The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) Reviews

• Among The Best Westerns Of The 1970s

  virek2132007-01-17

  Even when matched up against his Oscar-winning 1992 film UNFORGIVEN, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES must rank as being among Clint Eastwood's finest turns both in front of and behind the camera. Having displayed a solid feel for the director's chair with 1971's PLAY MISTY FOR ME and 1973's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, Eastwood took the reins on JOSEY WALES when he and the original director Philip Kaufman, who still shared a co-write of the script (and had directed 1972's THE GREAT NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA RAID), ran into some pretty strong disagreements. The end result was one of the best westerns of the 1970s, in critical, commercial, and artistic terms. Eastwood's character is a farmer living out a quiet life in Missouri near the end of the Civil War who is forced to see his whole family and homestead wiped out by marauding "Redlegs" from Kansas. He joins up with a guerrilla band of Southerners to "set things aright." But when the Union betrays those same guerrillas into surrendering and then promptly slaughters all of them, Eastwood takes violent revenge. He soon finds himself of the run at the reluctant hands of his former commander (John Vernon), and a determined Union man named Terrill (Bill McKinney, who played one of the sadistic mountain men in DELIVERANCE). As he heads towards Texas, he encounters a motley group of outcasts (Chief Dan George; Sondra Locke; Paula Trueman), and becomes less obsessed by violent revenge and more interested in helping, going for his guns only when McKinney's Union troop closes in, and bounty hunters come looking for him. In contrast to the "Man With No Name" persona he codified with Sergio Leone in the 1960s, or the tough cop he personified in DIRTY HARRY, Eastwood's Josey Wales is a man of great courage and sympathy who becomes tired of all the violence he has had to see and to take part in. The vengeance motif is largely played out by the time the film is into its second half, and it only comes back towards the tail end for a brief moment. Those who have tagged Eastwood as a political reactionary, a John Wayne of our time, have certainly misjudged him, as even one viewing of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES will testify to. He is not interested in being tough for the sake of being tough; he just wants to survive, and he wants those he protects to be able to live in peace. That's why, although the film is unavoidably violent at times, it has a considerable humanity too, and why it remains one of Eastwood's finest films even to this day.

• A personal tour de force for Eastwood!

  Nazi_Fighter_David2002-08-25

  Eastwood's film had all the necessary elements to make a classic... There are in his movie a lot of thoughts about war and the victims of war... The film has the magical combination of historical fact and cowboy fantasy... The fantasy, as ever, is Eastwood... Josey Wales switches from a simple peasant farmer to stone-cold killer... His shooting becomes as precise as his tobacco spitting... Whether he is merely taking a split second to reverse the two guns he is pretending to hand over to some bounty hunters and concede some bullets instead, or whether he is decently shooting countless 'Blue Coats' with a captured machine gun, or appearing out of the sun to terrify a band of Indians into thinking he is an 'army of one,' or pulling the triggers of his empty guns over and over again, he remains superhuman and invincible... It is Eastwood's screen presence as something unique, direct and strong, the essential Eastwood persona that is a powerful attraction to the public and an enigma to the critics... Josey Wales has no desire to become an outlaw... At the beginning of the film he is a peaceable Missouri farmer whose wife and child are murdered by Unionist vigilantes, the 'Kansas Red Legs.' The film opens in 1858 when the semi-discipline of the Civil War has been reduced to the chaos of marauding private armies... Wales joins a bunch of desperate Confederate fighters led by Commander Fletcher (John Vernon), and for the next seven years intensifies a multiple revenge on the Unionists, killing them without political cause or pity... At the end of formal hostilities a price is placed on his head so he makes a picaresque journey into the Indian nation... On the way he picks up different companions: Jamie (Sam Bottoms), a young soldier he saves and who repays the favor only to die from his wounds; Lone Watie (Chief Dan George) who instructs him in the ways and thoughts of the Cherokees; Little Moonlight (Geraldine Keams), the Navajo girl who suffers injustice from the white man's civilization; Grandma Sarah (Paula Trueman), the old woman who knows how to shoot marauders, and Laura Lee (Sondra Locke), whom he rescues from a rape... After surviving the dangers of their journey under the protective wing of Josey, the group settles on a farm formerly owned by Sarah's son who has died in the war... Wales tries to pass his self-sufficient qualities onto them so that they can if necessary survive without him... He shows them how to use guns and protect the farm against invaders, and negotiates a peace with the blue-painted Navajo Chief, Ten Bears (Will Sampson). Eastwood plays a solitary figure who is not simply an avenger, or a fugitive with a gun... He is a man who at the same time defends women and children and the weak... His love affair with Laura is triggered off by such wistful sentiments as 'clouds are dreams floating across the sky of your mind,' but it rings true that a man blinkered by revenge and hardened by the sheer need to survive could be drawn to an innocent girl, able to escape from the terrors of her environment into the poetry of her reveries... This was the first of six films that Eastwood would make with Sondra Locke who has already won an Oscar nomination in her film debut 'The Heat Is a Lonely Hunter.' Chief Dan George, who received an Oscar nomination, for playing Old Lodge Skins in Arthur Penn's 'Little Big Man,' is terrific as the aging Indian warrior Lone Watie... He calls himself a civilized Indian - "We're civilized because white men can sneak up on us.' He struck up a perfect partnership with Eastwood, sensitively timing the soft humor in their relationship... When Josey casually outdraws and kills four men, the Old Indian asks with genuine interest, 'How did you know which one to kill first?'

