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")

Kirk Douglas' second stab at film directing garnered him some favorable reviews, however this western with political flourishes is full of hot air rather than excitement. A US Marshal, beloved by the residents of a small dirt town, plans the ambush of a gang of bank robbers; their leader (Bruce Dern), who gets away, would be the feather in his cap for the Marshal, who is also running for State Senator. Though this is probably the only time in movie history a crook escaped from prison using a broomstick (!), this screenplay from Christopher Knopf and William Roberts is loaded down with the usual western clichés (mostly visual, though we are not spared the muttering old coot who works the printing press). With an extremely weak cast and unattractive locales, Douglas has only himself as an actor and the picture's marginal technical merits to fall back on. Some saw this as a political allegory; if so, it isn't a very incisive one, nor an entertaining or important one. *1/2 from ****

I agree with inspectors71's review in that Kirk Douglas was probably a much better actor than director. This, and his previous film, help prove this.Other than a unique chance to see Kirk directing (and producing), this film is only memorable for being a 1970s "anti-Western"--with bad guys seeming pretty nice and good guys as hypocritical jerks. Once again, inspectors71's feeling that this was all inspired by Watergate seemed pretty astute. During this time period, flawed heroes abounded in film--such as Dirty Harry Popeye Doyle--a product of the times indeed. As an "anti-Western", the film didn't seem to go anywhere and left me feeling rather uninterested.In fact, the entire story never felt particularly involving and the "anti-ending" seemed amazingly far-fetched and silly. Still, there were enough interesting moments to make it worth watching if nothing better is on TV--but that's about all.

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