November 9, 2021
10-year old Nat Love witnessed his parents murdered in front of him. A cross was carved into his forehead by their killer. Years later, Nat was a notorious outlaw riding with his partners-in-crime Bill Pickett and Jim Beckwourth. He was trying to reconnect with his ex-lover, Mary Fields, who was running a chain of saloons with her right-hand man Cuffee. In his last caper, Nat stole money that belonged to a rival outlaw boss Rufus Buck, who had just been sprung from captivity by his gang led by Trudy Smith and Cherokee Bill.
This was an auspicious debut feature for British musician Jeymes Samuel, who goes by the stage name The Bullitt. He goes for Tarantino-esque techniques of stylized violence, marked with a dark sense of humor, set to the beat of hiphop and reggae flavored musical soundtrack, anachronistic to the period being portrayed onscreen. The dry expansive American frontier vistas, the contrasting colors of Redwood City and Marysville, the locomotive on the train tracks, were all captured in eye-catching images by cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr.
While he did creditably well in the central role of Nat Love, I felt Jonathan Majors was constantly being upstaged by his other flashier co-stars in supporting roles who had more powerful screen presences than him. Zazie Beetz positively sizzled as Stagecoach Mary, a bigger leap forward from her breakthrough as Domino in "Deadpool 2" (2018). Danielle Deadwyler stole all her comical scenes as androgynous tough guy Cuffee. Veteran Delroy Lindo exuded respectable dignity as legendary lawman Bass Reeves.
Ironically, the actors portraying the antagonists were the higher profile actors. From "Concrete Cowboy" (2020), we knew Idris Elba was a realistic cowboy. With his piercing light-blue eyes, he commands all his scenes as evil Rufus Buck even with the minimum of dialogue. Regina King, an Academy Award winning actress for "If Beale Street Could Talk" (2018), came off very strong as the ruthlessly intimidating Trudy Smith. LaKeith Stanfield, Oscar nominee for "Judas and the Black Messiah" (2020), was charismatic and actually likable as Cherokee Bill.
This film is remarkable because it is a true-blue Western which had a principal cast of black actors. Even if the story by director-writer Jeymes Samuel is totally fictional, the names he used for most of the main characters -- Nat Love, Rufus Buck, Cherokee Bill, Stagecoach Mary, Cathay Williams, Bass Reeves -- were all real people who existed in Wild West history. Watching this film will make you want to read up not only about the existence of black cowboys, but also on the real stories of these people behind the names. 7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment