Anssi Vartiainen 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.

jsk32870 This is not a bad film, but I honestly have to say it's not the best western I've seen. I am not sure why several reviewers here have written that. To each his own I guess. I am currently cycling through all of Clint Eastwood's westerns in chronological order...some I've seen many times, others I've never seen before....to date, there's only one or two I liked less than Josey Wales.Now again, it's not bad. I think it's good enough that I'm giving it 7 1/2 stars. But here's the plot in a real quick nutshell: A man on the run from bounty hunters and soldiers tries to make his way to Indian territory so he can disappear. Along the way he picks up a collection of misfits who all eventually prove useful in one capacity or another. Mix in a lot of comic relief and ....that's pretty much it. And to me, well, that just isn't all that great.Sure, the beginning was intense, and there were a few good action sequences, but there was too much time devoted to the journey and the ever-expanding motley crew joining the pack. This film was as much about the various misfits (and their backstories, and their potential futures) as it was about Josey Wales himself. Also, there's not a lot of action. For a western exceeding two hours, it was too long of a movie to have such little action, especially after the opening credits. When I think western, I think the Dollars trilogy, or 'Unforgiven,' heck 'The Magnificent Seven' beats this hands down. This was all about 'the journey,' or as some have said, of Josey 'regaining his humanity.' Whatever. But it wasn't really a western, not in the spirit of the Dollars trilogy or even of 'High Plains Drifter.' When you think 'western,' you usually don't think "I want to watch a film about a guy regaining his humanity with the help of misfit strangers he reluctantly takes into what forms as a surrogate family." Take that for what it is, but it's not what I was expecting. I suspect people who count this among their favorite westerns aren't big fans of westerns in general. I am not sure, but what I can say is...it's not one of mine.7.5/10. Good enough for a 2nd viewing. But if I really want to see a fantastic western I would pick 'For a Few Dollars More' any day. And twice on Sunday.

Movie_Muse_Reviews In "The Outlaw Josey Wales," you can start to feel the Western moving beyond its roots and into new, more dramatic territory. The genre enjoyed a decades-long run in the early- to mid-20th century between the classics and Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Westerns, and in "Josey Wales," in the twilight years of Westerns, Eastwood contributes to the emergent trend of Revisionist Westerns, tearing these stories from their conventions, or perhaps, applying their conventions to earnest stories about salt-of-the-earth people."Josey Wales" is technically a "Mid-Western," taking place in the Missouri-Kansas area in the wake of the Civil War. When Union Jayhawks burn his home and kill his family, Wales joins a ragtag group of Confederates. At the war's end, he refuses to surrender, a decision that pays off when his compatriots are massacred by the same Union soldiers. Wales retaliates, and a large bounty is placed on his head. As he attempts to outrun them en route to Texas, he collects new companions including a Cherokee man (Chief Dan George) and an old Kansas woman (Paula Trueman) and her granddaughter (Sondra Locke).Although Eastwood is playing a character somewhere in between The Man with No Name and Dirty Harry, presumably for reasons of commercial appeal, "Josey Wales" participates in the revisionist tradition of rewriting the clichés of Westerns, especially in regards to its Native American characters. They are multi- dimensional and integral to the movie. Chief Dan George's Lone Watie is easily the film's best character. And let's not forget that this is a Western with a few actual female characters, ones who even speak up and fire guns.Despite earning those points, the film's narrative is a little disjointed. It plays like an epic with supporting characters ducking in an out, though it's Eastwood who leaves the impression every time. Philip Kaufman, adapting Forrest Carter's book alongside Sonia Chernus, has a real gift for ending a scene, usually in a sharp, humorous way with a terrific one-liner. It's easy to see the way this film translated to the success of Harrison Ford and the "Indiana Jones" series not much later.For all the clever and profound moments spread throughout the film, Eastwood never quite finds the tension or at least the weight to the events on screen. The stakes don't feel particularly high, even with the effective jump-cut flashbacks to his family dying before his eyes. His success comes mostly in experimenting with different camera angles and framing, much in the way Sergio Leone did early on. Eastwood was still in the early years of his directing career and it's apparent in the way some shots show a keen eye and others don't seem to serve much purpose. All that said, it's hard to say what credit Kaufman deserves as director, as he left mid-production due to off-set romantic tension involving him, Eastwood and Locke. Regardless, cinematographer Bruce Surtees, who worked with Eastwood a lot in the '70s, creates a very rich picture that really holds up nicely."Josey Wales" is by and large a good viewing experience, with glimpses of insight and strong production values. More than those things, however, is how it stands as an example of a movie star doing what he does best while also pushing the genre that birthed him in positive new directions. Intermingling with its classic Western tendencies are ideas of what loyalty means in terms of country, kin and even the stranger, as well as who holds authority in a divided land trying to heal. Other movies that came later on did it better, but "Josey Wales" played a part in initiating that decisive shift. ~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

zkonedog After recently watching Unforgiven and being completely blown-away by it once again, I decided (on the advice of others) to try out The Outlaw Josey Wales, which I had not seen since I was probably about 12 years old. Though I didn't hate it, it never really gripped me like Unforgiven or my other top-shelf westerns.For a basic plot summary, The Outlaw Josey Wales tells the story of Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood), a man who witnesses his home and family destroyed by a group of Union soldiers. After witnessing this terrible event, Josey first hooks up with a Confederate troupe on the verge of surrender. When he refuses to officially lay down arms, he is soon hunted by the very people who destroyed his entire life.There are two overwhelmingly positive things I have to say about this movie:1. Eastwood is solid-as-usual as his typical "man with no name" character.2. I really liked the supporting cast, including Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, and John Vernon, among others. What this film lacked in direction/plot for me it often made up for in witty or emotional character interactions.On the flip side, though, I also have two scathing critiques of the film (i.e. the reasons why it is a three-star experience to me):1. Unlike Unforgiven, which gives a bit more background on its Eastwood-played protagonist, Josey Wales failed to make a mark on me in that regard. Besides the very quick family- establishing scene in the beginning, very little is revealed about Josey's family life. To me, then, the film didn't do a good enough job of establishing just why exactly we should care about the plight of Mr. Wales.2. This movie was made in 1976, or at the tail end of John Wayne's popularity. Wayne, of course, made a much different kind of western than did Eastwood, and I think sometimes Outlaw Josey Wales goes a bit too far in trying to illustrate those differences. Whereas Unforgiven (I know I reference this film a lot...but it is truly one of my all-time favorites) gets that balance just right, this one seems to revel a bit too much in its gritty approach to the West. Very little backstory is given to any character, and one scene in particular (the Sondra Locke rape scene) is very out-of- context from the rest of the film.Thus, when I look at The Outlaw Josey Wales, I see Clint Eastwood in the beginning stages of honing his own Western on-screen mentality. He hadn't quite found the perfect formula yet, but all the elements were beginning to come into place.