Willie Boy

the first time i saw this movie i was a pre-teen, and it always haunted me. i think it should have gotten a much higher rating also.

yes, it raises all the cross-culture misunderstandings, thats what makes it so tragic and so good. it makes you stop and think before you make that next assumption about someone you don't know....whose culture your only vaguely familiar with..not a bad thing to do today, then or anytime.

After a couple of decades on the blacklist Abraham Polonsky returned to mainstream cinema with a Romeo&Juliet type story. The Mojave Desert don't look a lot like medieval Verona, Italy but the story is the same.

The title role of Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is played by Robert Blake who is a Paiute Indian kid who by their tradition kidnaps the women of his intentions Katherine Ross to make her his bride. It's their way of courtship, but when Ross's dad objects he's accidentally shot and killed by Blake.

Ironically with a good lawyer Blake might have gotten off. But Paiute Indians usually don't get good lawyers and they don't take to confinement. Still this incident might have gone unnoticed but for the fact that the sitting president of the USA in 1909 one William Howard Taft was visiting the area. That brings in the national media and blows up the story.

Robert Redford plays the sheriff charged with bringing in Blake dead or alive. He never played quite the roughneck character he does in this film than in any other work I can recall. Susan Clark plays the doctor on the Paiute reservation who has her views routinely ignored as she's mansplained on a regular basis. She also has her needs fulfilled by Redford as both are the best of what's out there in their corner of the world.

It's Blake and Ross who really capture your attention. I'm sure that William Shakespeare would have seen so readily the parallels between his timeless classic and what Blake and Ross are all about.

Based on the Willie Boy incident that was one of the most savage chapters in frontier history .Contemporary Western drama set in 1909 , it tells the story of one of the last and violent western manhunt. Set in Joshua Tree , California , about a killing carried by a Paiute Indian , Robert Blake , who murders his bride's father in self-defense , it triggers a non-stop pursuit . Later on, Willie Boy and and his white bride , Katharine Ross , escape and go on the run across the sunny desert . They become the objects of a manhunt by a tough posse led by the reluctant local sheriff , Robert Redford , and his followers : Barry Sullivan , Ned Romero , John Vernon , among others .

Well paced film with bitter irony and stunningly directed by Abraham Polonsky , this was once-blacklisted Polonsky's first movie in 31 years . A thought-provoking and powerful picture , even though the screenplay carries its liberal conscience on its sleeve . Main cast is very good . Robert Blake is awesome as an obstinate Indian presumed guilty of a crime defined by circumstance rather than by fact, he gradually reverts to being an Indian in the archetypally savage sense . A sober Robert Redford gives fine acting , he plays as a reluctant as well as stubborn sheriff who pursues mercilessly Willie . And Katharine Ross is very attractive as the bride who follows to Boy . Support cast is frankly nice such as Susan Clark , Barry Sullivan , John Vernon , Charles McGraw, Robert Lipton and Ned Romero .

Colorful and evocative cinematography by maestro cameraman Conrad L. Hall including wonderful desert outdoors and masterfully photographed . Special mention for the thrilling and suspenseful musical score with atmospheric and strange sounds by Dave Grusin , in Jerry Goldsmith style . Enjoyable production design with marvelous landscapes by two veteran designers : Alexander Golitzen and Henry Burnstead, Hitchcock's ordinary. The motion picture was compellingly directed by Abraham Polonsky, it was made with austere authority , adding a strong allegory about witch-hunting . This was Polonsky's retun to filmmaking after 21 blacklist years since Force of Evil with this excellent contemporary western . The best and most successful movie he directed was the classic film noir "Force of evil" and also wrote the prestigious Body and Soul . Subsequently , he was chased as a member of the communist party . After defying the comittee by refusing to name names , 8Polonsky was pursued , juzged and condemned by the HUAC , once blacklisted he only wrote and directed a few films as Romance of a horsethief and this Tell them willie Boy is here. And wrote some scripts such as I can get it for you wholesale , Madigan , Monsignor, Avalanche express Rating : 7/10. Better than average , well worth watching

In southern California at the start of the twentieth century, a young indian man gets into a violent dispute over a girl. This triggers a manhunt.

