“Outlaw Posse” is the Latest in the New Era of Western Films Centralizing Black Characters and Aiming to Remedy a History of Erasure
The genre known as the ‘western’ has hugely impacted American film and pop culture, making its debut in the silent film era and reaching its height in popularity during the 50s and 60s – which was also arguably one of the most racist time periods in U.S. history. As a result, Hollywood began to capitalize on western films that featured all-white characters and actors, which essentially erased many of the experiences of the people of color who shaped the country and whose stories influenced much of Hollywood’s portrayal of the ‘Wild West.’ For example, the Lone Ranger – a recurring white character of the western genre – was inspired by real-life U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, who was Black.
Films that qualify as westerns are typically set in the late 19th century on the American frontier, otherwise known as the Wild West. Ranch hands and cattle herders, who served as the inspiration for the Hollywood image of the ‘cowboy,’ were often African-American – historians speculate that about one in four real-life cowboys was Black.
In recent years a new wave of westerns has emerged, aiming to spotlight Black characters and mend the historic absence of people of color from Hollywood depictions of the Wild West. The latest film that is a part of this western revival is “Outlaw Posse,” whose protagonist is a cowboy-outlaw in 1908 tracking down stolen gold hidden in the mountains of Montana, which he plans to give to survivors of slavery and their children.
Other examples of these new era westerns include “Django: Unchained” and the Netflix film “The Harder They Fall.” “The Harder They Fall,” which came out in 2021 and featured an all-Black principal cast, was largely influenced by the historical Wild West, and many of the film’s characters are based on real people, including Bass Reeves. The same can be said for “Outlaw Posse,” which includes a depiction of ‘Stagecoach Mary’ Fields, the first Black woman to become a mail carrier in the United States and a notorious gunslinger, played by Whoopi Goldberg.
“Outlaw Posse,” written and directed by as well as starring Mario Van Peebles, premiered on March 1st and is the most recent film in this new era of westerns centralizing Black characters and aspiring to correct the erasure of Black men and women from the whitewashed Hollywood image of the Wild West. The film is dedicated to Van Peebles father, Melvin Van Peebles, who passed away in 2021 and was himself an accomplished filmmaker known for directing and starring in the critically acclaimed 1971 independent film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.” In an interview with the Smithsonian Magazine, Mario Van Peebles revealed that his desire to make “Outlaw Posse” came from his love for western films and his frustration over their disconcerting historic neglect of Black characters. “The real wild, wild West was super diverse,” he says. “We were all there.”
