The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Brilliant and touching

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

With a Magnum .44, Clint Eastwood asked how lucky you felt, as Josey Wales, he doesn't even need to pull his pistols... but you'd better whistle Dixie once he's done asking.And as usual, words are still less eloquent than the stares emerging from the shadows over his eyes or that nasty spitting habit that works like poetic punctuation marks in sentences written by the sole power of his death-pending silences. In fact, whether for tobacco juice, juicy one-liners or bullets, Eastwood sure knows how to deliver!Yet "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is more than a crossover of 'Dirty Harry' and the 'Dollar' Trilogy but it couldn't work if Eastwood pretended to ignore the characters who made him a star. He actually plays with his trademark with brilliant self-awareness. For instance, the way he's got the sun in his back to make him look more menacing has often been a directing technique rather than a plot element. Wales mentions it as a necessity, in order to have an edge over the enemy.Later, he rescues Grandma Sarah (Paula Trueman) and her granddaughter Laura Lee (Sondra Locke) from Comancheros. Lone Watie, his old Native companion played by the irresistible Chief Dan George can anticipate every single move,like a fan watching his favorite movie ... and when the talk is over, he warns the ladies that "hell's coming for breakfast". Wales can't be an artificial character because his tricks are survival keys. Someone who lost his family can't afford any deficit in anticipation anyway. And our own anticipations are always toyed with for either comedic or dramatic purposes. The initial encounter with Lone Watie is funny in a touching way because the old Indian realized a white man has been sneaking up on him, which means he's been slipping. Later, he managed to take his revenge only to be surprised by a gun-cocking hello from Little Moonlight (Geraldine Keams). Chief Dan George is a real delight of Oscar-worthy talent. With bittersweet lucidity, he embodies the resignation of someone who doesn't see himself as a Native only, but a tired old man too civilized to fit in the world, but he tries.But let's get back to the anticipation, another highlight from the movie (which is saying a lot) is the peace talk with the Comanche chief. "You be Ten Bears?" asks Wales. "I am Ten Bears" retorts the charismatic commander with perfect English, he's played by the unforgettable Will Sampson. The genius of this exchange lies on the set-up, everything seemed to "indicate" a coming bloodshed but a simple and straightforward man-to-man talk solves the situation. Yet if it wasn't for the "get ready" scene before, the "it shall be life' wouldn't have been as emotionally satisfying, unpredictability is the film's strongest suit especially when it's played for quiet drama moments instead of action.And this is how, for all its kinship with the 'Dollar' trilogy, the film manages to reconcile the revisionist with the old-school vision and its gallery of colorful characters, bounty hunters, settlers, Natives, cavalry, bartenders, saloon girls and carpetbaggers. Even Wales, the lone wolf, gets along with his new companions. Chief Dan George and Paula Trueman can also talk about 'pale faces' and 'redskins' because there's no offense possible between them. The film shifts from the usual animosity between American and Natives to actually reveal an even worse hatred between Americans.The opening is quite savage on that level. Wales, a peaceful Missouri peasant, witnesses the killing of his wife and son by a Union militia called Redlegs and lead by Captain Terril (Bill McKinney). The grief-stricken man vows revenge and joins the Confederate counterpart lead by Fletcher (John Vernon), and their band leads no-less merciless rides... economically displayed during the opening credits sequence. The real story commences at the end of the war, Wales grew a beard, looks meaner, and refuses to surrender in exchange of amnesty.Once again, anticipation is everything and his instinct prevents him from being shot in an ambush from which young Jamie (Sam Bottoms) is the only one escapee. The Union soldiers executed their former enemies, hypocritically ignoring that war crimes were from both sides and the border states was the setting of fratricide murders... like a Civil War within the Civil War. Anyway, with a reward over his head, Wales , crosses the path of many bounty hunters who'd learn at their expenses that dying ain't such a way to make a living. And the more dead left to buzzard, the bigger the legend grows.Still, the story is less about the chase than the new perspective it has to offer on the Civil War. It wasn't just a right cause against an archaic system or the "Battle Hymn of Republic" against "Dixie", but savagery dictated by the tragic randomness of borders and the cruel calculations of politicians who, unlike people, don't live together. And the way Natives and Whites get along in the film prove that in Eastwood's Western universe, there's no place anymore for binary thinking, a stance probably inherited from the revisionist wave, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone or Arthur Penn who showed the human side of Natives in "Little Big Man", and did so with depth and humor.In the post-Vietnam days, Westerns ironically stopped to be the exaltation of a nostalgic past but the echo of the political disillusion of a lost generation. In 1976, Western neo-classics were past their prime and Clint Eastwood was not an established director yet, but he found the right tone and the right story, as if only he could reconcile between the new and old school, make a humanistic story from material written by a KKK apologist, or a politically relevant drama out of a period film. There was no pretension or trendy thinking, he just saw the potential of the character and he was right. The film found its public and gets better after each viewing.

