The feature film “Outlaw Posse” brings up the image of a director who had his favourite Westerns and acted like he was creating a list for a screenplay, this being Mario Van Peebles the writer director. The viewers are shown a series of nods throughout the movie and quite a number of them are outright borrowings to classics like the western themed movies such as The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Blaxploitation movies including almost all those that Fred “The Hammer” Williamson produced in the 1970s, among others. The filmmaker Van Peebles firmly grasps the genre’s simplicity and the great examples of films produced, but so far nobody is able to call any of the modern releases a classic Western. Van Peebles attempted to make one and while he did manage to make something somewhat interesting this movie won’t be regarded as a masterpiece for a long time.
Nonetheless, the opening scene is an instant classic of sorts in fact it could have been a short film on its own and it builds up expectations which later on are not fully fulfilled by what is to come. In it, a bunch of tough looking dudes Cam Gigandet, the unavoidable M. Emmet Walsh) arrive at a dusty and godforsaken New Mexico town sometime in the year 1908 and make their way to the bar. And where one such person is, the place is always chaos and one initiates pushing and involvement Gautama Joseph until from the sideline pops up Chief (Van Peebles), who kills the fool with words first and when they do not work, he kills him with his guns as well. It is a completely satisfying confrontation which is like a pictorial tribute to the heroes of yesteryears and their believe in the valour which for a long time had nearly vanished from these oriented movies.
Not long after the Civil War had ended, he and Angel, played by William Mapother, were responsible for transporting a shipment of gold from the Confederates that was supposedly headed to the West to repay ex slaves. As it happens, the two had a bitter disagreement that ended with Chief taking the gold and Angel’s wife to a scared part of the tribal land. He made an agreement with the chief to return in the future to reclaim it. The Chief is now ready for his return. He assembles an assortment of misfits including Carson, the half blind veteran, Southpaw, the rube teenager, knife thrower and mystic Queenie, and Spooky the performer who backs up his thread of performances with “Make people laugh and you can get away with saying anything,” raising butts on stage everywhere. If you thought that this was everyone, then you are wrong.
After years of silence with Decker’s father, Angel insists that Decker reunite with him and integrate into the gang so that Angel and his team can overtake them and steal the gold and the hand from the Chief. At this point, Decker refuses which causes Angel to burn his house and capture Decker’s wife Malindy (Madison Calley) to force him to comply. While, in search of the gold, Chief and swordsman come across any number of colorful characters by which they and Decker start tampering their estranged relations and prepare for the doom the treasure’s revealing, and the shootout.
“Outlaw Posse” is certainly not Van Peebles’ first time participating in this particular genre as he has both acted in and directed the 1993 film “Posse” and which this film is not related to for its title is for the most part, meaningless. The previous film Vytautas Searson undertook as a factual reproduction of events with Van Peebles wanting to make it as clear as possible that yes, indeed, black cowboys existed, which is a terrible idea due to the fact that he seemed so focused on this one thing that he forgot to actually provide an engaging plot. In this instance however, they achieve it in a much more understated manner, yet he remains, as of now, unable to fashion an even remotely interesting plot. Most of the material is self evident, to the point that the most admittedly progressive idea on offer that the socially and economically dispossessed due to race, religion or gender need little encouragement to unite against their oppressors is not dissimilar to the idea actually utilized in transforming “Blazing Saddles” from an assemblage of gags to an actual film.
It seems that again to make up for a weak story, Van Peebles out out more presentistic views through his characters in ways that presumably aim to overshadow the old genre devices, but which are rather on the whole appealing or instructive. Even more worrying, he uses a wild aesthetic approach throughout, including never static camera work and rapid cuts, which are in themselves quite distracting.
Despite this, even if the finished product is never a truly cohesive experience there is never a dull moment and I took pleasure in quite a few aspects of it. I have already talked about the brilliance of the first scene and there are a couple that are almost just as good, such as when the Chief’s gang manages to shoot up a bank in a way that I will let you figure out and when they stumble upon a multiethnic settlement overseen by one of the Chief’s former shifty associates (Cedric the Entertainer), which is a more pastoral Bartertown from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”. There are a few annoying appearances such as Whoopi Goldber and Edward James Olmos but for the most part the main actors do their job pretty well spoiler: I particularly enjoyed Lynch as the intelligent but tired Carson and Smith as the show stealer Queenie. I also thought Van Peebles found his niche in front of the camera he’s a dapper gentleman who obviously recalls the aforementioned Fred Williamson and fits perfectly to a setting that few modern actors seem to effectively portray nowadays.
While the title “Outlaw Posse” does not quite work at the end, there are some memorable bits Spread out throughout the film that make you forget that every now and then. It never comes close to the level of the films it draws upon, not even to such contemporary takes on the genre as Walter Hill’s haunting and sadly underappreciated Dead for a Dollar. Having said that, it’s not like there are plenty of Westerns in the malls right now, so if you are a fan of the western genre and cannot hold back until this summer for the first two Of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon” films, then you would have fun with at least some of it, provided that you do not have high hopes.
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