Posse (Kirk Douglas, 1975): USA

Reviewed by William Conlin. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Though the Santa Barbara International Film Festival features incredible premieres and screenings of recently released films, sometimes the greatest experiences come when the festival looks back and enjoys the classics. That was the case today when Quentin Tarantino presented SBIFF 2010 with Kirk Douglas’ Posse

Posse is a story of greed, lawlessness and the hunger for power that so easily consumes good men. Howard Nightingale (Kirk Douglas) is a famous Texas lawmen tasked with capturing notorious criminal Jack Strawhorn (Bruce Dern). If Nightingale is successful he is sure to win a seat in the United States Senate and advance his career that he hopes will take him to the top. But after apprehending Strawhorn, Nightingale finds it hard to keep hold of him when people begin to question his motives for seeking power.

This film was made in the wake of the Watergate Scandal and in many ways was meant to be a scathing attack on government. Writers Christopher Knopf and William Roberts blend humor and drama into a well paced, emotionally charged screenplay that resonates to this day. Kirk Douglas’ served as star of the film and director, lending a classic western feel that let Mr. Tarantino to comment that “if he hadn’t seen Kirk’s name on the credits, he would have thought it was a John Sturges film” to which Mr. Douglas responded “that’s the greatest compliment anyone could have ever given me.”

For me, the stand out performance in Posse is Bruce Dern as Jack Strawhorn. When the character is first introduced as the villain, the audience immediately places him in their minds as negative. But as the film progresses, we begin to see the change in roles and a giant flip occurs half way into the film, suddenly making him the good guy and leaving the audience guessing what’s going to happen next.

When Mr. Douglas and Mr. Tarantino spoke, one could see that Mr. Tarantino was thrilled to be there. He stated that this has “always been one of his favorite films” and in some ways one can see how he took some of his style from it. On the other hand, Mr. Douglas, who is always as entertaining as can be, was more interested in talking to Mr. Tarantino about Inglourious Basterds and Christoph Waltz’s incredible performance, than he was interested in talking about Posse. But regardless, having two legends like Mr. Tarantino and Mr. Douglas on stage truly made today a day that Santa Barbara filmgoers will not soon forget.