Until walking on the trail near the Oasis Visitor Center at our first stop in Joshua Tree National Park and beginning to read the signs accompanying the exhibit lining that trail, I hadn't thought about the movie Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here since the first and only time I saw it upon its release in 1969. But such is my movie jones that after reading the first of those eleven signs, it was almost like the fifty plus years since I've seen the film hadn't happened. The plot came back to me whole.
I immediately recalled Robert Blake as Willie Boy and Robert Redford portraying a reluctant lawman sent to pursue Blake into this desolate landscape. Though I couldn't recall the names of either of the actresses who played Blake's and Redford's love interests, a back-to-back scene from the film that juxtaposed the different dynamic between the two sets of lovers jumped into my brain almost as though I'd watched it just last week.
When I shared some of this with the friend who is with us on this first leg of our trip, she asked me what made the film so memorable. And until I answered her straightforward question, I didn't fully appreciate how formative a learning experience this movie was for my twenty year-old brain.
After a childhood and adolescence filled with a different narrative, I'm reasonably sure Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here was the first time I ever saw a portrayal of an Indian as someone human. Not an enemy to be vanquished, not a scalp-hungry beast, not a noble or other type of savage. A man - possibly innocent - on the run and in love. Those eleven signs on that trail - told from the point of view of Willie Boy's lover Carlotta - helped me to see that this film had marked a turning point in my young adult life as a critical thinker. Before I'd read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, before I'd visited the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota, before I'd learned of the many atrocities Native Americans have endured throughout American history, Abraham Polonsky's film started an important piece of my education.
What film has done something similar for you?
Wow what a great post! And what a great memory you have. I can't think of one film that has influenced me as greatly as that. I can mention a few books, but no films - at least not to the extent you mention. Here's to the importance of "art" in our lives! Enjoy your trip.
ReplyDeleteInes; Thanks for "staying tuned" during my time away from home. It would be difficult for me to over-state the importance of art in my life, be it books (like you), film (as in this post) or music. All three have greatly contributed to who I am. This experience of re-living "Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here" as I read those signs and then answered my friend's simple question about that film was, for me, a powerful example of that.
DeleteGood afternoon, Pat. I hope this comment finds you, Kim and your group doing well. Although I remember my older brother or maybe it was my sister making a reference to 'Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here' I, sadly, have never seen it. However, there have been a few films that have influenced me in one or another over the years. Some that, when I am channel surfing and it comes on the screen, I have to pause and watch at least part of it. Sometimes more than a pause. But these influences are for different reasons than what you have posted. Most of the times it's due to the acting or the storyline. For example I can't pass West Side Story whenever it is on, no mater where in the movie it is. And tears well up in my eyes at the ending, even if that is the part it's on when I find it. But, as I usually do, I digress. I like the way that at certain times, while doing anything, a movie or a book will come to mind and allow me to live that memory over again. And, agreeing with Ms. Ines (as I usually do) 'Art' is such an important part of our lives. Sad that it doesn't seem to be recognized, by some, as much as it should.
ReplyDeleteBe well, Stay Safe, Enjoy the trip.
Bob
"Anonymous" Bob; I too have difficulty turning off "West Side Story" whenever I stumble across it. And, I also relate to those tears. Thanks for the vulnerable comment.
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