Although Clint Eastwood gained his greatest critical acclaim as a director for 1992's "Unforgiven" and 2003's "Mystic River" -both of which are incredible pieces of American cinema -his best film remains this perennially popular Western from 1976. Here's Eastwood's own take on it: "I do believe that if I'd made that picture in 1992, in place of `Unforgiven,' it might have received the same amount of attention, because I think it's equally as good a film. I think the subject matter of `Josey Wales' is timeless." Orson Welles himself named it one of his favorite movies!Yet critics at the time completely dismissed it as just another Clint Eastwood Western-Revenge flick. On the surface, the plot might give you that illusion: Missouri farmer Josey Wales loses his family to marauding Union cutthroats during the civil war. In retaliation, he joins Qunatrill's raiders in the guerrilla warfare that flames across Missouri. When the war ends, Wales refuses to surrender. He flies west across the country, chased by his former leader Fletcher (John Vernon in a great, sympathetic performance) and Terrill, the Union captain who murdered his family (Eastwood regular Bill McKinney). It seems Wales has no future except to stay alive long enough to get his revenge.
But...that's not at all what movie ends up being about. Gradually, Wales finds himself at the center of a growing community of outcasts from many different backgrounds: an old Cherokee named Lone Watie (Chief Dan George, in the film's most unforgettable performance), a band of Northern settlers (including Sondra Locke in her first role with Clint), a girl from another Native American tribe, the residents of a dying Texas town, and a red bone hound. Gradually, "The Outlaw Josey Wales" turns into a story about forgetting revenge and a fixation on death, and instead about embracing life and rebuilding a community. "Dying is easy for men like you and me," Wales says to a Comanche chief (Will Sampson) in one scene. "It's living that's hard." It's one of the most unexpectedly uplifting and moving films ever made. And, let's make no mistake about it, it's also an action-packed, tough, and exciting film.
Strangely, the film came out of extremely difficult circumstances and rough beginnings. Eastwood purchased the rights to Forrest Carter's novel "Gone to Texas," only to discover that the author was actually Asa (Ace) Carter, who had worked as a speech writer for George Wallace supporting racial segregation and had once created a subgroup of the Ku Klux Klan. Upon meeting Carter, Eastwood and his producer Robert Daley found the man to be a borderline sociopath (he drew a knife on one of Daley's secretaries at a restaurant). Regardless, Eastwood loved the beautiful story too much and pushed on with making the film. He hired Philip Kaufman to both write and direct the movie, now re-named "The Outlaw Josey Wales." Kaufman (along with Sonia Chernus) wrote a stunning script, but after only a few days on the set, it became obvious he wasn't working out as a director; his style clashed with Eastwood's. Eastwood quietly removed him as director and took over the job himself. As Eastwood's biographer notes, "Kaufman was to a degree the victim of Clint's growing confidence in his own abilities."
Despite this confused beginning, "The Outlaw Josey Wales" turned into a magical piece of Western cinema and a huge hit with audiences. It gets better and better with each viewing: a thrilling adventure when you first see it, its many layers of beautiful subtlety emerge each time you go back to it. Bruce Surtees's photography is astonishing, Jerry Fielding's music exciting and unusual for a Western, and every performance top-notch. Few films are as all-around well done as this American classic.
The DVD offers the film in a glorious widescreen transfer with a new 5.1 sound mix, but there are no extras. Considering the history behind the making of the film, this disc really ought to sport some fascinating commentaries and documentaries, but alas, nothing. Still, I can recommend few films higher than "The Outlaw Josey Wales."
Josey Wales is another of Clint's Eastwood's bigger than life Western characters that you won't soon forget.Josey though, is not like the others that preceeded him. It becomes apparent throughout this film, that this tough loner, on the run from murderers, has a heart the size of Texas.(And of course in this one we DO know his name!).
Eastwood also does an artful job of directing this tale, that has everthing from action to romance, and even a little comedy.
The end of the civil war is nearing. The northern soldiers though, won't let up. The "Red Legs" as some of these notorious war criminals are called are still pillaging,and plundering the homesteads in the territory and...killing the families.Wales is a victim of these brutal attacks, his house burned to the ground and his wife and son viciously attacked and murdered. He joins up with a group of others who are out to avenge their families and they become a notorious group. When they are offered a deal at the end of the war, they all turn themselves in..all but one...Josey Wales!
Ride with Josey(everyone else does) across the beautiful western vistas, as he takes on the "Red Legs" that are after him, saves a family from "Commancheros", makes friends with the Indians, and wears his heart on his sleeve as along the way he seems to attract a group of outcasts, including a dog, that he just can't leave behind.
Clint surrounds himself with the most marvelous cast, including Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon and Chief Dan George who provides many of the lighter moments in this action packed western.
If you are already a fan of this film made in 1976 and wondering about the quality of the transfer, you will be thrilled by the way it looks and sounds. The picture in widescreen is gorgeous. All scenes including the darker and nighttime are sharp and clear. Colors are vibrant. The soundtrack remastered in 5.1 Dolby Digital is also wonderful. From the pounding hooves of the racing horses, to the rain, to the music and the dialouge,you won't miss a thing.It's a dual-layer format, but I did not notice any of those little pauses that casues sometimes."Extras" are in the way of production notes only. There are some interesting facts on how Eastwood came to read the book and make the film.
