Tell Them Willie Boy is Here

highly recommended
Universal's burn-on-demand DVD of TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE (released in cinemas December 1969) is a clean, sharp transfer, superior in quality to the laser disc, with excellent color balance and saturation, and bright punchy sound. The opening titles are windowboxed, but the film unfolds widescreen and anamorphic. The film is written and directed with diamond-hard brilliance by Abraham Polonsky, the auteur who was blacklisted after making the film noir classic FORCE OF EVIL twenty-two years earlier. He must have had a lot to say in those lost years when he was denied work, because he packs it all in here. Tragically this was only his second film, but the same preoccupation with injustice -- one might say the same force of evil -- is still at work, with a vengeance.

This is a confrontational western. Polonsky is fearless in raising controversy and provoking audience reaction. Willie Boy and Lola want to be together, but the Superintendent of the Morongo Indian...

Enigmatic and Noble Western
1969's TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE is a forgotten but great film. Robert Blake is excellent as the Paiute Indian, Willie Boy, who is the object of a manhunt for a killing he committed in self-defense. The press gets hold of the story and turns it around into an Indian upraising circa 1909. President Taft is the object of the uprising on his trip out west according to the press. Robert Redford, the sheriff leading a posse knows better as he attempts to bring in Blake alive. It is a great study on misinformation by the press and racism. The direction by Abraham Polonsky methodically unfolds this simple yet powerful tale and remains captivating throughout. Conrad Hall's starkly beautiful cinematography enhances the solemn energy of this parable-like tale. Robert Redford, Robert Blake and Katharine Ross all give sincere performances. There is a strange enigmatic quality between the relationships of Blake and Ross and Blake and Redford. There is the hunter and the hunted contrasted...

Love this movie!
I generally don't like westerns, but I loved this movie. I saw it on TV first and I have been looking for this movie ever since and found it was out of print until Amazon did this special printing. Thank you Amazon. It is a wonderful movie with great characters and a great story. For someone who doesn't particularly like westerns, the story, itself, draws you in. It is based on a true story. I would recommend this movie. A classic worth enjoying over and over again.

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