Daily Dialogue — November 8, 2011

Jack Crabb: General, you go down there.

General Custer: You’re advising me to go into the Coulee?

Jack Crabb: Yes sir.

General Custer: There are no Indians there, I suppose.

Jack Crabb: I didn’t say that. There are thousands of Indians down there. And when they get done with you, there won’t be nothing left but a greasy stain. This ain’t the Washite River, General, and them ain’t helpless women and children waiting for you. They’re Cheyenne brave, and Sioux. You go down there, General, if you’ve got the nerve.

General Custer: Still trying to outsmart me, aren’t you, mule-skinner. You want me to think that you don’t want me to go down there, but the subtle truth is you really don’t want me to go down there!

— Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman), General Custer (Richard Mulligan), Little Big Man (1970), screenplay by Calder Willingham, based on a novel by Thomas Berger

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is telling the truth, suggested by Teddy Pasternak.

Trivia: Dustin Hoffman was entered into The Guinness Book of World Records as “Greatest Age Span Portrayed By A Movie Actor” for Little Big Man in which he portrayed a character from age 17 to age 121.

Dialogue On Dialogue: I love this movie (a precursor to Forrest Gump) and this dialogue is sublime. Jack desperately wants Custer to suffer because of what he did to his Indian wife and tribesmen and he has a choice: Lie and hope that Custer will know he’s lying or tell the truth? He opts for the latter. And because Custer’s ego is so enormous, the General ends up doing what Jack wants anyhow.

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