The Ballad of Little Jo

R

1993

2 hr. 4 min.

History

Drama

List

77%

53 Reviews

Tomatometer

62%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

After becoming pregnant outside marriage, Josephine (Suzy Amis) is thrown out by her embarrassed upper-class family. With no money, she gives up the baby and travels west, where she constantly fears for her safety against predatory men. Josephine begins to masquerade as a man named Jo, and eventually settles down in a small town where she is employed as a sheepherder for Frank Badger (Bo Hopkins). Jo hides the truth until worker Tinman Wong (David Chung) is forced to move in with her.

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Critics Consensus

It sometimes moseys when it should have galloped, but The Ballad of Little Jo entertainingly upends genre formula while simultaneously highlighting its strengths.

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Charles T

Before watching this, do not make the mistake of lumping this film in with crossdressing comedies like "Tootsie" and "Mrs. Doubtfire." While based on a true story, director Greenwald sidesteps many western, and Hollywood, conventions to bring one of the best westerns of the 1990's. Suzy Amis plays Jo, a woman who is a little too trusting of some bad men. After escaping to the west and leaving her born-out-of-wedlock son behind, she is almost assaulted by two soldiers. To hide from them, she wears men's clothing and scars her face, eventually using her new facade to get what she needs to survive. Woman hater Percy (Ian McKellen) takes her in, believing she is a young man. She eventually befriends Frank (Bo Hopkins), who had his best role in years, and starts a sheep ranch. She falls in love with Tin Man, a Chinese man (David Chung) she was forced to hire as her cook, and must eventually do battle with a cattle conglomerate trying to get a foothold and driving the sheep ranchers out. Amis resembles Eric Stoltz in her scenes as a man, and is totally believable. McKellan and Rene Auberjonois have small but pivotal roles as older father figures who Amis trusts, but eventually turn on her. Bo Hopkins is great as the neighbor Amis tolerates, befriends, and tolerates. Chung plays Tin Man as an ailing, opium-addicted, flawed man- he looks perfect for the part, life scars and all. Heather Graham also has a small part as Amis' paramour Mary Addie, and does her best with it. The most surprising aspects of this film is what the film is not. There are no cute "Yentl" scenes, where Jo falls in love with a man as a man. The cattle company war, a standard western plot point, never overwhelms the story, or comes to a trite conclusion. The final scenes, with Jo's unmasking, seem almost like farce, but when thought about later, play very truthfully and touchingly, especially Frank's reaction. Greenwald's camera turns a small film into an epic, with gorgeous Montana scenery. Her script is also very smart, never going for cheap laughs or the kind of exploitation that another director may have gone for. I strongly recommend "The Ballad of Little Jo."

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A fairly entertaining western, with a great female protagonist. Also, this is perhaps Sir Ian McKellen's most evil role to date. He plays such a pig. The scene with the prostitute may haunt you for life.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Genre bender : loved loved loved!!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is one the best little westerns most people have probably never heard of. I saw it when it came out and watched it again last night on DVD, and it's still just as good. I thought Suzy Amis turned in a fabulous performance, and the story is fascinating.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is a real stinker. One of the worst movies I ever saw. It doesn't really have a plot, it just meanders off into nothing. Truly awful.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

Kinda slow and not really my kind of style but the story was great :) The actors performance too.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

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Maggie Greenwald

Director

Suzy Amis

Josephine "Jo" Monaghan

Bo Hopkins

Frank Badger

Ian McKellen

Percy Corcoran

David Chung

Tinman Wong

Carrie Snodgress

Ruth Badger

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Sara Michelle Fetters

MovieFreak.com

Its ethereal, penetrating tenacity as it strips Western mythology to shreds and reveals its blatantly misogynistic center is striking, and the tragically haunting truthfulness of its final images is impossible to forget.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 3, 2023

Full Review

Jackie Potts

Miami Herald

The Ballad of Little Jo is a taut, unconventional adventure that takes aim at the glorious macho westerns of the past.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 18, 2021

Full Review

Claire Monk

Sight & Sound

The Ballad of Little Jo is an exemplary and often starkly beautiful tale -- a mix of adventure and romance which succeeds in reinstating female experience into a genre which has by definition sidelined it.

Mar 18, 2021

Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Maggie Greenwald directs with a serene beauty and elegant pacing, bringing to mind such films as 'Brokeback Mountain.'

Rated: 3.5/4

Feb 20, 2024

Full Review

Michael J. Casey

Michael J. Cinema

Feels like an expansion of the canvas...to show that our previous notions of the so-called frontier have been much too narrow.

Rated: 4/5

Feb 6, 2024

Full Review

Jeff Simon

Buffalo News

It's a rare and quietly impressive movie.

Rated: 3.5/4

Mar 18, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

After becoming pregnant outside marriage, Josephine (Suzy Amis) is thrown out by her embarrassed upper-class family. With no money, she gives up the baby and travels west, where she constantly fears for her safety against predatory men. Josephine begins to masquerade as a man named Jo, and eventually settles down in a small town where she is employed as a sheepherder for Frank Badger (Bo Hopkins). Jo hides the truth until worker Tinman Wong (David Chung) is forced to move in with her.

Director: Maggie Greenwald
Rating: R
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Mar 29, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $459.3K
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

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