Mario Van Peebles, a film maker not previously known to me, comes up with the money to make a western that bangs the drum for all the unrecognised black cowboys in the old west but ends up just making another shoot 'em up rip roaring çowboy film we've seen many times before. Maybe his backers wouldn't let him make something more serious in case audiences turned away. He makes something of a point about the suppression of black folk and native Americans but ultimately just ends up with a spaghetti type fantasy. It's great fun with very watchable cinematography and endless action and some fair characterisations. Stephen Baldwin in particular is a hoot. Billy Zane is a cavalry officer intent on tracking down the black posse of the title, led by Van Peebles and Richard Jordan as a corrupt sheriff also has the same mission. I think the idea was to bring some attention to the poor treatment of minority races in America but other films have been much more effective in that message that I have seen like In The Heat Of The Night, Sergeant Rutledge and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. These are old movies now but there are newer ones like Fences and Hidden Figures that I've seen recently that are thought provoking too. I doubt if Posse hit the mark but it is very entertaining.
Review of Posse
