Posse
Tags: blaxploitation

Plot synopsis:
In 1898, Buffalo Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment, led by Jessie Lee (Mario Van Peebles), are fighting in the Spanish–American War in Cuba. As the segregated African-American unit is barely holding its own against constant attacks from enemy troops, Jesse runs back to the command post of the corrupt and racist Colonel Graham (Billy Zane) to request that the 10th Cavalry be allowed to pull back. Colonel Graham orders Jessie to shoot a deserter in exchange for allowing the 10th to retreat. Unable to kill a man in cold blood, Jessie demonstrates excellent marksmanship by shooting the man's cigar from his mouth. Colonel Graham then kills the deserter, and offers Jessie's command of the 10th to Little J (Stephen Baldwin), another White prisoner (the alternative would be to face the firing squad). Graham then orders the 10th to fall back in order to begin another mission, one in which they will be required to wear civilian clothing, as opposed to their Cavalry uniforms. They are ordered to rob a Spanish gold shipment, which is a setup to give the Colonel an excuse to execute the entire 10th Cavalry as deserters. As he meets them with his own cavalry force, his aide Weezie (Charles Lane) causes a distraction, allowing the 10th to shoot the Colonel and his cavalry down.
With Colonel Graham and his troops supposedly dead, the remnants of the 10th—including Jessie, Obobo (Tiny Lister), Angel (Tone Lōc) and Little J, along with Weezie—sneak out of Cuba and Jessie leads them to New Orleans. Soon after arriving their arrival, Little J meets a gambler named Father Time (Big Daddy Kane) and they begin playing poker, at which point Time is caught cheating. Little J helps the gambler escape and they go back to the hotel room where the others are hiding, telling them "We were never here" in fear that the vengeful gamblers might come for them. Doing just as J feared, the gamblers come in search of him and Father Time, only to be shot in the back by Colonel Graham and his troops, who survived the skirmish in Cuba. Angel is killed in the firefight while Little J, Father Time and the others barely escape. They meet up with Jessie who had left earlier to finish some business in a town out West.
The newly formed "posse" heads West with Colonel Graham on their heels every step of the way. They eventually stop in a town where Jessie has ammunition custom-made out of gold in order to kill the demons of his past, using one to kill the man who made the ammunition—as he was one of the men who lynched Jesse's father King David (Robert Hooks) years earlier (Father Time later explains that the voodoo ladies in New Orleans believe that gold is the only way to kill a demon). They make their way to Freemanville, a town founded by King David and composed entirely of African-Americans. Jessie is reunited with several old acquaintances, including his good friend Carver (Blair Underwood), who is now the sheriff of Freemanville. Carver's deputy goes to Cutterstown, not wanting to tip anyone off that Carver is working with Cutterstown's sheriff, Bates (Richard Jordan). He informs Bates that Jessie has returned to Freemanville. The "posse" enjoys the hospitality of Freemanville until Bates tells Carver that the town will burn unless Jessie is turned over to him and his deputies (Sheriff Bates and one of his deputies were men that had lynched King David, and were afraid that Jessie had come back for revenge). Bates and a few of his deputies attack Freemanville that same night looking for Jessie. One of the deputies beats Weezie in order to get answers. Watching in disgust, Little J fights back in defense of Weezie. Outnumbered, Little J is kicked and beaten to death by Bates and his men, and while Obobo and Jessie's former mentor Papa Joe (Melvin Van Peebles) are taken to Cutterstown as prisoners. Jessie and Father Time soon rescue them by posing as Ku Klux Klan members and storming into the Cutterstown jail. Jessie kills one of the deputies, who was another one of King David's murderers.
When he returns he convinces the townspeople to fight Sheriff Bates by telling them he wants the land for himself to sell to the railroad when it comes through. The citizens of Freemanville fight Bates the next day when he rides in. As they begin to gain the upper hand, Colonel Graham arrives with his cavalry and a Gatling gun which he uses to cut the people down. Jessie charges the gun with a stick of dynamite destroying the gun and killing some of Graham's troops.
