Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Blistering performances.

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.

Driven to despair by the summer offerings on TV, I thought I had run out of options one night until I came across this gem on the Independent Film Channel. It's one of those films I probably wouldn't have walked around the block to see when (if?) it was in release. Don't listen to the nay-sayers, everything works in this movie. It reminded me a little of McCabe and Mrs. Miller in it's presentation and pace. Just sit back, power down, and enjoy.

I remember watching Suzy Amis in The Usual Suspects and several other films. She is perfectly casted in the main part of the picture. An outcast by her Eastern family she tries to live out West. Facing hardships going West, she buy men's clothes and live in a mining town as a man. One of the best portrayal in a movie with a woman standing her ground.

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