Score: 5 / 5
What an absolute pleasure. I say this every time, but just when you think the Western is about to finally die off, someone brilliant jumps in to remind us of its potential fabulousness as a genre. Last year, it was News of the World, but this time it's a lot more fun. Plotted not unlike classics (I thought often of The Quick and the Dead, Unforgiven, The Magnificent Seven), this new story works its magic in presentation more than in content. Then again, perhaps its content is more important than that: to my knowledge, this is the only Western in which the principal cast entirely comprises Black people who are playing real-life Black historical figures. That in itself provides the film ample opportunities to shift the familiar narrative and reframe otherwise predictable beats, making this a brilliant and daring statement about reclaiming history, claiming a genre, and having a lot of fun doing it.
The first half of the film or so follows the gathering of a gang of sorts, oddballs teaming up for revenge against a worse gang led by Rufus Buck (Idris Elba). The imprisoned Buck was recently pardoned, so his gang (led by Regina King) kills the corrupt officers holding him and they gather at their former stronghold in Redwood City. Upon hearing news of his release, Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) and his gang embark on a mission to avenge his parents, whom Buck murdered in front of an 11-year-old Love. While these characters -- and many more, including Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo), Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), Cherokee Bill (Lakeith Stanfield) -- were real, the plot of this movie is about as historical as the plot of Cowboys & Aliens. But that's its delight: its glorious absurdism, vibrant colors, kinetic action, and undeniable beauty only enhance the emotional weight of its story.
I hesitate to compare the early parts of this movie to Tarantino, because he's a terrible person who popularized (not created) a certain aesthetic, but that's the cultural shorthand we have right now. Director and writer and composer Jeymes Samuel brings brilliant eyes and ears to this film -- obviously a passion project -- repurposing standard visuals and tropes of the genre to make something endlessly fresh and exciting. Marrying outrageous humor and shocking violence, often with raucous music impeccably edited, Samuel uses wide shots and a few long shots to transport us to another world, one that really deserves to be on a huge screen with surround sound, not on a laptop or phone. He fills every moment, too, with layers of dense information, from costumes that themselves tell stories to areas of negative space in each frame that speak to the immensity of the wild west and the operatic feelings of its characters.
There's a lot to chew on in this movie, and I predict some great scholarly articles will be published soon about it. One of the most impressive things for me, though, was Samuel's delicious patience and deliberate pacing. For such a huge cast, he allows each character time to sit, reflect, and silently observe the world around them and think about what they are going to do; no character here is, really, a "good guy," and indeed each could be labeled an antihero or villain, but as Samuel balances the time between the Buck gang and the Love gang, we care about all of them, more or less. And that's saying a lot, especially in a movie equally concerned with bank robberies, a train robbery, brawls in saloons, gunfights in the streets, horses and chases, duels and standoffs. The fighting is mostly modern in style, which makes the action feel like a self-conscious pastiche even as it pulls you to the edge of your seat.
The psychologically complex characters and their balanced presentation make for a fascinating entry point into the themes that clearly inspired this project. There is no "good vs. evil" conflict in this escapade, only greed and revenge, various people attempting to assert their will over land and other people. By the second half of the film, Samuel delicately peels away the sensation of spectacle -- or at least its self-conscious aspects -- to tip us into believing the yarn he spins. The spectacle is still there, but the winking eye and jazz hands dissolve into earnest emotional melodrama. Thankfully, the main ideas aren't too typical of the genre, most likely due to the lack of a moustache-twirling villain, and so there is much consideration of family tragedy, domestic abuse, personal trauma and romantic aspirations. It's a really lovely way to surprise audiences who like Westerns but also like to think.
And then there's the wonderful layer of escapism and revisionism that Samuel lovingly lathers onto the film. His operatic ideas and vibrant presentation here make a unique space wherein viewers who are usually absent or maligned by Westerns can see themselves in one and experience it afresh in a way Samuel clearly enjoys. Racism and slavery aren't entirely removed from this movie, but they aren't the focus, and that very real history doesn't stop these characters from living life on their own terms, owning saloons, stables, and even towns. In creating this revised version of the wild west, Samuel turns his fever dream into sensory pleasures for Black people as well as anyone jaded by the genre.
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