A Western in a time when Westerns were out of fashion in the movie making universe, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) was a successful bet for the Clint Eastwood company Malpaso Productions, earning well beyond its production budget in revenue following its release.
The Outlaw Josey Wales begins during the American Civil War with pro-Union militants from Kansas murdering the wife of Missouri farmer Josey Wales. Aiming for revenge, Wales learns to shoot a gun and joins pro-Confederate bushwhackers from Missouri. As the war comes to an end, treachery from the Union in orchestrating a surrender that Wales refuses leads to a massacre that sets the stage for the remainder of the plot for the film.
Clint Eastwood plays Josey Wales. John Vernon as Confederate Captain Fletcher is setup in opposition to an unlikely band of post-massacre confederates of Wales, including Lone Watie as played by Chief Dan George, Paula Trueman as Grandma Sarah and Sondra Locke as Laura Lee. Fletcher, while arguably a reluctant adversary to Wales, becomes clearly a backer of the morally gray area that the film explicitly explores on the fringes of anything actually related to the subjects driving the conflict of the American Civil War.
The elevation of Lone Waite, portraying a Cherokee native, and Ten Bears as a Comanche native, adds an interesting multi-cultural representation to the film that adds depth to the story told in The Outlaw Josey Wales. Will Sampson portrays Ten Bears.
In certain ways thematically more graphic than I was expecting, coming as I am to this film 44-years after The Outlaw Josey Wales was released, I found myself entertained by the film. With a running time at slightly more than two hours, I rate my experience with The Outlaw Josey Wales at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.
Matt – Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Matt Lynn Digital 