Meanwhile, Carver plans to flee with the deeds to all of the property in Freemanville—all of which are in his name—but is stopped by Papa Joe's daughter Lana (Salli Richardson). Father Time shows up just in time to stop Carver from harming Lana. Time kills one of Carver's deputies, but is killed by Carver. Before Carver can flee, he is stopped by Bates who reveals that they had a deal to split the proceeds from the land 50-50. Jessie arrives just in time to hear about the deal, and watches as Carver is betrayed and murdered by Bates. Jessie kills Bates in a showdown, finally putting his past demons to rest. Colonel Graham captures Lana and orders Jesse into the saloon, where they have a climactic fight resulting in Graham's death and the destruction of the saloon (which Graham had set ablaze). Jessie, Obobo, Weezie and Lana watch as the townspeople fight the fire.
The story ends almost a century later with an old man (Woody Strode) being interviewed by reporters (Reginald Hudlin, Warrington Hudlin) about the black cowboys of the Old West. The man, who was a young boy when he met Jessie in Freemanville, gives the reporters a small book that Jessie had given him.
In the end, a caption goes on to tell that there had been over 8,000 black cowboys in the Old West whose stories had never been told due to omission by Hollywood and others alike.

Review: This movie has some great character actors, Isaac Hayes, Woody Strode, Pam Grier, Paul Bartel, and unfortunately they are mostly wasted.
"Posse' borrowed liberally from the "spaghetti westerns" ( revenge flashbacks as in "For a Few Dollars More", gattling gun as in "A Fistful of Dollars", coming of the railroad as in "Once Upon a Time in the West") The movie tries to accomplish too much too quickly, and makes one wish that the deliberate pace of the "spaghetti westerns" had also been "borrowed".
The premise is such a good one and a chance to educate about black cowboys but the film is truly dire.
Ok, maybe Posse can't compare to other popular cowboy/western movies.
Mario Van Peebles wears both hats as he works as both an actor and director for this film, about a black infantrymen named Jessie Lee leading his fellow troopers into battling white supremacists and his former commanding officer (played with slimy exception by Billy Zane).
"Posse" has everything a good western should have: great gun-fights, cool performances (especially by Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, and Big Daddy Kane) and a triumphant ending..
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.
I think that Mario Van Peebles movie Posse is a very important film.
This is a story of early black settlers, cow boys and infantrymen returning from the Spanish-American War with a cache of gold.
The racism applied to the new black settlers and infantryman is explored in this film with excellent casting including Melvin Van Peebles (Marios father), Billy Zane, Stephen Baldwin and a wonderful performance by Big Daddy Kane.
One senses that Peeples strived to use as many notable black (and some not so notable - smile) actors as possible : ) Perhaps too many, some notable persons (Issac Hayes, Pamela Grier) are only scene in cameo, others briefly such as Tone Loc. The sentiment and efforts of Peebles efforts to expose these actors will be understood by some.
The large cast (a feat for any director) work well and do a good job of telling the story in the classic "revenge and fight vs justice" western.Most noteworthy was the wonderful narrative role of veteran actor Woody Strode (from Once Upon A Time In The West), who's own life was a barrier-breaker, within the context of a previous era not yet completed faded from memory.
Read the mini-bio on Woody Strode here as a primer: http://imdb.com/name/nm0834754/bio The film does a good job of balancing action with a bit of sardonic humour.
But Posse is a good effort to hopefully open the door for more historical and creative works reflective of other untold stories and events.
Thank you Mario Van Peebles for informing us of not only the existence of black cowboys, but providing a compelling story that was easy to follow.The plot, backdrop, music and talent were all top notch.
It was great that you used so many African-American artists to tell the tale of the black cowboy.
It was also good to see Billy Zane in this movie.
Does he ever play a good guy?I would highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to broaden their way of thinking.
The only real black cowboy seen by most Americans was Woody Strode, thanks to John Ford ("Sergeant Rutledge," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "How the West Was Won"), Richard Brooks ("The Professionals") and Italian filmmakers ("Once Upon a Time in the West," "The Revengers," "The Unholy Four")."Posse," written, produced and directed by Mario Van Peebles, had promise.