What?! You haven't seen this yet??? It's a must for any Eastwood or Western fan! Go for it. "Now, Spit!"..Chief Dan George......Enjoy..Laurie
Clint multi-packs:The Gauntlet/True Crime,
The Clint Eastwood Collection (In the Line of Fire/Unforgiven/Bronco Billy/Dirty Harry/The Outlaw Josey Wales/The Beguiled),City Hall/Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil*actually a John Cusak double feature but Midnight in the Garden of Eveil is directed by Clint
Buy The Outlaw Josey Wales (2011) Now
As I am not ordinarily a fan of westerns, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this film. It was an engrossing and entertaining movie, and, unlike others in this genre, it is an intelligent and well thought out film.The film tells the story of a Missouri farmer who, towards the end of the Civil War, finds his home overrun by renegade union soldiers who set fire to his homestead, kill his wife and son, and leave him for dead. After burying his family, he joins a group of confederate guerillas who have suffered similar tragedies. Ultimately, the war ends and their leader brings them in for surrender, except for Josey Wales, who watches their surrender from afar. Good thing he did not join them, as their surrender turns into an execution by the very same men who had pillaged his home and killed his family.
Wales escapes only to be relentlessly hunted down by the very men who had wronged him, as well as by bounty hunters who want that five thousand dollar reward offered for his capture. Wales rides on to escape them, and along his travels acquires a motley entourage whom he befriends and who befriend him. What happens on his journey is classic Eastwood.
Clint Eastwood plays his role as a stoic man of few words, while Chief Dan George is an absolute delight as part of Wales' entourage. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. Of course, Sandra Locke, as Eastwood's real life main squeeze at the time, got star billing, even though her role was one of the smaller ones and her performance the least impressive of the supporting cast.
This remains one of the more entertaining films in this genre. It also made Hollywood sit up and take serious notice of Eastwood as a major force in the film industry.
Read Best Reviews of The Outlaw Josey Wales (2011) Here
While he was still a star and hero on the long-running TV western Wagon Train, Clint Eastwood emerged on the Hollywood scene in western-theme movies, specifically his trio of "spaghetti westerns" with director Sergi Leone, the best being "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly".After establishing another remarkable character in Dirty Harry, Clint returns to his western "roots" as the vengeful Josie Wales, in "The Outlaw Josie Wales". This is Clint's 31st film and his fifth as a director. Actually, the film was started with a different director, Philip Kaufman of "The Right Stuff" fame. After numerous and intractable arguments over the interpretation of the film, Clint fired his director a week into shooting and took over directorship himself. We will never know what sort of film Mr. Kaufman would have produced, but Eastwood's final product is a true gem in western filmmaking.
In Eastwood's western trilogy he was known only as "the man with no name", a loner who generously dispensed his form of western justice at the barrel of a gun (or two). There was not much character development. We don't learn what drives the man or what he feels inside. With Josie Wales, Clint plows new ground, as he plumbs the emotions of the vengeful Wales. He builds insights into the character and feelings of Wales, a man with a name AND feelings. This makes the movie more than a mere "shoot 'em up", and adds depth and meaning to the film. Eastwood does much the same and more, with his 1990 blockbuster (and his last western) "Unforgiven", with Oscar results.
Josie Wales can be viewed with interest and pleasure on several different levels. There is of course the "vengeful man" theme that is the movie's backbone. Then there is the multi-cultural theme, where instead of going it alone, one man against many, Wales has a collection of "family" that collects as the movie progresses: an old Indian Chief, a talkative Indian "Squaw", a grandmother and her granddaughter (Sandra Locke, whom Clint would have an affair with that would end his marriage to his wife Maggie), and finally a collection of townies from a dying silver mining town. Finally, there is the "healing" theme, namely, how does a man who suffers the violent loss of his wife, son, and home, deal with his vengeful anger, emotional loss, and begin to heal.
Mere trivia, but interesting: Clint Eastwood never once shoots and kills a Native American Indian in any of his western films. Instead of battling indians as do most of the other western film stars, Eastwood's charcters build alliances with the Natives, learning to live in peaceful co-existance rather than a state of perpetual war.
Clearly, this is Eastwood's best western up to this point in his career. It is definately worth a "look" and my guess is that it will become one of your favorite westerns.
Jim "Konedog" Koenig
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Of all the years and several formats for this movie to be released in...this IS the best it has ever looked and sounded! Over the years (even DVD) the transfers have been soft and lacking detail. Well, this blu-ray brings back what has been missing all these years. This is one stunning transfer! The soundtrack DTS-HD 5.1 really sounds like surround for the first time. In the past, it seemed like three channel...but now all the speakers are employed (and the subwoofer is used).If you are a fan of this classic and love blu-ray, upgrade today! Throw out that old DVD and do your eyes (and ears) a favor and get this version. I am still shocked how well this film from 1976 looks! It finally shines!!
I can't believe what I have been missing all these years! Great restoration job.
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