Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here

Beautifully filmed, the movie creates the same edge-of-your-seat tension to see the outcome as the book by Harry Lawton, and, indeed, the real events must have engendered.

Too bad Hollywood once again played with the truth. While much of the film appears to fairly closely follow history, with a few excusable abbreviations, two crucial incidents and Redford's character are Hollywood inventions. They add to the drama and mystery of the sad story, but considering most people know only the history they see on film, it's a shame to see the truth corrupted.

Blake is outstanding. Redford is uncomfortable trying on the cowboy persona at that early stage. Ross is completely unbelievable as an Indian.

The movie captures the essence of this turn-of-the-last-century western environment transitioning from horse & buggy to automobile, from cowboy to urbanite, from the remaining blend of Indian autonomy side-by-side with encroaching white man encroachment and ultimate domination.

The fact that it took several posses of 75+ men on horse, with supplies, days and nights of tracking to catch up with one Indian on foot without more than a rifle, a few shells and only what food he could scrounge, speaks volumes for the Indian-vs-white fight for survival and the tactics used.

Quietly intense, the movie is dramatic, captivating, and over-ridingly sad at the unavoidable outcome of the decidedly unbalanced "battle."