Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is a movie released in 1969, based on the true story of a
PaiutePaiute refers to two related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Nevada and Oregon, and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah...
Indian named Willie Boy and his run-in with the law in 1909 in
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
The movie was written and directed by the once black-listed
Abraham PolonskyAbraham Lincoln Polonsky was an American screenwriter blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s, in the midst of the McCarthy era.-Early life:...
. Because of his
blacklistA blacklist is a list or register of persons who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
ing, he had not directed a film since
Force of EvilForce of Evil is a film noir directed by Abraham Polonsky who had already achieved a name for himself as a scriptwriter, most notably for the gritty boxing film Body and Soul . Like Body and Soul it starred John Garfield...
21 years earlier in 1948.
The film's story revolves around the Paiute Indian
outlawAn outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law".In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" declared the subject to be "Caput gerat lupinum" , and it followed not only that, since the subject was no longer human, he had no legal...
Willie Boy (
Robert BlakeRobert Blake is an Italian-American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta...
) who escapes with his lover, Lola (
Katharine RossKatharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, and her role as Etta Place in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite...
) after killing her father in self defense.
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is a movie released in 1969, based on the true story of a
PaiutePaiute refers to two related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Nevada and Oregon, and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah...
Indian named Willie Boy and his run-in with the law in 1909 in
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
The movie was written and directed by the once black-listed
Abraham PolonskyAbraham Lincoln Polonsky was an American screenwriter blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s, in the midst of the McCarthy era.-Early life:...
. Because of his
blacklistA blacklist is a list or register of persons who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
ing, he had not directed a film since
Force of EvilForce of Evil is a film noir directed by Abraham Polonsky who had already achieved a name for himself as a scriptwriter, most notably for the gritty boxing film Body and Soul . Like Body and Soul it starred John Garfield...
21 years earlier in 1948.
Movie Plot
The film's story revolves around the Paiute Indian
outlawAn outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law".In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" declared the subject to be "Caput gerat lupinum" , and it followed not only that, since the subject was no longer human, he had no legal...
Willie Boy (
Robert BlakeRobert Blake is an Italian-American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta...
) who escapes with his lover, Lola (
Katharine RossKatharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, and her role as Etta Place in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite...
) after killing her father in self defense. According to tribal custom Willie can then claim Lola as his wife. According to the law, Deputy Sheriff Cooper (
Robert RedfordCharles Robert Redford Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American film director, actor, producer, businessman, model, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival...
) is required to charge him with murder.
Willie Boy and Lola are hunted for several days by a posse led by Cooper. Willie manages to repel the posse’s advance when he ambushes them from the top of Ruby Mountain. He only tries to shoot their horses, but ends up accidentally killing a
bounty hunterA bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include, bail enforcement agent, fugitive recovery agent, and bail fugitive investigator...
, resulting in another murder charge.
Days later, as the posse closes in, Lola dies by a gunshot wound to the chest. It is left deliberately ambiguous whether Lola shot herself in order to slow down the posse's advance or whether Willie killed her to keep her out of the posse's hands. Cooper is inclined to believe the latter and then goes off ahead of the posse to bring in Willie dead or alive.
As soon as Cooper catches up, he comes under fire from Willie who is positioned at the top of Ruby Mountain. Cooper narrowly avoids being shot on several occasions.
In the film's climax, Cooper maneuvers behind Willie and tells him he can turn around if he wants to, which he does. Willie then attempts to gun down Cooper, who beats him to the draw. Willie falls dead and tumbles down the hillside. Cooper picks up Willie Boy’s gun and finds that it wasn't even loaded, making it apparent that Willie committed
suicide by copSuicide by cop is a suicide method in which a suicidal deliberately acts in a threatening way, with the goal of provoking a lethal response from a law enforcement officer, such as being shot to death....
to avoid capture. Shocked and ashamed, Cooper carries the slain outlaw the rest of the way down Ruby Mountain and delivers him to other
PaiutePaiute refers to two related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Nevada and Oregon, and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah...
s, who carry the corpse away and burn the remains.
Later confronted by the county sheriff, Cooper is told that the burning of Willie's body will ruin the people's chance to see Willie in the (now-dead) flesh, denying them the ability "to see something". Cooper retorts: "Tell them we're all out of souvenirs."
History
Source material for the film is
Harry LawtonHarry Wilson Lawton was an American writer, journalist, editor and historian who wrote several books about Native Americans in California...
's 1960 book,
Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt.
As depicted in the movie, Willie Boy and Lola did run through the Lucerne Valley, ending with their 'last stand' on the flanks of Ruby Mountain west of the current site of
Landers, CaliforniaLanders is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California. The town lies in the Homestead Valley of the Mojave Desert, northeast of Flamingo Heights. The closest large towns are Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree. The town has its own small airport, Landers Airport.Near Landers is Giant...
.
Willie Boy's grave monument can be found at . The monument itself bears the inscription “The West’s Last Famous Manhunt”, alluding to the notion that this was the last effort of its type before the use of a posse was generally replaced by modern, 'fully' staffed and empowered law enforcement agencies.
Pictures of Willie Boy's monument and a map to the monument location can be found
here.
A minor item of film history -
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is one of two Westerns made in 1969 to co-star
Robert RedfordCharles Robert Redford Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American film director, actor, producer, businessman, model, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival...
and
Katharine RossKatharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, and her role as Etta Place in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite...
, the other being
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a American Western film that tells the story of bank robbers Butch Cassidy and his partner The Sundance Kid , based loosely on historical fact....
.