A rousing climax almost saves the film, though.The movie begins with a stark history lesson about the true accomplishments of blacks in the Old West, as told to Reginald and Warren Hudlin by an old man (the legendary Woody Strode).
He then segues into the fictitious story of Jesse Lee...Lee (Mario Van Peebles) and his men are getting cut to pieces by the Spanish during the Spanish-American War while their commanding officer (a slimy, but effective Billy Zane) drinks Cognac miles away.
(By the way, the method they use to get out of Cuba and back to America is original, but very creepy).The middle part of the film is spent showing Lee and his men (rapper Tone Loc, Baldwin, a whiny aide and a few spares) heading to New Orleans, where they meet up with Big Daddy Kane.
The whole tracking plotline is hard to believe (remember how long it took John Wayne to track down Natalie Wood in "The Searchers"?), but it makes for good shootouts.Eventually, Lee and his men make it back to Lee's hometown, a black township full of freedmen.
Throw in Zane and his own posse, along with a Gatling gun and you get the rousing climax.Mario Van Peebles is not much of an actor, but he has enough range and skill to carry the burden of being Jesse Lee. Baldwin is not quite up to par with brothers Alec and Daniel, but he holds his own, especially when he meets his demise at the hands of fellow whites.
I liked Big Daddy Kane's soft-spoken, but proud and defiant, role as Father Time and the way he kept looking at his pocket watch before doing anything.
Tone Loc was a waste, though, since he kept rapping like it was 1998 instead of 1898.The town basically had one purpose and that was to show off an impressive cast of black stars -- Melvin Van Peebles, Pam Grier, Reginald Vel Johnson and Nipsey Russell, among others.
Surely, Van Peebles could have drawn up a storyline set between 1865 and 1890."Posse" has a lot going for it.
It's too bad Mario Van Peebles went for cliches, shootouts and tired storylines meant to sell tickets rather than tell a good story.
Well, what if all the white characters were good guys and every black person was the nasty, brutal villain?
The best and greatest thing about this film, the only thing, is an opening narrative by the great Woody Strode, who was a unique and ground breaking African American actor, who was also 75 per cent Native American.
He sets us up with the premise that there are many great stories of the African Americans who moved west, built towns, became cowboys, and whose stories are never told.
Casting, one note comic actors like Mario Van Peebles as the lead is the first sign that no one here wanted to make a serious film.
Sure, it may not be the best movie but they took the time to make it so that has to account for something.Not today.Posse was bad on multiple levels: the story, the script, the acting, the camerawork.
Jesse Lee (Mario Van Peebles), the hero, has a genius plan to disable the gun.
Mario Van Peebles was dead set on getting a one star rating from me no matter how hard I tried to grade on a curve.
Posse was a western with really good action sequences.
Posse was a western with really good action sequences.
Posse is a stylish but messy modern yet revisionist black western from actor/director Mario Van Peebles which does suffer from a flabby middle part.Billy Zane relishes as the sadistic yet curiously camp Colonel Graham who sends some of his men on a mission to rob Spanish gold but intends to kill them all afterwards.Some of these men are black including Jessie (Van Peebles) and they manage to escape but Graham and his gang are behind them.
However Jessie has demons from the past and rides to a town to avenge the death of his preacher father which includes the nasty sheriff (Richard Jordan.)The film is bold, brash, anachronistic as well as a history lesson on the impact of African Americans on the western genre which has been swept under the carpet of history.Van Peebles is doing too much and loses focus on the narrative of this film hence why the middle sags before picking up again.
Some of the acting is broad The script is uneven, its over directed but Van Peebles manages to still fire the film with enough mischief and helped out by his actors such as Blair Underwood, Woody Strode, Paul Bartel, Richard Jordan and Billy Zane..
It was the last great Mario Van Peebles movie I know of.
A good old-fashioned flight-and-revenge western, given a twist and a touch of gravitas by injecting a little black social history into its plot.
