Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here

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Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here
Directed by	Abraham Polonsky
Written by	Abraham Polonsky
Starring	Robert Redford Katharine Ross Robert Blake
Release date(s)	December 18, 1969
Running time	98 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here is a movie released in 1969 written and directed by the once black-listed Abraham Polonsky. Source material for the film is Harry W. Lawton's 1960 book, Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt.

Set in 1909 California, the story revolves around a Paiute Indian Willie Boy (Robert Blake) who escapes with his lover (Katharine Ross) after killing her father in self defense. Under tribal law Willie is able to claim Ross, but Sheriff Cooper (Robert Redford) has to charge him with murder.

They are then hunted by a posse led by Cooper which last several days, and Willie even manages to repel the bounty hunters 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 hunter, resulting in another charge of murder.

They manage to evade the bounty hunters for several days until it's obvious that they are catching up to them. So Ross shoots herself in order to slow down the posse's advance, but Cooper has the impression that Willie killed her. Redford then goes off alone to try and kill Willie, before the main posse catches up to him.

As soon as Cooper catches up, he comes under fire from Willie who is positoned at the top of Ruby Mountain. Cooper is almost shot on many occasions.

In the film's climax, Cooper manages to maneuver behind Willie and tells him he can turn around if he wants to, which he does. As he turns around, Willie attempts to shoot Cooper, who beats Willie to the draw and shoots him in the chest. Willie slumps down the hillside and Cooper picks up his gun. At the bottom of the hill, Redford pulls the trigger on Willie's gun and sees that it wasn't even loaded, making it apparent that Willie knew Cooper was coming up behind him, and forced him to kill him to avoid capture. Abashed, Cooper carries the body down the hill and meets up with other Paiute Indians, who carry Willie off and burn the body.

Later confronted by a fellow bounty hunter about the burning of Willie's body and how that will ruin the people's chance to see Willie in the now-dead flesh ("The people have got to see something"), Cooper retorts: "Tell them we're all out of souvenirs."

[edit] Trivia

Willy Boy's grave monument was erected at the exact location where he was shot, died and buried and is located at the following coordinates using the WGS-84 datum: N 34° 17.501 W 116° 32.243

Several pictures of the monument and a map to the monument location can be found here.

Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here at the Internet Movie Database