Willard (1971 film)
Encyclopedia
Willard is a 1971
horror film
starring Bruce Davison
and Ernest Borgnine
, directed by Daniel Mann
. The movie is based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks
by Stephen Gilbert
, and was nominated for an Edgar Award
for best picture. The supporting cast included one of Elsa Lanchester
's last performances, and one of Sondra Locke
's first.
s. He lives in a large mansion, accompanied only by his cranky and decrepit mother.
On his 27th birthday he leaves the party out of embarrassment. While sitting outside he sees a rat and tosses it pieces of birthday cake. His mother gets upset with him for leaving the party and she scolds him later while also discussing how badly the house is falling apart. The next morning he goes out and feeds another rat (this one has babies with it) while imitating their squeaks. His mother starts telling him that he needs to kill the rats that have been running around their yard, to which Willard refuses saying that he would never kill them all.
He goes to work and is promptly scolded by his boss Mr. Martin. Later he returns home and traps the rat family in the center rock in the pond by using a wooden plank and food, before turning on the water, taking the plank away, and letting it fill up until the water level reaches the rats (which are on top of a tall rock in the center); by then he feels guilty and puts the plank back before turning off the water. When his mother asks if he killed the rats he lies and tells her he did.
Later on, after he returns from work the next day, his mother has called Charlotte and is ill; when he asks her why she didn't call him she says that she didn't want to make him leave his work.
That afternoon he begins playing with a rat he names Queenie, the lack of communication is pointed out immediately by Willard. So Willard begins teaching them words like "food" and "empty". He sees a white baby rat and immediately takes a liking to the rat and the feelings are mutual. The white rat he finds becomes his best companion and he names it Socrates
for his wisdom.
Numerous other rats come to him, one of which is a giant specimen he names Ben.
At work, Mr. Martin nags at Willard, even telling him he won't give him a raise and then urging him to sell the house. Willard sneaks up to the party where everyone is at and opens his suitcase which has rats in it, he then urges them to go get the food and ruin the party. The guests begin screaming and Willard laughs behind the bushes where he's hiding.
The next day he's at work when he gets called home and finds out his mother has died. After his mother's death he begins to be further pressured from the banks to give up the house.
He decides to bring Socrates and Ben to the office with him. He sets them on some shelves and tells them to be good. One of his friends at work get him a cat named Chloe, to which he seems on edge. It constantly claws at his suitcase where Ben and Socrates are residing. He quickly hands her off to a complete stranger and drives away. Later on it is revealed that the rat population is getting too big and he can't afford to feed them much longer. Willard decides to steal money from his boss. He orders the rats to "tear it up" and puts them in front of the door.
Later, at home, he gets mad at Ben and keeps putting him outside the bedroom, but Ben persists in sleeping in his room. The next day he gets ready to go to work and gets Socrates, Ben is waiting and Willard grudgingly agrees to take the rat along as well. One of the workers spots Socrates and Ben and screams. Mr. Martin bludgeons Socrates to death, leaving Willard devastated. He then begins to train his rats to follow his commands and kills the Mr. Martin after confronting him. Willard then abandons Ben. He then goes home and begins sealing up any holes that the rats can enter his house through, then he puts as many as he can into cages and drowns them in the small pool outside.
Willard has dinner with a girl he likes but is rudely interrupted by Ben staring at him. He gets up and notices all of the rats running up the stairs from the basement. He orders her to leave and locks the door before confronting Ben. Willard stalls and begins mixing rat poison, but Ben reads the box and squeals loudly, alerting the others. In an act of desperation, Willard tries to hit the rat with a broom, but misses. He runs upstairs but the other rats come after him. Shutting the door, he stands there terrified. The rats begin to gnaw at the door and eventually break in, gang up on him, and chew him up, killing him. The camera zooms into a close-up of Ben and the credits roll.
1971 in film
The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
starring Bruce Davison
Bruce Davison
Bruce Davison is an American actor and director.-Early life:Davison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Marian E. , a secretary, and Clair W. Davison, a musician, architect, and draftsman for the Army Engineers. His parents divorced when he was three years old. He was raised by his...
and Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
, directed by Daniel Mann
Daniel Mann
Daniel Mann, also known as Daniel Chugerman , was an American film and television director.Daniel Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a stage actor since childhood, and attended Erasmus Hall High School, New York's Professional Children's School and the Neighborhood Playhouse...
