Mario Van Peebles has yet to make the classic film he's clearly got inside him, but this comes close.

Son of the much-respected Melvin Van Peebles, Mario often infuses his films with Black American history (Panther, New Jack City), and with this, his revisionist western, he puts the record straight on the Wild West.

The last gasps of slavery, the oft forgotten Black soldiers who fought and died for the U.S. and how/why these facts have fallen through the cracks of time - by accident or design - are all covered, but at the same time, Van Peebles wants to make a rip-roaring western. He mostly succeeds, but not entirely.

By the end of the movie this has become A.N.other modern day western with the bad guys chewing up the scenery and some awful acting on display (ironically, not from the stunt casting of many mid 90's hip-hop stars, all of whom are exellent - especially the MIA Big DAddy Kane).

Van Peebles fills the supporting cast with many blaxploitation stars… more »

Mario Van Peebles has yet to make the classic film he's clearly got inside him, but this comes close.

Son of the much-respected Melvin Van Peebles, Mario often infuses his films with Black American history (Panther, New Jack City), and with this, his revisionist western, he puts the record straight on the Wild West.

The last gasps of slavery, the oft forgotten Black soldiers who fought and died for the U.S. and how/why these facts have fallen through the cracks of time - by accident or design - are all covered, but at the same time, Van Peebles wants to make a rip-roaring western. He mostly succeeds, but not entirely.

By the end of the movie this has become A.N.other modern day western with the bad guys chewing up the scenery and some awful acting on display (ironically, not from the stunt casting of many mid 90's hip-hop stars, all of whom are exellent - especially the MIA Big DAddy Kane).

Van Peebles fills the supporting cast with many blaxploitation stars (you'll recognise them if you know your films) and there's a real sense of grandeur at times but by the end it sputters to the finish when it should race.