Lead by Mario Van Peebles, who does OK, the gang of misfits on the run from Billy Zane's (seemingly unstoppable) army bigwig all acquit themselves well, their adventures plausible yet fun and exciting.
There're some nice moody flashback scenes setting up the hero's character and backstory, a good shoot-out ending as our heroes defend the town from greedy white landgrabbers, and even Stephen Baldwin isn't bad in this enjoyable, quite powerful western..
Very Good movie--if you leave your stereotypes, western biases, and prejudices at the door!.
Don't be a fuddy-duddy bigot and think all westerns have to be Caucasian-- if it's a good movie say so.
Colonel Graham(Billy Zane, I think) is hyper funny in this movie--keeping your interest all the way.
If you don't like Mario Van Peebles' movies, don't let that keep you from seeing this movie!
If you only looked at Jesse Lee in this movie, you would be thinking that he's a Denzel or Hanks type actor.
Then, add in Blair Underwood(He is the main Uncle Tom: Carver), Mario's real life dad(Melvin, I believe), Big Daddy Kane(father Time), Sheriff Bates, and "Denzel's wife" in Antwone Fisher/FBI agent in Ransom(Jesse Lee's lover).
Buffalo Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 10th Cavalry Regiment led by Jessie Lee (Mario Van Peebles) are fighting in the Spanish American War. Sadistic Colonel Graham (Billy Zane) refuses to allow his men to retreat and forces Little J (Stephen Baldwin) to take command of the 10th.
Director Mario Van Peebles is trying to squeeze so much into it that the movie crumbles under its weight.
This could have been so good but it was just....bad from 1-10 this gets a 1 instead of a zero because Mario looks good in his hat and there was an Appaloosa horse in the film..
The Posse of the title is quite an impressive grouping and Mario Van Peebles as their leader turns in an impressive performance as he turns against his cruel commanding officer and sets out on a revenge quest.It's been known for a while now that there were black cowboys and this film shows exactly what they had to put up with.
As for the film's villains, Billy Zane is very good as a chew-the-scenery camp villain, but the really hateful one is Richard Jordan as a corrupt white sheriff.
Strangely, at the start of the film, we are shown a picture of the Posse which includes him and Father Time.
It's only the sacrifice of Stephen Baldwin's Little J that he comes good.These gripes aside, POSSE is a very enjoyable film and worth spending time viewing..
I'd come back to it because I believe Mario Van Peebles has a great film in him.
I didn't have that big of a problem with the New Jack Swing musical stylings imposed on the film's soundtrack but I did take issue with the lack of banjos and fiddles.A blown opportunity for greatness..
Good Western Action by Van Peebles.
spoiler--In 1993, African-American director/actor Mario Van Peebles followed up the tremendously popular urban-action film New Jack City with "Posse".
The film was co-written and directed by Van Peebles, who also stars as the main character, Jessie Lee.Plot: The film begins at the turn of the 20th century, when the United States was embroiled in the Spanish-American war.
However, the ambitious, bigoted Colonel Graham (Zane) finds out about the gold, and is apparently willing to kill Jessie Lee and company for it.
Apparently, Freemanville was founded by blacks in the years following the Civil War. Jessie Lee's father, "King David", was the charismatic preacher who co-founded the town.
Carver (Blair Underwood) is the sheriff and de facto mayor of Freemanvilleand his own agenda may not square with having Jessie Lee around.Analysis The action sequences are all very credible, and Mario Van Peebles turns in a good performance as the brooding hero.
Instead, Van Peebles looked 100 years into the past, creating a mostly-black Western (effectively 'updating' the black-themed Westerns of the 1970's), and continuing the legacy of largely-forgotten black-themed cowboy films from the early 20th century.
In certain interviews, Mario Van Peebles has said that he often likes to cast against type; in the years since, the trend of casting rap singers in non-musical films would become almost commonplace.
Keen viewers will notice several cameos by various entertainment personalities: Black-action film veterans like Isaac Hayes ("Truck Turner"), Pam Grier ("Foxy Brown") and Larry Cook ("The Spook who Sat by the Door") show up, as does stand-up legend Nipsey Russell, not to mention TV producer Stephen J.