Director Abraham Polonsky was making his comeback to mainstream cinema with this film, eighteen years after being blacklisted by the UnAmerican Activities Committee. He also wrote this screenplay, which strikes a defiant note in favour of the lone hero against the forces of intolerance and repression. It is not too fanciful to see the indians, with their alternative sensibility and distinct code of values, as a metaphor for artists and free thinkers. Minorities are always in danger, suggests the film, from the urge to hound and victimise manifested by some elements in society.

Polonsky skilfully uses the camera to tell his story. We follow the complex movements of the various characters around the fiesta fairground without the need for spoken dialogue. The silent meeting of Coop and Willie tells us everything about these two men, and their mutual rivalry and respect.

The wonderful topography of the Mojave Desert is superbly captured in Panavision. In particular, the showdown on Ruby Mountain offers some gorgeous images. The film's four leads are excellent: Robert Redford is a wise and humane Coop, the sherriff obliged to lead the inappropriate manhunt: Robert Blake is perfect as the nihilistic, elemental Willie: Doctor Elizabeth Arnold is played by Susan Clark, developing nicely the ambivolence of a woman who needs Coop sexually but despises herself for it: Katharine Ross is the spry, athletic Lola, the young indian girl who becomes Willie's 'wife by capture'.

In 1909, an Indian youth and his girl flee a posse pursuing him for killing the girl's father. (Based loosely on a true story).

In 1969, the movie was received as part of the broader counter-cultural movement then flourishing. Certainly several of the film's themes resonated with the social justice wing of the movement, and I'm sure that for leftist writer-director Polonsky the justice-for-the-Indian theme was no stretch.

Seeing the film again after 40-years, I'm struck by how generally low-key it is, despite the highly charged potential. That's particularly the case with the lovers-on-the-run (Blake & Ross). Unlike such fugitive classics as You Only Live Once (1937) or They Live By Night (1947), this version refuses to sentimentalize the lovers. Despite standard expectations, Willie treats Lola pretty harshly and all but drags her along by the hair—a far cry from the usual pathos. Nor, for that matter, is the Coop (Redford)-Elizabeth (Clark) relationship romanticized, as she treats him with general disdain while he sexually humiliates her. (I doubt this film did anything for Redford's lover-boy image.)

At the same time, none of the principals is particularly likable, certainly a departure from usual box-office appeal. Coop may sympathize somewhat with Willie Boy, but he's clearly no reformer let alone racial crusader. He is, after all, an elected sheriff with a race conscious constituency, so his reserve is at least understandable. And, for that matter, neither is Willie Boy very likable. He may be a victim in an extended sense, yet he encourages little sympathy in his headlong flight for survival. If he's meant to represent Indian plight generally, it's certainly not an emotionalized appeal. In fact, the social justice element occurs only sporadically and through biting references to Indians' lesser worth as Indians. So, by no means, is the movie's message "piled on". Note too, how Polonsky refuses to caricature the one vicious racist, Calvert (Sullivan), in the manner of many other anti-racist films.

All in all, the movie comes across as something of an oddity since it follows no particular path other than its own. Clearly, Polonsky wants to avoid the more obvious pitfalls of movies with a message, and largely succeeds, at least in my estimation. However, the caution does come at something of a price. In short, so much of the material is low-keyed that I, for one, was never drawn emotionally into the dramatic events; instead I observed them at a distance, even Willie Boy's last stand, which should have been more of a grabber. Such detachment seems rather paradoxical for a film that should have strong impact given the themes and talent involved. My guess is that Polonsky used perhaps too much caution in dealing with what is admittedly tricky subject matter.

Nonetheless, it remains an interesting film, well acted and beautifully photographed, making good use of the barren edge of California's Mojave desert. I guess my only real gripe is with whoever did Ross's Indian make-up. As another reviewer aptly observes—it looks like it was slathered on with a ladle. Then there's the long lacquered hair that threatens at times to reach around and strangle her. Those minor misfires aside, Polonsky's project remains a curious one-of-a-kind, still worth a look-see, even if it's no longer the rebellious 1960's.