CRY FOR ME BILLIE
US, 1972, 92 Minutes, Colour.
Cliff Potts, Xochitl, Harry Dean Stanton.
Directed by William A. Graham.
The 'Billy Jack' genre - individualist hero, tough and tender, espousing U.S. causes of oppression by poverty or racism and presented almost as a legendary romantic hero - has been extremely popular in America and in Australia. This is definitely one of those films, quite well done. The setting and conventions are those of the west, the oppressed are the Indians, the oppressors the brutal Army. So much of the photography is beautiful with lyric episodes that the violence, rape and slaughter, is not only brutal but evokes angry revulsion and the film appears to be battling for a cause and attacking complacent America. A good film of its kind.
1. The tone of the title? Alternate titles were Naked Revenge, Face to the Wind. Indication of themes and emphases by the various titles?
2. Audience expectations of a Western? The conventions of gun-slingers, the Indians, the military? The clashes between White and Red? The terrain of the West? How did the film fulfil expectations, clash with them?
3. The chase structure of the film and its dramatics, audience involvement? The audience asked to take sides and identify? A vengeance chase structure and audiences asked to participate in themes of vengeance?
4. The importance of the colour photography, the landscapes, the beauty of the terrain and the ugly events which happened there? The contribution of the score, the songs? The ballad tone of the film?
5. The picture of the West: the outpost towns, the people, the military occupation, the Indians and their being rounded up and humiliated, the workmen of the town, the blacksmiths etc.? The brutality inherent in the outpost settlements? Cruelty, humiliation, sexual assault, rape? These as background and part of the motivation for the chase and pursuit? The film's presentation of these as part of the 19th century American heritage?
6. How sympathetic a character was Billie? His place in the West as a gunfighter, his career, quickness, friendship with Luke? Luke's quiet way of life and the invitation to Billie? The possibility of his retiring and settling down? His reaction to the humiliation of the Indians and his rising to their defence? The military's hostility towards him? The ingredients for conflict and confrontation? How sympathetic were his attitudes towards the Indians? The scene with the water, his warnings about the Indians?
7. The presentation of the Indians as people, their treatment, the water sequence, the humiliation, their being shot, the rape of the Indian girl? The film's presentation of officialdom and its brutality towards a subjected people?
8. The confrontation of the girl: her riding, naked, her fear? Her fear of Billie and the response to his helping her? Riding together? The language barrier and yet their communicating? Affection? The bond and Billie as saviour?
9. The picture of the soldiers and their searching, the catching of Billie and the girl, the ugliness of the group rape and the need for justice? Billie and his being tortured?
10. Billie challenged by the ugliness of the West? His saving of the girl and the bonds between them, the lyrical tone of these sequences? The brutality of the rape in contrast? Billie and vengeance, his wreaking justice on the soldiers? The comparison with his treatment of the blind man and his payment for food? The significance of this contrast?
11. Audience sympathy for the Indian girl, her escape, her suicide? The emotional impact on Billie, the burial?
12. The classic set-up for a confrontation? Billie and his achievement? The death of the gun-fighter? Luke and his lament? The cinema treatment of themes of the West and violence - interest for the 20th century audience, adventure, the American heritage, the human themes?
