TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE -- highly recommended

[Richard Weddle]

"In the summer of 1909
a member of the oldest American minority,
a Paiute Indian named Willie Boy,
became the center of an extraordinary
historical event.

This is what happened in the
deserts of California."

Universal's burn-on-demand DVD of Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here 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 burnished landscape and stoic portraiture is by photographer Conrad Hall (The Professionals, Hell In the Pacific, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, etc.) who manipulates exposure to tone the intensity of dye-transfer Technicolor down to an earthy and realistic pallet. The film is written and directed with diamond-hard brilliance by Abraham Polansky, the auteur who was blacklisted after making the film noir classic Force of Evil twenty-two years earlier. Tragically this was only his second film, but the same pre-occupation with injustice -- one might say the same force of evil -- is still at work, with a vengeance.

Polansky is absolutely fearless in stirring up controversy and provoking audience reactions. In the transitional west of 1909 prejudice and discrimination are everywhere and in everyone, between the races, within the races, among the sexes, and especially in the well-intentioned. There are no stereotypes. Even the most racist Indian and the most racist white has a vulnerability and some kind of decency even as they are busy compounding hypocrisy upon hypocrisy like a desert variation of Inherit the Wind. Note Susan Clark's self-loathing social worker who thinks she has the right to protect "my Indians" from themselves. Every order she gives to control the situation only causes the violence to escalate out of control. The young Robert Blake plays Willie Boy with physical agility and a deeply felt sense of futility. We feel his despair. Blake's performance is one of the most under-rated in the history of movies. All the actors are fearless in playing up the contradictions of their richly complex characters.

Tell Them Willie Boy Is Hereis that rarity among Hollywood studio westerns -- it is historically intelligent and historically well-informed, faithful to the actual circumstances and events it depicts. Perhaps the best testament to its authenticity is the fact that several tribes cooperated in making the film; they are identified during the opening titles. The film is based on the biography of Willie Boy written by Harry Lawton, which Polansky obviously read and understood. He doesn't try to schmaltz it up or tack on a happy ending. The only other western that compares to it, that I can think of, is the independently made The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez(1983). But you don't need to know the history to enjoy the high-calibre drama and suspenseful action on display. Structured on the chase formula, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is a manhunt thriller without peer. Expect a standard of craftsmanship in story telling and in technical execution that you just don't see anymore.

Network and studio execs winnow out this level of sophistication today. They stop it before it starts. Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here could only have been made in the 1960s. I consider it one of the great achievements of that decade and one of the all-time great westerns.

Don't hesitate.
Buy It Now:
www.amazon.com/Tell-Them-Willie-Amazon-com-Exclusive/dp/B0033PSHA4/ref=pd_bxgy_d_img_a

Richard