Slick style and a cast brimming with charisma aren't enough to save this film from the hollowness at its core. It doesn't purport to be a true story, but it does say these characters were real people. Why, then, have Lakeith Stanfield play an Afro-Native? Why slim down and lighten up Stagecoach Mary? Why do nothing to actually represent these people? Is it true to Cherokee Bill's story to have a non-Native speak of the Great Spirit and drop some Cherokee as a token? Is it honoring Stagecoach Mary's story if to be the badass love interest of this story she must be rendered unrecognizable? This only exposes further questions. Why use these people at all instead of original characters?
Perhaps it's how thinly these characters are drawn. Buck goes from a plan to keep his town intact to it being just a revenge plot all along. Trudy Smith believes in what he's doing, but it's hardly explained. Reeves is just a super sheriff. And Cuffee is the source of transphobic gay panic jokes. Samuel said in an interview he wanted this to be the Avengers, and like the MCU, this film hopes to coast on the charm of its stars and the past and lore of the characters. You should care about Bill Pickett cause he broke down boundaries in rodeo. You should care about Beckweourth because of his work with the Crow. None of that will be here. You should care about them by their name alone. It lends a certain crassness to the proceedings, the director and cast using real people like action figures.
It's a shadow the film can't escape from. It wants to be daring and bold, to tell black stories so often neglected or ignored. But it misrepresents them in the process, resulting in something that is less tribute and more exploitation. The hardest fall is the film's own.
