THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES

'''The Outlaw Josey Wales''' is a 1976 revisionist Western movie set at the end of the American Civil War starring Clint Eastwood (as the eponymous Josey Wales), Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon, Paula Trueman, Sam Bottoms, Geraldine Keams, John Russell, Woodrow Parfrey, Joyce Jameson, Sheb Wooley, John Quade, 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.
In 1996, this film was placed in the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

Contents

Plot

Significance

External Links

Plot

The events are based on the September 23, 1861 sacking of Osceola, Missouri, following a skirmish early in the Civil War.
Josey Wales (Eastwood), a peaceful Missouri farmer, is driven to revenge by the savage, brutal and pointless 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 a group of pro-Confederate Missouri guerrillas (bushwhackers or "border ruffians") led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson. At the end of the war, his fellow guerrillas attempt to surrender 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 and murdered his family.
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 companions include an elderly Yankee woman from Kansas and her granddaughter, rescued from a band of Comancheros, a wily old Indian man and a young Indian woman.
In the final showdown, Josey and his companions are cornered in a ranch house, which, typical of the times, was fortified to withstand Indian raids. The Redlegs attack but are systematically gunned down or sent running by the defenders. Josey pursues the Redleg leader. When he catches up however, his guns are empty. Josey confronts the Redleg captain and goes through all twenty-four empty chambers of his pistols before stabbing him with his own cavalry sword, a departure from the usual Eastwood style of gunning down the chief villain.
(It is notable that, although the ranch house is fortified against Indians, and Wales spends considerable time warning his companions how to fight off an expected Comanche attack, Wales ends up negotiating a peace with the Comanche leader Ten Bears. He instead fights with the Redlegs, another way in which this film can be considered revisionist.)
Josey Wales' circumstances somewhat mirror those of a notorious bushwhacker named '''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 by renegade Union soldiers on his farm on Corn Creek near Edgar Springs, Missouri. Wilson then struck back with vengeance, tracking down those responsible. In the process, he became a wanted outlaw. "Mr. Wilson" is a pseudonym for Josey Wales in the film, possibly an acknowledgment of the plot's debt to the historical Bill Wilson.

Significance

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score. In 1996, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their 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.
This movie is the source of the Directors Guild of America's so-called "Eastwood Rule." After Eastwood replaced director Philip Kaufman, the DGA instituted a ban on any current cast or crew replacing the director of a film.
The film was based on a novel by Forrest Carter. After the film's release it was revealed that Forrest Carter was in fact Asa Carter, a former KKK member and speechwriter for segregationist politician George Wallace. Carter reportedly wrote Wallace's famous line, "Segregation today, segration tomorrow, segregation forever!" Eastwood and others involved in the production were reportedly unaware of this connection at the time the film was made. Ironically, a major theme of the film is about people of different races, mainly Native Americans and Caucasians, learning to live together peacefully. The Chief Dan George character makes pointed references to injustices done to his people by white Americans, especially the Trail of Tears.

External Links

★ ''The Outlaw Josey Wales'' at Internet Movie Database