La ballade de Little Jo

This is an incredible movie. It is one of the most visually beautiful films I have ever seen. The landscape is so gorgeous -- snowy mountains, vast plains, rolling hills -- just incredible. The story is very interesting. It is based on the true tale of a woman who went out west in the 1800s, and dressed and passed as a man. This film explores issues of sexism, racism, belonging, individuality, and isolation. I recommend it highly.

Viewers looking for a classic western risk to be disappointed by this movie. It's not that shotgun duels are missing completely, but this film is not about shotgun duels. Most disappointed will certainly be action movies fans if they happen to see this film, as the pace is slow and the emphasize is on something else. Director Maggie Greenwald focused here on the life of women in the West, and on the possibility of leading an alternative style of life during that period.

The result is a different type of movie, different in subject, style and pace than you would expect. The title says it all maybe, the film is a ballad in the sense that it focuses on the hero - in this case a woman thrown out from her Eastern rich environment, running away, and choosing to live all her life in disguise as a man. Was this possible? Probably so, as the film is said to be inspired by a true story.

There is some fine acting especially from Suzy Amis which sustains the film, and also a very closely and carefully rendition of details of the day-to-day life in the epoch. However this is not enough to maintain interest for the full duration of the two hours, some of the characters seem too remote and too hard to read missing the chance to involve the viewer in becoming interested in their destinies. Maybe the director kept intentionally the distance and did not want to reveal too much of their secrets, same as the folks around Little Jo did not push too much to be able to understand her real secret. The result is that a film which could shock and involve by presenting the continuity of the harsh realities of the status of women and other minorities all over the American history fails to do so completely.

It is still worth watching, especially as the end brings at least part of that dose of sharpness and weirdness missing in much of the rest of the movie. I am however wondering where talents like director Maggie Greenwald and actress Suzy Amis disappeared in the fifteen years that passed since this film was released.

This is a non-action-oriented Western about a woman who, for years, masquerades as a man. At the beginning of the film, she is thrown out by her father after she gives birth to an illegitimate child, so she travels west. However, along the way, she is attacked and decides to disguise herself as a guy so she'll be left alone. While this might be seen as a strongly feminist or gay-positive movie (featuring a very alternative lifestyle, indeed), the movie did not seem preachy or agenda-driven. Instead, it is a smart film that takes a very slow and leisurely pace to the ultimate conclusion. I would have preferred the pace and mood to perhaps be a little less somber, but considering how intelligent the film was, I will certainly forgive this.

Particular standouts are Suzy Amis as Jo and Bo Hopkins. I always felt that Hopkins was a bit of a light-weight (particularly considering the parts in the 1970s), but he proves himself to be an excellent actor. It's a real shame neither of these actors got much work after the film debuted--they certainly deserved it.

This is a great western that is hardly even known. It's directed by Maggie Greenwald and stars Suzy Amis as a woman in a rich family who is kicked out after she has a kid out of wedlock and she decides to go west. Amis knows she isn't going to survive as a woman because on the first night she is almost raped by two soldiers and barely escapes. So Amis decides to dress as a man and then makes a big cut on her face so it will leave a scar. Amis winds up staying in a mining town and the people believe she's man. Ian McKellen is a man who takes Amis in and shows her the ropes but he can get pretty violent when he's drunk. Amis doesn't stay with him long and winds up buying a place away from town so she can have her privacy. It's a great movie and i can't see why it isn't more well known.

I remember reading the review in the paper, and thinking that the movie might be worth seeing the one time. I rented it and loved and then once I got my video collection up and running, it was one of the first movies I bought. Suzy Amis is outstanding as Jo and does an excellent job at first portraying the out of her element woman, and gradually over the film does a fine job of conveying the woman who lives a hard life as a man.