This was directed by and stars Mario Van Peebles as a labour of love and it shows.
Even better, Van Peebles has assembled a cast of notable faces including crowd-pleasing old-timers like Isaac Hayes and Woody Strode, so watching becomes very entertaining.
Jessie Lee played by the Director Mario Van Peoples does a great job of eventually bringing his team together - after escaping the Spanish American War with Gold.
They are trying to leave behind their past; the villain played by Billie Zane attempted to have Jessie Lee's squad killed after stealing the Spanish Gold for him.
"New Jack City" director Mario Van Peebles and scenarists Sy Richardson and Dario Scardapane pay homage to virtually every memorable Hollywood western with "Posse," an elegant inventory of clichés ranging from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to "Once Upon a Time in the West." Derivative as all get-out, this R-rated horse opera delivers a little bit of everything, from a search for gold in Cuba to a desperate flight across the mountainous badlands of the American west.
Although it borrows from every iconic oater, "Posse" qualifies as one of the best African-American westerns, with a distinguished cast.
Peebles surrounds himself with a first-rate cast, including Woody Strode, Stephen Baldwin, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Blair Underwood, Billy Zane, and Richard Jordan.
Arrogant U.S. Army Colonel Graham (Billy Zane of "Titanic") orders Jesse Lee (Mario Van Peebles of "Heartbreak Ridge") to take a group of predominantly African-Americans in civilian clothes, infiltrate enemy lines, and bring back whatever he can find.
Graham is every inch a dastard, and he maintains his own 'posse' that has earned the name 'the Iron Brigade.' Tirelessly, they track our heroes across the west to an African-American town, Freemanville, fears the angry, racist whites in the nearby town of Cutterstown.
Zane's creepy Graham howls "rewards and retributions" throughout "Posse." Rounding out the cast are Pam Grier, Isaac Hayes, and his own father Melvin Van Peebles.
Although its message gets heavy-handed at time, "Posse" ranks as a landmark African-American movie, a solid western, and an entertaining shoot'em up with a touch of inevitable romance..
There's not much reading material about this subject and very little Hollywood movies are ever made about African-Americans striving in the rough scenery in the Old Frontier."Posse" was a pivotal step to tell a great story in this compelling and refreshing story that is loaded with originality.
It had potential to be a really good story, sadly director Mario Van Peebles tends to go overboard by practically rubbing the story right in-your-face to get his message across.
It may look good for a documentary, but for a movie, it makes the entire story very thin.
Set after the Spanish-American War U.S. Army 10th Calvary Regiment led by Jessie Lee (Van Peebles)joins forces with Weezie (Charles Lane), Angel (Tone Loc), Obobo (TinyLister) and Caucasian ally Little J (Stephen Baldwin) courageously step up to winback their city from the corruption from racist outlaw Colonel Graham (Billy Zane).
Therefore, the posse joins forces to restore their town and to wipe out the corruption.For a story of this magnitude, it had a lot of great material for a an interesting and provocative Western story that has never been looked upon.
Well Van Peebles casts a plethora of big name stars from Isaac Hayes to Blair Underwood from Pam Grier to Nipsy Russell.
If these closing messages were with us the whole time, "Posse" would've been a better film instead of succumbing to an endless array of sloganeering..
The other problem is the film is pretty close to B-movie territory with a very average D-list cast and poor looking action sequences.
Plus every single western cliché has been thrown in alongside every single modern action flick cliché too, its like a John Woo movie in the wild west.Its a clichéd western of course as you would expect but it all looks slightly cheap with bad editing.
This character could be placed in any action movie in any setting and it wouldn't make any difference, he would still be exactly the same and the film would be exactly the same.
A good evil turn from Zane sure but the character is such a stereotypical Hollywood bad guy.Basically Peebles has gone for the slick rock n roll 'Young Guns' approach mixed with silly action movie clichés...but has failed on both counts.
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.
If anything I thought Stephen Baldwin (as "Little J Teeters") and Big Daddy Kane ("Father Time") put on excellent performances.
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.