Posse is a visual treat. It's heavier on style than it is on substance but that still puts it miles ahead of the vast majority of cowboy flicks. It's Mario Van Peebles' sophomore effort (after New Jack City) from the director's chair and his second-best offering as an auteur (again, second to New Jack City). But this time, like Clint Eastwood before him, he's also moonlighting as the star (he appeared in New Jack, but he didn't headline). Van Peebles really took the phrase "motion picture" to heart, as there is very little stillness in Posse. The camera refuses to stop, even during the scenes bereft of action, and as a result, the movie continues to, well, move.
Posse is all about the African-American experience in the Old West, which is virtually non-existent in Hollywood. The film allows a glimpse into life as an African-American soldier during the Spanish-American War and as a settler in one of the various all-African-American towns established after the Civil War -- many in Kansas and Oklahoma.
The story begins in 1898 in Cuba as members of the U.S. Army's segregated 10th Cavalry Regiment, nicknamed the "Buffalo Soldiers" by Native American tribes they fought during the Indian Wars, are assigned a suicide mission to slip behind enemy lines in order to retrieve a cache of weapons. Upon accomplishing the impossible mission, the soldiers discover that their lives are still very much in danger.
- Ran Britt
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