someone tell me how this thing ended?
i was watching it tonight and my taped lopped off the last couple of minutes it looks like---robert redford was laying down---he looked he was about to close in on willie boy--so what happens? does he catch him?
the white zone is for unloading passengers...
who shot who in the what now?
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Redford catches up to him on top of the rocks. Redford tells Willie Boy to turn around slowly, but he draws his rifle and Redford shoots and kills him. Afterwards, he discovers that his rifle is not loaded. The first known case of suicide by cop (sheriff)? The Indians show up with Susan Clark's character and Redford tell them to bury him. Instead, they set him on fire. The rest of the posse soon follows and the media guy wants to get one last shot of the dead Indian--but he's burried under a pile of burning brush and tree limbs. The film ends with the posse attempting to dig the Indian out from the conflagration so they could get one last picture of him. Pitiful. Fade out.
shareMight I add a little more texture to the ending...
I think Willie Boy planned his demise early on. He knew where he was headed, he delayed the posse by shooting at the horses (avoiding another death) and suspected Coop would trail him to the mountain top. His fate (the Indians fate) was done with honor and fierce pride - no pleading, no self-pity. Coop understood his plight and admired him for his strong love (with a white woman!) in contrast to Coop's tawdry affair, his independence versus Coop's suplication and his incredible skills. As a matter of respect, Coop carried Willie's body down from the Mt. top, to make sure he had a proper burial, which saved the humiliation of photos. For me, the most poignant scene was Coop, after delivering the body to his fellow Paiutes, squats down and grabs a handfull of sand. He then rubs his hands together as if washing them. It evokes thoughts of Pontius Pilate washing the blood off his hands. I always wondered who thought of this - Redford or Polonsky. All this shot by Conrad Hall, Black list understones and great acting make it one of my favorite films.
BTW, check out "The Ballad of Gregoria Cortez" for a similar theme of cultural misunderstanding with tragic results. I think it was produced or distributed by Redford (Wildwood Institute?) Another film would be "Apache", altho Burt Lancaster is a blue eyed Apache! Much better is "Ulzana's Raid".
I agree about how he rubs his hands. Even though he killed Willie Boy, Coop does right by him in death. He honors him in death. That is very powerful. What little I know about Native American culture is that you never defile the dead. If you dishonor the dead, you dishonor your own life.
shareIt's a good scene except for one problem. Earlier Cooper is wounded by a bullet ricochet / splatter which leaves a mark on his cheek and the back of his left hand. When he rubs dirt over them he would be pushing dirt into an open wound. Not too smart and could be quite painful.
shareCopper1963, I disagree with you about the ending. They did set the body on fire...but maybe it would make it clearer to say they were cremating him...that was the custom with some Native American tribes. So, they cremated him with wood for the fire fuel and then at the end...they were not trying to stop the fire to get one last photo...they were spreading and starting to kill the fire because the cremation was complete.
shareDoesn't it seem that that should have been left up to the Native Americans to determine?
share> Doesn't it seem that that should have been left up to the Native Americans to determine?
.. the sheriff commanded to the indian posse "bury him. Then they were the ones settled on a funeral pyre, instead, after some long serious looks at each other beforehand.
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In my Top 10 that year. Blake is great in it!
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