Build a movie plot around this: Who recounts his plentiful life story to a curious historian? Jack Crabb
Answer:
In the present day 1970, 121-year-old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman), who resides in a hospice, is recounting his long and colorful life story to a curious historian (William Hickey). Among other things, Crabb claims to have been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole survivor of Custer's force at the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. Having been adopted by the Cheyenne and reared in their culture, Crabb has perspective on both Caucasian and Native American life in the 19th century.Flashing back to 1859, the 10-year-old Jack and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) survive the massacre of their parents' wagon train by the hostile Pawnee. Found by a Cheyenne warrior, Jack and his sister are taken back to a Cheyenne village. Caroline manages to escape on horseback, but Jack is reared by good-hearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George). Life among the Cheyenne proves to be idyllic, though Jack unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear (Cal Bellini). However, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack, who saves him from a Pawnee warrior. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he's short but very brave.In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. cavalry troopers after skirmish between them and the local Cheyenne. Jack then renounces his Native American upbringing in order to save himself from being killed. After his interrogation and debriefing, and being that he is still a minor, he is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake (Thayer David) and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise (Faye Dunaway), who tries to seduce Jack. Jack cannot accept the contradiction between Louise's piety and sexual appetite. When Jack finds Louise one day seducing the owner of a local soda shop/pharmacy, he leaves the Pendrake household.A year or so later, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Merriweather (Martin Balsam). The two are tarred and feathered when their customers...