Rating: 
Summary: Feminist Western Works Well
Review: The western had long been the last bastion of male supremacy for Hollywood. With THE BALLAD OF LITTLE JO, director Maggie Greenwald presents the same hostile west that bedeviled John Wayne decades ago, but this time the protagnist is a woman named Josephine (Suzy Amis), who enters the movie as a well-to-do eastern lady who has the bad fortune to have an illegitimate baby. Her uncaring family casts her out, and Little Jo has no choice but to head west where she is subject to near rape. To protect herself, she disguises herself as a man. Now this may sound as if the film could easily turn into something as ludicrous as a western TOOTSIE, but it does not. Instead, Amis is totally convincing as a man who faces the same problems as if she were truly a man. Amis meets several men (Ian McKellen and Rene Auberjonois) who at first help her, then turn on her. She meets a Chinese man (David Chung), with whom she establishes first a friendly relation, then a physical one. By the film's end, Amis has proved that the gender of a settler is less important in securing her place in the west than is the determination that she shows. Heather Grahame does well in a secondary role, and newcomer Irina Passmoore also shines as two women, who in contrast to Little Jo, further stamp her as the first of the politically correct cowgirls.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! Best film I've seen in many of years!
Review: This is a story of a women who is forced to chose prostitution or disguise herself as a man -- and she chooses to live her life in a man's role. A very self determined women that succeeded. A real gutzy lady to live the way she did. She portrays a lot of feelings one has in life of both joys and sadness. She is a strong women that had the respect of her community. Something women did not have back in the 1860 to ......A definite must see. Rated R. Not for those under 17. An excellent film! The music score is fantastic!!!!!!!! I repeat, the musical scor is fantastic!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: What a great story, what a great woman!
Review: this is one of my all time favorite films. I just wish there was more information (books) on the real Little Jo. Everything is just perfect in this film, the acting the scenery... This is a must see!
Rating:
Summary: A true portrait
Review: Ths is a beautiful and sensitive film, with moments of heart-wrenching realism and of great tenderness. Not only is it an honest portrayal of a woman alone in the West, but also it is one of the few American films I have seen to address with dignity and truthfulness the predicament of nineteenth century Chinese immigrants, and to star a fine Chinese-American actor, David Chung. The scenes between Jo and her lover, played by Chung, are very moving, and extremely sexy, and for me were highlights of this excellent movie.
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