Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)

While I enjoy this movie very much it has to be said that the history portrayed has been embellished a lot. Polonsky, a victim of anti-communist black-listing, decided to make Willie Boy a hero fighting against the suppression of racist, uncouth white capitalists. The real Willie Boy was very quiet and shy but was also known among the Indians for having an irrational and violent temper. Willie got his whiskey from another Indian who stole the bottle from out of a bunkhouse, not from whites after participating in a bar fight. He did not run away with his lover after being confronted while they were making love. She was terrified of him and he kidnapped her after shooting her father in the face while he slept. He later shot Carlota in the back either when she tried to escape or because she was slowing him down. The only real relevance to the proximity of the US President was that it also meant there was an over abundance of newspaper reporters near San Bernardino and Riverside who sensationalized the chase not even knowing that Willie Boy was already dead before most of them had even heard of him.The true story of the manhunt (or at the least the closest to the truth as it was based on eyewitness and second-hand accounts from the remaining witnesses) is The Last Great Manhunt by Harry Lawton, the book TTWBIH is based on (Lawton even changed the title to that of the film). Years later a couple of politically correct college professors wrote articles claiming Lawton's book was all wrong and Willie Boy was a hero, even going so far as to suggest Carlotta was killed by the posse. Lawton sued and showed his meticulous research of historical archives and interviews with witnesses. The professors later were forced to print a retraction as part of a settlement.

I like movie set later than the cowboy/outlaw era (19th Century), and yet before the great progress (1920 -). An example of one of these films is Bruce Dern in Harry Tracy. This movie was set in 1909. It was at the time that Indians were most vulnerable. There was no certainty they would even survive as peoples. The racism was very clear. Opportunistic white whiskey merchants sell booze to the Indians, but contemptuously mutter racist things about the Indians.It is probably hard seeing an Italian-American (Blake) play an Indian, and Ross (Irish-American?) playing a half-breed. However, they both pull it off fairly well. Blake plays a character who shoots the white father of Ross's character, and ends up on the run. The ambiguity of everything is pretty good. It is self-defense, because the father sneaks up on him and is raising his gun. But, the impression one gets is one is not sure whether Blake's character is prone to violence or just on the defense. There is a better scene when the sheriff (Redford) finds Ross's character shot dead. But no one knows whether it was murder or a self-inflicted suicide.Redford's sheriff is ambiguous, too. You don't know whether to like him or not. Most importantly, though, one is aware that he is just barely in control. It is very clear that in a few months, the powers in the jurisdiction may change and make him useless as a sheriff. He is only through his bravery and action oriented personality that he keeps his underlings under control.The desert as a great hiding place is put to use. This was California, when large towns today were just spots in the desert. The rocks are great hiding places for a person on the run. I was even surprised to find wooded and watery areas, which you won't expect to find in the desert.I was a little confused by the ending. The sheriff shoots the runaway shooting suspect when he raises his gun. It was ambiguous. Yet, why does Redford's character say that 'he had no bullets'? Blake's character was shooting at him. Was this to mean that the runaway was expecting his death as a fate? I wasn't sure what to conclude.

TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE has top-notch color photography by Conrad Hall, a thinking man's script that is character driven, and good performances all around by a cast that includes ROBERT REDFORD, ROBERT BLAKE, SUSAN CLARK, BARRY SULLIVAN and KATHARINE ROSS. But it's a lumbering tale that takes a good hour before the dust begins to settle and we get some action along with the character development of both Blake and Redford.Every scene is painfully slow in getting to the payoff so that the film seems a lot longer than one hour and thirty-six minutes. The first hour is devoted to the manhunt for an Indian killer (Blake) and then the plot involves the arrival of President Taft in 1909 California and the effort to protect him from any kind of assassination attempt.Redford's role as the reluctant sheriff is never too clear since he's a man of a very few words (a regular Gary Cooper type), so it's up to Blake to carry much of the film and he does. He's terrific as the Indian lad who's trigger happy when the posse starts getting too close.The last twenty minutes should have been a model of suspense as they close in on Willie Boy, but it's allowed to drag out interminably.Summing up: Character driven tale had the potential to be a fine western, but badly paced direction of Abraham Polonsky is no help nor is the sluggish script. Film was released after BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID put Redford on the map but was never a big box-office success.

Spreading the gap between the white man and the American Native is TELL THEM WILLY BOY IS HERE. This is director Abraham Polonsky's first film in 21 years since his 'banishment'. Willy Boy, a Piute Indian(Robert Blake)kills a man in self-defense and becomes the subject of a manhunt in 1909 California. With him is his lover Lola(Katherine Ross)trying to stay one step ahead of a posse led by Deputy Sheriff 'Coop' Cooper(Robert Redford). Being a 'savage', the deck is stacked against Willy Boy...his accusers of course assuming his guilt.Talent shines in this sage brush drama. Redford and Blake are excellent. Ross is so easy on the eyes you forget she has talent. Other standouts in the cast: Susan Clark, Barry Sullivan and Charles McGraw. This may be thought of as a thinking man's western.