121-year-old Jack Crabb recounts his life, from being captured by the Cheyenne at age 10, to being raised by them, to living with white folks again and ultimately to being present at Custer's Last Stand at Little Bighorn, with many adventures, interesting characters, life stages and tragedies in between.
Okay but not great. It is reasonably interesting and often light and funny, making for decent entertainment. Yet scattered throughout the movie are extremely dramatic, even tragic and incredibly emotional, moments. This tonal duality makes for confusing viewing as you never know how seriously to take the movie or whether to relax and just view it as a comedy. Quite confusing and unsettling in that regard.
The story is also quite unfocussed. It's really just one long rambling linear story, trying to cram in as many different personas and occupations for Jack Crabb. His flip-flopping between the Cheyenne and the whites also becomes quite tedious after a while.
I was hoping for a decent coverage of Custer's Last Stand - after all, that's billed as the climax of the movie and is what I mainly watched this for. Even that is a let-down: Custer is portrayed as a deranged buffoon and the whole thing feels like Keystone Cops, even once the killing starts. It's very historically inaccurate (e.g. Custer wearing the insignia of a Major General and being addressed as General when at that time he was a Lieutenant Colonel), to the point that it is clear the writers didn't do any research on the subject.
This all said, it is reasonably entertaining and occasionally quite emotional too. Not great, but not bad either.
Okay but not great. It is reasonably interesting and often light and funny, making for decent entertainment. Yet scattered throughout the movie are extremely dramatic, even tragic and incredibly emotional, moments. This tonal duality makes for confusing viewing as you never know how seriously to take the movie or whether to relax and just view it as a comedy. Quite confusing and unsettling in that regard.
The story is also quite unfocussed. It's really just one long rambling linear story, trying to cram in as many different personas and occupations for Jack Crabb. His flip-flopping between the Cheyenne and the whites also becomes quite tedious after a while.
I was hoping for a decent coverage of Custer's Last Stand - after all, that's billed as the climax of the movie and is what I mainly watched this for. Even that is a let-down: Custer is portrayed as a deranged buffoon and the whole thing feels like Keystone Cops, even once the killing starts. It's very historically inaccurate (e.g. Custer wearing the insignia of a Major General and being addressed as General when at that time he was a Lieutenant Colonel), to the point that it is clear the writers didn't do any research on the subject.
This all said, it is reasonably entertaining and occasionally quite emotional too. Not great, but not bad either.