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Outlaw Posse Review: Tongue-In-Cheek Western Keeps The Van Peebles Cinematic Dynasty Alive

Story by Mark Donaldson

- Outlaw Posse is a western anchored by Van Peebles' charismatic lead performance.
- The film features a starry supporting cast that adds depth and complements the eccentric characters.
- Despite attempts at political commentary, the movie fumbles important messages due to multiple subplots.

Mario Van Peebles' revisionist western, Posse, ended with a caption lamenting Hollywood's erasure of 8,000 black cowboys and their stories. Thirty years later, Outlaw Posse attempts to shine a light on the Old West's diverse history, with mixed results. Outlaw Posse isn't a sequel to the 1993 western and the director is no longer directly reacting to Hollywood's whitewashed vision of America's past. Instead, Van Peebles reacts to the binary times of the present, presenting a western that celebrates diversity, and the role it must play in building the prosperous nation first promised by those early Wild West pioneers.

Outlaw Posse Review: Tongue-In-Cheek Western Keeps The Van Peebles Cinematic Dynasty Alive© Provided by Screen Rant

6/10

Outlaw Posse is a western-action film directed by Mario Van Peebles and released in 2024. A man named Chief returns from his self-imposed isolation in Mexico to Montana to collect gold that was hidden years prior - but Chief soon finds a dangerous man racing for the same treasure hot on his tail.

Mario Van Peebles' film boasts an eccentric cast of characters
The father-son relationship grounds Outlaw Posse

Cons

Outlaw Posse's message is muddled in execution.
The storylines can clash with each other.

While that may sound too worthy, Outlaw Posse is more interested in delivering everything that we expect from a cowboy movie, occasionally to its detriment. All the story beats are here, from bank robberies to hidden gold to the final shootouts. Although rigidly following in the footsteps of filmmakers like Sergio Leone and John Huston, Van Peebles is also making a film that is tied into his family's own cinematic legacy. After all, it's no coincidence that his character, Chief, wears a black outfit similar to that worn by the filmmaker's father in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.

Outlaw Posse's Father-Son Relationship Lifts It Above Wild West Clichés

Chief and Decker ride horses through the fields in Outlaw Posse© Provided by ScreenRant

Joining Van Peebles in Outlaw Posse is Mandela Van Peebles (Jigsaw) who plays Decker, Chief's estranged son. The dynamic between the real-life father and son adds a degree of authenticity to their performances as both Chief and Decker. Mandela Van Peebles' Decker begins the film as a dour presence, but becomes more charismatic and engaging as he spends more time with his father. Similarly, Mario Van Peebles' charismatic hero lets the mask slip in an affecting heart-to-heart with his son toward the end of the movie.

Father and son relationships are at the core of many of Van Peebles' movies, most notably the 2003 movie Baadasssss, which depicted the making of his father's iconic Blaxploitation movie. Outlaw Posse is another film to add to that list, reconciling the "shitty father" with his "shitty son" for a more positive future. Chief and Decker's strained relationship grounds some of Outlaw Posse's more outlandish moments and provides a fitting tribute to Mario Van Peebles' relationship with his father, the late, great Black filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, who died in 2021 and to whose memory the movie is dedicated.

Outlaw Posse Fumbles An Important Political Message

"When the laws are unjust, the just are outlaws!"

Native Americans listen to someone talking in Outlaw Posse© Provided by ScreenRant

Chief and his crew's hunt for the gold is driven by the fact it was initially intended for freed slaves and not their former owners. This is a great concept for a Robin Hood-style revisionist Western, but Outlaw Posse fumbles it due to the multiple subplots that are jockeying for attention. The story of slavery reparations clashes with the horrendous treatment of the Native Americans, and Outlaw Posse fails to do justice to either story. There's a positive message of multicultural unity, but the movie never does anything of note with it.

Though laudable, Outlaw Posse's attempts at historical and political commentary are undermined by the B-movie sensibility of the script.

Outlaw Posse's multiculturalism merely provides Chief with a bigger crew to fight off the true enemy of the movie, Angel (Brian Mapother). Angel is an outlandish creation that actor Brian Mapother utterly relishes sinking his teeth into. With his tiny brass hand, and obsession with having his every move documented by a biographer, Angel draws some comparisons with social media-loving former President, Donald Trump, a link that was surely deliberate. Though laudable, Outlaw Posse's attempts at historical and political commentary are undermined by the B-movie sensibility of the script.

Whoopi Goldberg & The Supporting Cast Are Lots Of Fun

A starry supporting cast includes Edward James Olmos and Neal McDonough.

Outlaw Posse has an impressive supporting cast that perfectly compliments Van Peebles' charismatic lead performance. Whoopi Goldberg plays real-life Wild West character "Stagecoach" Mary Fields, and she is a delight in every scene she has. Edward James Olmos is terrific as the grouchy shopkeeper that helps Chief and his posse, while Cedric the Entertainer makes a memorable appearance as the Mayor of Lil' Heaven, a multicultural town in which everyone is welcome. Each actor's performance matches the tone of Outlaw Posse and helps to sell the film's slightly eccentric take on the Old West.

Despite its shortcomings when it comes to political messaging, Outlaw Posse is anchored by a hugely charismatic performance from Mario Van Peebles. From the moment he menaces Justified's Neal McDonough from underneath a giant sombrero to his rousing speech about the future of the country, it's hard to take your eyes off him. While it ultimately offers nothing new or innovative to the genre, Outlaw Posse's terrific cast of characters and the meta-textual elements of the Van Peebles cinematic dynasty make for a memorable experience.