‘Surrounded’: Letitia Wright Hits the Mark in Anthony Mandler’s Gritty Western  

Alci Rengifo

There is something irresistible about the iconography and style of a good Western. “Surrounded” understands this while engaging with some strong ideas about a Black American woman’s choices in a post-Civil War country. Letitia Wright is not an actor we immediately associate with this genre, yet she fits right in. She’s a perfect choice for the approach of director Anthony Mandler and writers Andrew Pagana and Justin Thomas. They take the classic ingredients of a Western and sneak in themes of androgyny and gender biases. It’s all wound up well in a plot that thrives on simplicity, despite opening with the grand premise of seeking gold. Don’t mistake it for a message film. It’s still in the end about who can make the quickest draw.

The journey begins with Mo Washington (Wright), a former Buffalo Soldier who in 1870 is heading west for a gold mine she has the deed for. To trek for Colorado, she passes for a man with the masculine wardrobe of a gunslinger, as she also did to enlist during the war. It’s soon clear why when just securing passage on a stagecoach is met with racist skepticism from dinosaurs like Mr. Fields (Brett Gelman). Only a lawman also getting on the ride, Mr. Wheeler (Jeffrey Donovan), doesn’t seem to mind Mo’s presence. Still, Mo is forced to climb into the back, which is the kind of discrimination she’s already used to. Deep into the trip, the party is soon raided by a gang led by Tommy Walsh (Jamie Bell), a wanted criminal. A bloody gunfight ensues and Tommy gets captured by the survivors, including Mo. Before riding off to get other lawmen, Wheeler tasks Mo with watching over the chained outlaw. 

“Surrounded” has the infectious intensity of a film made by a director who clearly loves the basics of this most American of film genres. With a lower budget, Mandler knows how important the right images are. He opens with Mo praying in a church by candlelight before ordering a drink at a low-lit, oak-colored bar. The skies are as wide as the plains the characters must traverse. Naturally, it’s a gritty world of hard men and the looming threat of violence. Someone like pompous Miss Borders (Augusta Allen-Jones), who refuses to share a seat with Mo, doesn’t last long out here. Enriching the narrative is how a continuing tension is how the white frontier characters have to accept Mo represents a Black American who cannot be simply brushed away with violence anymore. The white men around her sense this and the smarter ones, like Wheeler, care more about taking down Tommy. 

“Surrounded” then settles for most of its middle in one space as Mo must watch over Tommy in an open area where any number of threats can manifest. The screenplay uses such moments to explore underlying themes. A well-dressed Black farmer (Michael Kenneth Williams) appears and offers to share the ransom for Tommy with Mo, if she agrees to kill the outlaw. He pressures her with the idea of needing to support her own kind. But greed overcomes any background and Mo has to follow pure gut instinct. Then there’s the almost Faustian situation with Tommy, who also makes offers connected to a major bank heist he pulled off, and stashed away loot, to attempt negotiating his way out of being a prisoner. What everyone uses to try and manipulate Mo is the idea that Black people are not truly free even after the abolition of slavery. Mo can never be free if she continues to feel like a second class citizen, which can drive anyone to the temptation of living outside of the law. 

Letitia Wright’s performance contrasts with everyone around her in a way that is not easy to pull off for an actor. Because she’s cautious about her true identity, she operates on a more observant, held back level then the loud-talking men who know they run this land. She’s always on guard, because as a Black woman, the stakes are even higher in this situation. When the third act turns into the expected final showdown, Mandler still avoids only focusing on the violence and instead on truly resolving the relationships between these characters. While he also avoids the current cliché of establishing the story as precursor for a franchise, it still ends with an appropriate widescreen getaway that convincingly makes us believe there could be more stories here to tell. “Surrounded” ends as a good Western with strong acting and a unique application of historical themes. Mo is trying to survive in a terrain where who she is means her draw has to be quicker, especially in a country that has always been run by gold hunters and renegades.

“Surrounded” releases June 20 on VOD.