A Teaching Scene Little Big Man directed by Arthur Penn
After many adventures in the Wild West, Jack Crabb is reunited with his Indian grandfather. The blind old seer informs him that they have to climb the mountain so he can die. At the top of the trail, Old Lodge Skins prays to the Everywhere Spirit:
"Thank you for making me a human being! Thank you for helping me become a warrior! Thank you for all my victories and for all my defeats. Thank you for my vision, and for the blindness in which I saw further . . . and I ask you for the last time to grant me my old power to make things happen . . . Take care of my son here and see that he does not grow crazy."
Old Lodge Skins lies down on the earth and waits for death. Instead, it starts raining. "I was afraid of that," he says. "Sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn't."
Joking and laughing, the old man and Jack struggle down the mountain. This is one of the most human and beautiful scenes in movie history. It matches the emotional impact of Zorba dancing with his boss after the bridge collapses in Zorba the Greek!
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