• One of the finest westerns

  Danimal-72003-03-21

  THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES is a wonderful story about a wounded man, Josey Wales, a Missourian who has lost his home and his family to the Civil War. As the Civil War ends in defeat and despair for the South, Wales alone of his guerrilla unit refuses to surrender. He has nothing left to live for, except to fight, and he cannot give that up. This is a setup that has appeared many times in the movies, as the hero with nothing left to lose is a perfect excuse to show nonstop gunplay. To some extent, this happens in THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES too. It is an action western according to the classic formula, but it is more than that. Josey Wales heals his wounds as the story goes on, and begins to replace the friendship, and then the love, that he has lost. And as he heals, he begins to grow out of violence as a way of life. Many westerns have the theme of the older breed of man who tamed the west by violence being abandoned by his fellows; only this one, so far as I know, has the older breed of man abandon himself, that is to say, change his ways with the changing of the times. Clint Eastwood is a decent actor, not a great one. But at times he has shown the skills of a really first-class director, and given his limitations as an actor it is the more to his credit that he did not hog the stage. He gives plenty of screen time to an excellent supporting cast, of whom the most memorable is Chief Dan George as aged Cherokee warrior Lone Watie, a role he plays with an eerily perfect balance of dignity and humor. Will Sampson makes an unforgettable cameo as Comanche chief Ten Bears, and Paula Trueman is a magnificently feisty Sarah. John Vernon plays Fletcher, the man who betrays Josey Wales early on. I don't understand why Vernon could not find work in quality movies after this (he has appeared in 38 cinema releases since this movie and I challenge you to name any of them). Vernon has one of THE great basso-profundo voices in American cinema; only James Earl Jones could compare to it. If mountains could speak, they would sound like John Vernon. His role is a neat twist on the trope of the 'reluctant hero'; Fletcher is a reluctant villain. The ending of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES is the most beautiful and poetic of any in western movie history, maybe the most beautiful of any movie ever. According to the rules of the genre, the final confrontation between Wales and Fletcher can have only one outcome; the movie finds another way, because Josey Wales has found another way. Rating: ***½ out of ****. Recommendation: Western fans should own this one, but any movie fan should enjoy it.

• Love, Hate, Revenge, Forgiveness, Sorrow, Life, Death.

  MrJinx2002-11-04

  Love, hate, revenge, forgiveness, sorrow, life, death, emargination, racism, the uselessness of war, betrayal, redemption, solidarity, friendship. Not many films manage to deal competently with even just one of these topics. This masterpiece deals with all. Within the first 4 or 5 minutes (even before the opening credits) one has already been exposed to more force and emotion than most films can pack up in 90 minutes. By the end of the 2 hrs 10 minutes of this film one would have lived through tour-de-force highlighted by memorable climaxes and showdowns featuring some of the most striking dialogue in cinematic history... "dying ain't no way to make a living". Eastwood's character doesn't speak much but utters a handful of memorable lines. The central character played by Eastwood is given fine support by an excellent ensemble cast including Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney and most of all John Vernon. John Vernon plays a character called Fletcher who turns out to be one of the most complex characters I have ever come across. His motivations and true intentions are never quite clear. He comes across as a bit of a Judas figure and yet he still retains his humanity as the script and Eastwood as the director never truly judge Fletcher, leaving the viewer to judge for him or herself. Almost every character is memorable and every performance fits in place. The action is sudden and explosive and not always expected. The film takes many twists and turns, yet every twist is a natural consequence of the situations and characters in the film. Ultimately one is left with a truly rich cinematic experience which should appeal to more than just fans of the Western genre. Its themes of suffering and the consequences of evil acts is still sadly relevant in today's world - a world in which not all wars are won by the good guys and in which the good are sometimes persecuted by those who win these wars. When thinking of the best pre-credit sequences ever forget most others... this should be your best bet.

• One Of My Favorite Westerns

  ccthemovieman-12006-06-08

  Clint Eastwood has directed, played in or starred in a lot of westerns. We all have our favorites and this my favorite Eastwood western, along with the more set-in-modern-day western, "Bronco Billy." (The latter is really a drama more than a western.) This is simply an extremely entertaining story with two lead characters - played by Eastwood and Chief Dan George - who were fascinating to watch. Also, as in most westerns, I enjoyed the good photography and was surprised, considering the year of release, that the language was pretty tame. George has always been a favorite Native American actor for many people. He gets choice roles playing likable guys, and "Lone Watie" character here is no exception. Eastwood, as " Josey Wales," reverts successfully back to his "Man with no name" persona: you know, the strong silent and somewhat mean type. He's a lot like the characters John Wayne played late in his career. He best portrays this with scenes like the one in which he spits tobacco on his dog! In addition, there are some solid actors in minor roles, people like John Vernon, Sondra Locke and Bill McKinney, Will Sampson, Sheb Wooley and Sam Bottoms, among others. I was surprised Locke, Eastwood's girlfriend or wife at the time, didn't have a bigger role. With her youthful looks and great big eyes, she looked prettier than I've ever seen her, although she never was a glamor girl or got many good parts. At 136 minutes, this is a bit long but it never drags. This is one of the very few movies I ever watched twice within two weeks and enjoyed it immensely both times....and each time since.