. The movie is based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks
Ratman's Notebooks
Ratman's Notebooks is a short novel published in 1969. It was written by Stephen Gilbert , who was born in 1912, in Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland. The short work features an unnamed misfit who relates better to rats than to humans. It was the basis for the films Willard, Ben, and the...
by Stephen Gilbert
Stephen Gilbert (novelist)
Stephen Gilbert was born at Newcastle, County Down . He worked for the Northern Whig until the mid-1930s when he joined the family firm of McCausland in Belfast. In 1939 he joined the Supplementary Reserve and served with the 3rd Ulster Searchlight Regiment in France...
, and was nominated for an Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
for best picture. The supporting cast included one of Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was an English-American character actress with a long career in theatre, film and television....
's last performances, and one of Sondra Locke
Sondra Locke
Sondra Locke is an American actress, singer and film director.She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress...
's first.
Plot
Willard is a meek social misfit with a strange affinity for ratRat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s. He lives in a large mansion, accompanied only by his cranky and decrepit mother.
On his 27th birthday he leaves the party out of embarrassment. While sitting outside he sees a rat and tosses it pieces of birthday cake. His mother gets upset with him for leaving the party and she scolds him later while also discussing how badly the house is falling apart. The next morning he goes out and feeds another rat (this one has babies with it) while imitating their squeaks. His mother starts telling him that he needs to kill the rats that have been running around their yard, to which Willard refuses saying that he would never kill them all.
He goes to work and is promptly scolded by his boss Mr. Martin. Later he returns home and traps the rat family in the center rock in the pond by using a wooden plank and food, before turning on the water, taking the plank away, and letting it fill up until the water level reaches the rats (which are on top of a tall rock in the center); by then he feels guilty and puts the plank back before turning off the water. When his mother asks if he killed the rats he lies and tells her he did.
Later on, after he returns from work the next day, his mother has called Charlotte and is ill; when he asks her why she didn't call him she says that she didn't want to make him leave his work.
That afternoon he begins playing with a rat he names Queenie, the lack of communication is pointed out immediately by Willard. So Willard begins teaching them words like "food" and "empty". He sees a white baby rat and immediately takes a liking to the rat and the feelings are mutual. The white rat he finds becomes his best companion and he names it Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
for his wisdom.
Numerous other rats come to him, one of which is a giant specimen he names Ben.
At work, Mr. Martin nags at Willard, even telling him he won't give him a raise and then urging him to sell the house. Willard sneaks up to the party where everyone is at and opens his suitcase which has rats in it, he then urges them to go get the food and ruin the party. The guests begin screaming and Willard laughs behind the bushes where he's hiding.
The next day he's at work when he gets called home and finds out his mother has died. After his mother's death he begins to be further pressured from the banks to give up the house.
He decides to bring Socrates and Ben to the office with him. He sets them on some shelves and tells them to be good. One of his friends at work get him a cat named Chloe, to which he seems on edge. It constantly claws at his suitcase where Ben and Socrates are residing. He quickly hands her off to a complete stranger and drives away. Later on it is revealed that the rat population is getting too big and he can't afford to feed them much longer. Willard decides to steal money from his boss. He orders the rats to "tear it up" and puts them in front of the door.
Later, at home, he gets mad at Ben and keeps putting him outside the bedroom, but Ben persists in sleeping in his room. The next day he gets ready to go to work and gets Socrates, Ben is waiting and Willard grudgingly agrees to take the rat along as well. One of the workers spots Socrates and Ben and screams. Mr. Martin bludgeons Socrates to death, leaving Willard devastated. He then begins to train his rats to follow his commands and kills the Mr. Martin after confronting him. Willard then abandons Ben. He then goes home and begins sealing up any holes that the rats can enter his house through, then he puts as many as he can into cages and drowns them in the small pool outside.
