One of the best films i have seen

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Expected more

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

On screen I find Kirk Douglas to be without peer, but I have come to admire him as much if not more for his real-life advocacy of some highly unorthodox, yet worthy projects.If this movie doesn't rank among his very best, it is still remarkable for how unapologetically it goes against the grain and makes a very bold personal statement (one that was not so popular at the time but resonates to this day). All the while he is producing and directing himself in what proves to be a rather unflattering role. I can't think of anyone else who would have the real-life grit to do such a thing - Kirk Douglas has done so repeatedly with aplomb.

The outlaw Jack Strawhorn (Bruce Dern) is betrayed by one of his men, Pensteman (David Canary), after robbing US$ 40,000.00 from a train. During the night, his gang is ambushed in a barn by Marshal Howard Nightingale (Kirk Douglas) and his posse that set fire on the place, burning the criminals and the money, but Strawhorn escapes from the attack. He heads to Tesota, Texas, where he kills Pensteman and the local sheriff. Meanwhile, the ambitious Marshal Nightingale that is running for the senate is traveling by train with his posse to Tesota, expecting to capture Strawhorn to help him to win the elections. Nightingale succeeds in his manhunt and poses of hero, but while Strawhorn is in the jail, he poisons the posse asking what will happen with them after the election of their boss. During the transportation of Strawhorn for judgment by train, the outlaw reverts the situation and captures Nightingale. Now he demands the same amount he lost in the fire to release Nightingale and the posse force the locals to give the money to rescue the marshal. "Posse" is a western with a cynical and amoral tale of leadership, disloyalty and greedy. The twist in the very end is totally unexpected and all the characters are despicable and disloyal with no exception. Marshal Howard Nightingale is probably the worst, with all the characteristics that politicians usually have. James Stacy lost his left arm and left leg when he was riding a motorcycle with his girlfriend and they were struck by a drunk driver that also killed his girlfriend. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Ambição Acima da Lei" ("Ambition above the Law")

The BBC showed a documentary on the career of Kirk Douglas tonight and as it normally does after a retrospective look on a star`s life it showed one of their films . Strangely it wasn`t one of Douglas`s classics like PATHS OF GLORY, LUST FOR LIFE , or SPARTACUS but a western from the 1970s I`d never seen called POSSE . Oh well at least they didn`t show CACTUS JACK ***** SLIGHT SPOILERS *****For someone who normally dislikes westerns I found POSSE very enjoyable for the first third . Jack Strawhorn escapes town after shooting a couple of men and Howard Nightengale leads a posse after him . This is good Peckinpah inspired stuff as the Nightengale boys catch up with Strawhorn gang and decide they`re not going to take any prisoners . But then the middle third becomes too talkative while the final third feels more and more anachronistic as Strawhorn decides to end Nightengale`s political career . This seems to comment more on modern America than the wild west , though I do suppose that money was the root of all evil back in those days too hence the very unlikely ending . Not the best western ever made and not the best film Douglas has starred in but solid enough entertainment

Well, not 'the best', perhaps, but an interesting and stylish western starring Kirk Douglas, who also produced and directed it. Bruce Dern is great as Strawhorn, the bad guy who ends up stealing the show. Howard Nightingale is running for a seat in the US Senate. He is a man of great complexity, and one trait very much to the fore in his personality is a ruthless desire to impress the voters. He has assembled a posse of rangers, his own personal uniformed army of crimebusters. Nightingale (played by Douglas) has calculated that he can win the election on a clear-the-territory-of-lowlifes ticket. He and his posse are hunting down Strawhorn, and have fitted out a crusade train for the purpose of capturing their prey. The plan is to grab Strawhorn and hang him just in time for the election. Nightingale is in the pocket of the railroad owners. The local newspaper is the Tesota Sentinel, and one of the film's themes is the valuable role played by the press in speaking truth to those in power. One-armed, one-legged journalist Harold Hellman (played by James Stacy, who had recently lost both limbs on a motor cycle accident) is the equal of the photogenic wannabe Senator. Nightingale works the crowd with glib words, but his position is being eroded by a different formula of words - that used by The Sentinel. One of the film's elegant touches is the photography motif. At various points in the story, the participants pose to have their picture taken, and the resulting stills form a freeze-frame chronicle of the action. A lot of post-production work went into dubbing extraneous voices onto the soundtrack, so that the crowd scenes are laced with apposite little remarks. A violently-burning train provides terrific visuals, as well as offering acerbic comment on Nightingale's political aspirations. The film's concluding message, that by its nature a standing army is a threat to democracy, is well made - as is the point about the fickleness of public opinion. Verdict - A clever, enjoyable little western.