alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Josephine made a fatal mistake: she got pregnant from a photographer, her father throws her out, she goes west. The film shows the options for a pretty woman like Josephine, alone, with no money, at that time on the west: to be sold like merchandise, to be raped.Her choice is to disguise herself as a man, so she becomes Little Jo. Suzy Amis has a great performance as Jo, she is very pretty, the fact that she does not really look like a man is not important, she is very convincing as a human being. Throughout the film you realize how Jo is a great person, she accepts her fate and tries to do the best she can about it. Bo Hopkins is Frank Badger, her tough friend and their relationship, and also Jo's relationship with David Chung are the best things of this western.

bob the moo Cast out of her rich family home for having a child out of marriage, Josephine takes the road in the new west of America. When she is attacked and nearly raped by outlaws she goes into hiding, disguising herself as a man. Jo settles into a small mining town under her new identity but can she keep the charade up?Based on a true story this film is a reasonably worthy story of one woman's life in the old west as a man. How close to the referenced `true story' this is, is beyond me, but I don't think it was that important as the tale stands up for itself without mattering how true it was. However, the actual delivery of the story here is all a little bit dull for my tastes. The lack of actual story beyond the `woman dressed as man' shows through, and instead we have (probably fictional) episodes from Jo's life – the captions `months later' and `several years later' pop up at random breaking up any sort of narrative flow.As a result I never really got into the film and it just didn't have a drive to it. The one line summary is worthy enough but it still needed to tell me a story and not just expect me to sit and go `wow, she lived as a man' all the way through the film. Put simply, far too little happened of interest and it all took too long to tell.The cast is not great and fit with the inconsequentialness of the whole film. Amis is a bit bland in her delivery and her lines sound flat, in fairness she was trying to sound like a man but even still! Her looks are also a problem. Amis is a very pretty woman and it is hard to make her look like someone who could be taken for a man, a less feminine actress would have been a better choice for the role as it would have made it easier for the audience to suspend belief. McKellen is good but all too brief, Hopkins is an enjoyable character but has little to do, Chung is actually quite good and Heather Graham has a fleeting early role.Overall the story is worth hearing but only as a few page story. As a two hour movie it drags and finds that it doesn't actually have much to say or do after the pitch is delivered. It drags through little scenes and dramas but overall comes out as just a little dull – something more dramatic was required but is sadly absent.

Mac MacLaren I'm sure that is *is* possible for a woman to pass as a man - given a masculine enough face and mannerisms, but... I can't help thinking that this movie would have been better starring a man as a woman pretending to be a man. At least then the viewers wouldn't have had to suspend their belief for two hours while the 'awful' truth unfolded in front of dozens of men who couldn't tell the difference 'twixt girl and boy. Suzi's acting is good, but the others don't really contribute much; they seem unimpressed with the plot... and I have to admit, there wasn't much of one. The detail and the stark reality of the period are well captured, though; the cold, the rain, the emptiness and loneliness of the hills and the stark wild west; the barbarity, stupidity and selfish race and sex discrimination were well portrayed in the direction and dialogue.

anita-18 Highly recommended. If you're looking for an inspiring film about an inspiring woman, check it out.