After a brief introduction, this movie begins during the Spanish-American War in which the all-black 10th Cavalry is encountering fierce resistance from the Spanish forces. The leader of the 10th Cavalry, "Jessie Lee" (Mario Van Peebles), along with a handful of men, is then sent on a secret mission behind enemy lines to capture a gold shipment. But when they return they are double-crossed by their maniacal commander, "Colonel Graham" (Billy Zane). A gunfight ensues and they are able to escape and sneak aboard a ship back to the United States. However, Colonel Graham has no intention of allowing Jesse Lee's small group to escape so easily with all of that gold. At any rate, rather than revealing the entire plot I will just say that this film has quite a bit of action and I enjoyed it for the most part. However, I must also add that it relied too heavily on building a mystique around Jesse Lee to the detriment of everything else. That is not to say that other actors weren't allowed sufficient time on screen. If anything I thought Stephen Baldwin (as "Little J Teeters") and Big Daddy Kane ("Father Time") put on excellent performances. I might also add that I thought Salli Richardson-Whitfield (as "Lana") looked absolutely stunning in her role. But some of the scenes involving Mario Van Peebles went a bit overboard and seemed too heavy-handed in my view. In any case, this isn't a bad western film and I rate it as slightly above average.
