Is it possible to admire an artist hugely while not liking his work? I think Abraham Polonsky is a hero who should be on stamps, and should have got the honorary Oscar when somebody else did. But. This is a short film that feels like a long one. It is an Allegory. Important. Serious. It therefore jettisons those flippant pleasures of the Western like action, character, violence. Compare to 'Eagle's Wing' to see how impoverished Polonsky's sense of landscape and nature is. In the era of Peckinpah and Leone, 'Willie Boy' cannot but look dated, feeling more like one of those naive 50s liberal Westerns where the Indians were played by minstrels. Without action, character or violence, of course.
Review of Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here
