Posse

Rating:
Summary: Better than the "editorial review" thinks it is
Review: Tom Keogh, whomever he may be, is quite mistaken about the quality of Mario Van Peebles film, which is somewhat more than simply a "black western." Despite the "camp" appearances of several black celebrities, Peebles brings to the film an arresting visual quality and an iconoclastic, unmistakably "dark" [no pun intended] perspective on How the West Was Lost, which is one of the biggest tragedies of American history. The historical background is suitably complex, tieing in references to the Spanish-American War. Although the lead character's gunslinging talents are made too much of, this is far from cliche.

Rating:
Summary: unconventional western with afro-americans
Review: Visually stunning, extremely rich in detail, fast action sequences, innovative camera movements, and an historic interpretation of afro-americans settling in the west in the late 800's, this movie is highly unconventional. The more recent "Wild Wild West" has some similarities, "The Ballad of Cable Houge" comes to mind. Using comedy, fantasy, surrealism, the plot has a group of afro-americans traveling with a case of gold, chased by a posse. They join a settlement of afro-americans in the West, which while free by law, are reminded by the neighboring white towns that their liberty of action does not border out of their free town, and their law does not apply to white people. In a poignant scene, the only white man, who was in the original group of afro-americans with the case of gold, is brutally killed in public view by the white neighbors, almost to demonstrate that a white folk that joins the black folks has reached his lowest social status, lower that simply a black man, which by law cannot be killed without reason.