I don't get it...

[deleted]

Just like in The Hunt for Red October, where the Russian submarine crew switches to English after a brief initial period of speaking Russian, the filmmakers in Little Big Man do the same thing for the obvious reason of making the Indian part of the film intelligible to the audience. They are obviously still speaking in their native tongue, but we can understand it. The alternative would be to have been to coach the actors to speak the appropriate Indian language, and use subtitles, which wouldn't have gone over too well with the 1970 audience.

As to the film's rating, I feel it is quite appropriate. The story is excellent, and the dryly humorous narration is a perfect counterpoint to the action. It WAS made in 1970, and is very evolved for a western of that era.

The humor wasn't from DH 'overacting', but the fact that LBM went through many different phases in his life which he took full to heart each time like he was riding through life like a surfboard on a wave. Many of the scenes with the Indians contained humor, but it was life in the middle of a genocide which was very serious. It did work for me. I can't imagine anyone thinking 'DWW' was better than 'LBM'.

No, you don't, do you?

Many on these boards seem to be completely ignorant of the fact this terrific film is an interpretation of a great American postmodern novel and NOT meant to be a documentary or historical artifact. If you are ignorant of what the novel represents, go and learn the error of your ways.

Let it be unsaid: insignificance is the locus of true increpation.

In a wonderful 2.5 hour epic, you manage to obsess on the very, very standard movie practice of showing non-English speakers speaking English when they are talking amongst themselves. If you don't like the movie or simoly don't get it, so be it, but don't patronize us and claim it was because of the native Americans speaking English.

And you never will. Ok, now moron time to move on. Your bus is leaving.

This is why the IMDB message boards are the worst place to discuss films on the internet. Why do people ask questions like this? It's not usually to get an answer. They're not likely to listen to that anyway. They tend to be asked by people with zero knowledge of film who just want to make themselves superior to others in their own eyes by challenging the views of a bunch of strangers they'll never meet. But let me give you the obvious answer. It is scored so high because a large number of people, regular viewers and critics scored it so.