Posse *** (1975, Kirk Douglas, Bruce Dern, Bo Hopkins, James Stacy, Luke Askew, David Canary, Alfonso Arau) – Classic Movie Review 10,251

Director Kirk Douglas’s 1975 Western film Posse stars Kirk Douglas Texas right-wing lawman Howard Nightingale, whose hopes for election to the US Senate depend on the capture of an infamous outlaw Jack Strawhorn (Bruce Dern), so he leads a posse to capture him.

The film’s ambiguous sympathies are, perhaps surprisingly, on the side of the killer against the ambitious politician who supports the evil railroad.

Douglas’s second and last film as director (after Scalawag) is action packed, neatly crafted and full of good playing. The distinguished score by Maurice Jarre and photography by Fred J Koenekamp are pluses.

In case you are wondering, ‘Posse begins like most Westerns. It ends like none of them. It will knock you off your horse.’

The screenplay is by William Roberts and Christopher Knopf, based on the story by Christopher Knopf.

Also in the cast are Bo Hopkins, James Stacy, Luke Askew, David Canary, Alfonso Arau, Katherine Woodville, Mark Roberts, Beth Brickell, Dick O’Neill, William H Burton, Louie Elias, Gus Greymountain and Allan Warnick.

In February 2020, Bruce Dern recalled: ‘It was 1974. We shot Posse in Tucson, Arizona, about 12 miles from the city. It looked like the Old West – or the surface of the moon. I never sat down with Kirk before I did the movie, never met him. But he was so courteous to me and so intrigued by the kinds of movies I’d been doing because he came out of the studio system. And what I was doing were the first of the independent movies.’

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,251

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