Abraham Polansky’s Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is a social issue oriented Western about the massive manhunt for a Native American who kills the father of his woman in self-defense.
Grade: B
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It is based on a true story, set in 1909, of a Native American named Willie Boy (Robert Blake), and his bride, Lola Boniface (Katharine Ross).
The manhunt, led by Sheriff Christopher Cooper (Robert Redford) turns into a media circus, when President Taft comes to visit the area and a mishap becomes twisted by the newspapers.
The movie was moodily photographed by Conrad Hall, who won an Oscar Award in 1969 for his cinematography for George Roy Hill’s modish western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here was a triumph for Redford, who made in the same year the immensely popular Western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, co-starring Paul Newman.
Reflecting the time in which it was made, the screenplay contains, as critic Pauline Kael has noted, Marxism, Freudianism, and New Left Existentialism.
The movie started a cycle of films, which aimed at changing the screen representation of Native Americans, and in which the white characters were usually the villains.
Time magazine praised the movie as “a subtle, intense document of racial persecution,” and “one of the finest films of the year.”
About Director Polonsky
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here was directed by Polonsky, who had been blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy era.
Polonsky studied law at Columbia University and taught at City College. He began his film career as a writer (the great noir melodrama, Body and Soul, in 1947), and made his debut as a director with Force of Evil, in 1948, which became a classic noir.
After being blacklisted, Polonsky lived in Europe for several years. In the late 1960s, he returned to Hollywood, where he wrote the screenplay for Madigan.
Credits:
Directed by Abraham Polonsky
Written by Polonsky, based on Harry Lawton’s book
Produced by Jennings Lang, Philip A. Waxman
Cinematography Conrad L. Hall
Edited by Melvin Shapiro
Music by Dave Grusin
Production: Jennings Lang, Philip A. Waxman Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date: Dec. 18, 1969 (NYC)
Running time: 98 minutes
Box office $2,411,583 (US-Canada rentals)
