The Outlaw Josey Wales
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| The Outlaw Josey Wales | |
|---|---|
 The Outlaw Josey Wales movie poster |
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| Directed by | Clint Eastwood |
| Produced by | Robert Daley |
| Written by | Forrest Carter (novel Gone to Texas) Philip Kaufman Sonia Chernus |
| Starring | Clint Eastwood Chief Dan George Sondra Locke |
| Music by | Jerry Fielding |
| Cinematography | Bruce Surtees |
| Editing by | Ferris Webster |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 30, 1976 (USA) |
| Running time | 135 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 revisionist Western movie set at the end of the American Civil War starring Clint Eastwood (as the title character), Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon, Paula Trueman, Sam Bottoms, Geraldine Keams, Woodrow Parfrey, Joyce Jameson, Sheb Wooley, and Royal Dano.
The movie was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman from the novel Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter.
This film is considered by many enthusiasts to be one of the greatest westerns ever made.
[edit] Plot
The events are based on the September 23, 1861 Sacking of Osceola skirmish in the Civil War.
Josey Wales (Eastwood), a peaceful Missouri homesteader, is driven to revenge by the savage and brutal slaying of his family by a band of pro-Union (Civil War) Jayhawkers—James H. Lane's "Redlegs" to be exact—from Kansas. Josey joins up with a group of pro-Confederate Missouri guerillas (bushwhackers or "border ruffians") led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson. At the end of the war, his fellow guerillas attempt to surrender to Union forces but are instead gunned down in a botched execution by the same Redlegs (now part of the regular Union army) who burned Josey's farm.
Josey, who had refused to surrender, begins a life on the run from Union troops and bounty hunters, while still seeking vengeance and a chance for a new beginning in Texas. Along the way, he unwillingly accumulates a diverse group of whites and Indians, despite all indications that he would rather be left alone. His compatriots include an elderly Yankee woman and her granddaughter, rescued from a band of comancheros, and a wily old Indian man and a young Indian woman.
In the final showdown, Josey and his companions are holed up in their ranch house, which, typical of the times, was fortified to withstand Indian attacks. The Redlegs attack but are systematically gunned down or sent to flight by the defenders. Josey makes after the Redleg leader. When he catches up however, his guns are empty. Josey corners the lead Redleg and goes through all twenty-four empty chambers of his pistols before stabbing the Redleg with his own cavalry sword; a departure from the usual Eastwood style of just gunning down the chief villain.
It should be noted that Josey Wales' circumstances in the film somewhat mirror those of notorious bushwhacker Bill Wilson, a folk hero in the Missouri counties of Phelps and Maries. During the Civil War, loyalties in Missouri were divided, however, Bill Wilson maintained a neutral stance until his wife and children were brutalized and killed by renegade Union soldiers on their family farm on Corn Creek near Edgar Springs, Missouri. Bill then struck out with a vengeance to track down those responsible. In the process of seeking vengeance, he became a wanted outlaw. "Mr. Wilson" is also a pseudonym for Wales in the film, possibly an acknowledgment of the historical Bill Wilson.
[edit] Quotes
- In a scene when Josey prepares his fellow travelers for a fight with the Redlegs:
- Josey: "And remember, when things look bad, and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean, I mean plumb mad dog mean, 'cause if you lose your head and give up, then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is."
- In a scene where Josey has escaped the Redlegs by crossing the churning Missouri river. The Redlegs proceed to cross the river by ferry. Josey sets up his sharpshooter rifle while an indignant carpetbagger looks on:
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- Carpetbagger: "Mr. Wales, we have a thing in this country called justice!"
- Josey: "Well, Mr. Carpetbagger, we got something in this territory called the Missouri boat ride."
- Josey then shoots out the ferry rope, leaving the men to wash helplessly down the river.
- In a scene where the elderly woman and her granddaughter have been captured by the comancheros. The rapacious men attempt to ravage the young woman, but are stopped by their leader on account of her being young, and attractive:
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- Leader: "...She'll fetch us twenty fine horses. If any of you's have to, take the old woman there; she can fetch us maybe one donkey."
- Facing down a bounty hunter in the saloon in Santa Rio:
- Bounty Hunter: I'm lookin' for Josey Wales.
- Josey: That'd be me.
- Bounty Hunter: You're wanted, Wales.
- Josey: Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?
- Bounty Hunter: A man's gotta do something for a living these days.
- Josey: Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy.
- Josey and Lone Watie riding together:
- Josey Wales: Whenever I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.
- Lone Watie: I notice when you get to dislikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.
- Conversation between Fletcher and Senator Jim Lane:
- Fletcher: Captain Terrel is a bloodthirsty son-of-a-bitch! He is a looter and a pillager! He's the worst enemy those men have got!
- Senator: Nah... the war's over. Our side won the war, and now we must busy ourselves winning the peace... and Fletcher, there's an old saying, "To the victors belong the spoils".
- Fletcher: There's another old saying, Senator... "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's rainin'".
[edit] Significance
It was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It was also one of the few Western movies to receive critical and commercial success in the 1970s at a time when the Western was thought to be dying as a major genre in Hollywood.
It is considered a 'Revisionist Western'. This is due in no small part to the fact that the lead character and hero is an outlaw and the Union Cavalry (and therefore the United States) are shown as evil. This flies directly in the face of almost every John Wayne and Gary Cooper western where the hero of the film was invariably on the side of law & order.
The film could also be considered a revision of Eastwood's traditional role. Eastwood was often a loner with almost no one to accompany him on his odyssey; Here, however, Eastwood's character meets several other refugees of the Civil War who become a surrogate family.
Clint Eastwood has stated in interviews that this is his favorite of all his films.
Although no causative link has been suggested, the film has many similarities to the novels of the late British Fantasy author David Gemmell. The main character of a formerly peaceful man who nevertheless has an almost supernatural gift for survival and stone-cold killing and is driven to violence by the death of his family; the narrative of him journeying across lawless land hunted by myriad enemies and accumulating civilians en route; the amoral senator (or other politician) who makes use of immoral elite units who eventually over-power him; the "good" officer technically on the enemy side who protests their actions; the independent, survivalist imagery are all hallmarks of Gemmell's work. The novel "Waylander" is perhaps the most typical of these trends.
