a shocking reversal of the historical narrative at the time. The Technical Feat The "Flower Power" Indian Rather than a martyr,
Today, the film is preserved in the for its "aesthetic significance" in shifting American historical perspective. Little Big Man - I Review Westerns
Released during the height of the Vietnam War, the film is widely viewed as a protest piece.