The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Think of him any way you want - as Will Munny (Unforgiven), The Preacher (Pale Rider), The Stranger (High Plains Drifter), or The Man With No Name (Sergio Leone's Westerns) - Clint Eastwood always delivers when he portrays the disaffected loner seeking vengeance on those who've done him wrong. I never get tired of Eastwood's revenge Westerns, even if he basically shows up as the same character with a different name. Here he's Josey Wales, bereft of wife and young son when Union Redlegs pillage his home and murder his family. Without the carnage he wouldn't have become the 'Outlaw' of the title, but his instincts are to set things right and achieve a measure of justice against those who've done him wrong.This film offers up two of my three favorite Native American actors as well. Iron Eyes Cody is the third, but he's actually Italian (bet you didn't know that, go ahead and check it out). Chief Dan George provides some tension releasing comic relief here as Josey's erstwhile traveling companion. His 'endeavor to persevere' characterization has stayed with me a long time, many years after seeing this picture for the first time. I also take away a lot of inspiration from Will Sampson's 'words of iron' speech as Ten Bears accepts The Gray Rider's offer of life in place of death. That offer extends as well to opportunistic bounty hunters who fail to heed Wales' warning - "Dyin' ain't much of livin', boy". The only improvement I might have offered if I were making this picture would have been to give a larger role to John Russell. He's virtually unrecognizable as Bloody Bill Anderson at the beginning of the story, and disappears almost instantly after Josey agrees to ride with the Jayhawkers. That oversight would be corrected with 1985's "Pale Rider". "The Outlaw Josey Wales" isn't my favorite Eastwood movie, but it's up there in terms of sentiment. Actually, picking a favorite Clint Eastwood movie is a bit difficult because they all work in one way or another to elicit a strong reaction regarding right vs. wrong and seeking out the best instincts in a person. The man's come a long way since he pulled that little white mouse out of his lab coat in "Revenge of the Creature". I'd like to see him go on forever.

This is one of the all time great "dark" westerns out there. Clint Eastwood is at his best as an actor (and I think he also directed this?) Anyway if you like westerns check this one out, great drama and action and he is awesome as Josey Wales in this.

One of Clint Eastwood's earliest movies as a director and a pretty fine example of a classic western. The story going that a Missouri man ends up joining Confederate guerrillas after a bunch of pillaging Yankees burn down his home and his family with it. After the war he finds himself wandering aimlessly, while being pursued by the last remaining dregs of the opposing army, only to meet a group of unlikely people, who all end up travelling towards the same destination.What I like the most about this film is its atmosphere, its mood. The eponymous Josey Wales grows into an almost mythic character in Eastwood's hands. There are multiple great scenes that deepen not only his character, but the archetype behind that character. Especially the scene with the Native Americans in the final third. Fits the character perfectly, while also revealing a whole new side of him.The film is also shot well, told well and has some fine music to add, as well as pleasing action scenes. Admittedly the overall plot can be a bit all over the place, mainly just following Wales around as he tries to find purpose in his life, but it never quite crosses over to being boring or not interesting.I like this. One of the better westerns I've seen in my life an a clear sign that Eastwood has always known what he's doing behind the camera.

I want to think that Clint Eastwood's steely-eyed glare is all an act. I met him once at a charity event, he was very quiet and stood off by himself in a dark corner, as though people were afraid to come near him. So the stoic, terse character that he basically duplicates in every film probably comes from some well of personal experience; like Tom Cruise, he's more of a screen presence than an actor.The story here rambles, and keeps rambling, long after you wonder why all this manpower has been devoted to capturing one person, and also why everyone across all the southern and midwestern states knows his name. The acting is hit and miss; some of them blend in very well like John Vernon, others are terrible like Chief Dan George, who seems to have ignored any script he might have read. I get it, he was old, but so was Jessica Tandy and she knew her roles like a pro. In the end, Josey Wales is as invincible as any main character who is magically impervious to bullets, and on top of that he can negotiate a peace treaty with a blue-faced native American who speaks perfect English. Along the way he picks up a rag-tag band of misfits and a doe-eyed Sondra Locke, who says maybe three words during the entire film; Eastwood wanted her pretty and silent.In the end the film is just as frustrating and unsatisfying as the Missouri Breaks, another 1970s movie about unconventional anti-heroes. You know, that Sam Bottoms was a terrible actor.