The Outlaw Josey Wales might not be groundbreaking but it has a western genre purity. A man who is just trying to provide for his family gets thrust into a situation of revenge and being hunted. This is as real as the west itself and interjecting The Civil War adds history as well.Even in the mid-seventies the western genre remained bankable at the box office but had little output to satisfy that. Especially anything with true quality like those of decades before. We should all thank Clint Eastwood for being an excellent torch bearer. Here it seems everything gels. You've got a fantastic character who gets support from the unlikely wonderful treasure real life Indian Chief Dan George. This pairing thrusts the movie into rarefied air indeed. Plus the story is compelling and flows as if it recounts something that actually may have occurred. The wilderness of American and the spare landscapes of the Southwest in particular are brilliantly photographed. Early on newcomer Samuel Bottoms gives an honest very un- Hollywood co-starring role as a young Southerner who idolizes Wales as everything he aspires to. A movie with utterly fantastic characters and a fine story to match. Eastwood had his own vision and it moved slowly which some of the brass, reportedly, wanted to either fix with more action or edit to move faster. Eastwood, again reportedly, told them that's your choice and I'll be working at the studio across the street. They left it alone and the rest proved Eastwood already had a mastery of the genre much like Ford and Hawks. The story works in it's unhurried and steady flow to the inevitable final outcome never losing the viewer's interest. One really isn't asked to look too deep, but there are great truths too woven in the politics which are never insulting or fake. Truly a classic western for the ages.

This is one of my favorite Clint Eastwood films, and he directed himself in the title role. It has one of the best stories and features some of the best action sequences, IMO, of any of his Westerns. It's musical Score was Oscar nominated. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1996.After the Civil War, having served an honorable man Fletcher (John Vernon) that was tricked by higher authorities, Clint (the title character) settles down as a farmer. Then, his property is burned and his family killed by a bunch of renegades. He receives a scar across the face when he's hit by the butt of a rifle, and is knocked out. While recovering, he teaches himself to shoot while he plots his revenge. He then sets out to find each and every one of the men responsible in order to kill them. He is mostly successful, so the authorities send Fletcher out to find and stop him. About this time, Clint has met and joined with a Native Americans (Chief Dan George). They run across a "green" pioneering family headed West, which includes a pretty young Sandra Locke. So, he helps them, having to make peace with the local Indian chief Ten Bears (Will Sampson). But, he's yet to find the last of the men he'd hunted and Fletcher is on his tail.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars as Wales. Joining Eastwood in the cast are Chief Dan George ( Little Big Man, Shadow of the Hawk). Sondra Locke ( The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, 6 films with partner Eastwood). Bill McKinney ( Deliverance, seven films with Eastwood, The Green Mile). John Vernon ( Point Blank, Topaz, Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick). Music is by Jerry Fielding and cinematography is by Bruce Surtees. Editing is by Ferris Webster. Josey Wales switches from a simple peasant farmer to stone-cold killer... His shooting becomes as precise as his tobacco spitting... The story is about a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered n how he turns into an outlaw to take revenge. All in all The Outlaw Josy Wales is perfect in all areas, moving, dramatic, thrilling, adventurous, humorous and full of action. Eastwood has surely out done himself and to be honest this is the best film of the seventies and a profound competitor for one of the greatest cinematic achievements in movie history. There are plenty of decently- made action sequences throughout the movie. The characters are also pretty well- developed and most of them are lovable. I like how its a kind of adventure story as well, taking place in several regions of the West. Very atmospheric n moody film. A bit long but doesn't hav dull moments. A ground breaking film for its time.