Willard has dinner with a girl he likes but is rudely interrupted by Ben staring at him. He gets up and notices all of the rats running up the stairs from the basement. He orders her to leave and locks the door before confronting Ben. Willard stalls and begins mixing rat poison, but Ben reads the box and squeals loudly, alerting the others. In an act of desperation, Willard tries to hit the rat with a broom, but misses. He runs upstairs but the other rats come after him. Shutting the door, he stands there terrified. The rats begin to gnaw at the door and eventually break in, gang up on him, and chew him up, killing him. The camera zooms into a close-up of Ben and the credits roll.
Cast
- Bruce DavisonBruce DavisonBruce Davison is an American actor and director.-Early life:Davison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Marian E. , a secretary, and Clair W. Davison, a musician, architect, and draftsman for the Army Engineers. His parents divorced when he was three years old. He was raised by his...
as Willard Stiles - Elsa LanchesterElsa LanchesterElsa Sullivan Lanchester was an English-American character actress with a long career in theatre, film and television....
as Henrietta Stiles - Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
as Al Martin
Awards
- Willard was nominated for the Eddie award in Best Edited Feature Film at the 1972 American Cinema Editors Awards.
- Willard was also nominated for the Edgar award in Best Motion Picture at the 1972 Edgar Awards.
Legacy
- A seven page satire by Mort Drucker and Dick DeBartoloDick DeBartoloDick DeBartolo is an American writer. He has most notably written for Mad. He is occasionally referred to as "Mads Maddest Writer," this being a twist on Don Martin's former status as "Mads Maddest Artist." DeBartolo served as the magazine's "Creative Consultant" from 1984 to 2009.Mad has long...
titled "WILLIES" appeared in Mad (magazine)Mad (magazine)Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
#149, dated March 1972. The cover of the magazine announced "IN THIS ISSUE WE TEAR APART WILLARD" and featured artwork by Jack RickardJack RickardJack Rickard , an illustrator for numerous advertising campaigns, was best known as a key contributor to Mad for more than two decades....
. The cover art portrays Alfred E. NeumanAlfred E. NeumanAlfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot and cover boy of Mad magazine. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed and named by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman...
as Willard siccing an army of rodents (all dressed in Mickey MouseMickey MouseMickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
pants and shoes with Mouseketeer Ears) on a hapless Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
. - A sequel called BenBen (1972 film)Ben is a 1972 film about a young boy named Danny and his pet rat, Ben. This film is a sequel to the 1971 film Willard. The movie is known for its sentimental theme song performed by Michael Jackson.-Plot:...
(after one of the rats in the original) was released in 1972 - Willard serves as the opening anecdote to a chapter, "Becoming-Intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Imperceptible..." in Gilles DeleuzeGilles DeleuzeGilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...
and Felix Guatarri's A Thousand PlateausA Thousand PlateausA Thousand Plateaus is the second book of Capitalism and Schizophrenia, the first being Anti-Oedipus. Written by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, it was translated into English by Brian Massumi...
. - A remakeWillard (2003 film)Willard is a 2003 horror film loosely based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert and a remake of the 1971 film of the same name...
was released in 2003, with Crispin GloverCrispin GloverCrispin Hellion Glover is an American film actor, director and screenwriter, recording artist, publisher, and author. Glover is known for portraying eccentric people on screen such as George McFly in Back to the Future, Layne in River's Edge, unfriendly recluse Rubin Farr in Rubin and Ed, the...
playing Willard. Bruce DavisonBruce DavisonBruce Davison is an American actor and director.-Early life:Davison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Marian E. , a secretary, and Clair W. Davison, a musician, architect, and draftsman for the Army Engineers. His parents divorced when he was three years old. He was raised by his...
is also featured in the film as Willard's father, appearing in a portrait.
In popular culture
- In the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasGrand Theft Auto: San AndreasGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
", the film is mentioned in the vehicle chart under the car called "Willard". Its listing says that the car is like the movie in that it "squeaks and it's hard to get rid of". - In the video game "Shining Force IIShining Force II, is a tactical role-playing game for the Mega Drive/Genesis console developed by Sonic! Software Planning in 1994. The storyline is not directly connected to the original Shining Force, although a Game Gear title Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict links the two games' plots.The game is much...
", the protagonist confronts a boss monster named Willard, a giant rat with the telepathic powers over rodents.