The Outlaw Josey Wales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Outlaw Josey Wales | |
|---|---|
 The Outlaw Josey Wales movie poster |
|
| Directed by | Clint Eastwood |
| Produced by | Robert Daley |
| Written by | Forrest Carter (novel Gone to Texas) Philip Kaufman Sonia Chernus |
| Starring | Clint Eastwood Chief Dan George Sondra Locke |
| Music by | Jerry Fielding |
| Cinematography | Bruce Surtees |
| Editing by | Ferris Webster |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 30, 1976 (USA) |
| Running time | 135 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 revisionist Western movie set at the end of the American Civil War directed by and starring Clint Eastwood (as the eponymous Josey Wales), with 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, Will Sampson, and Royal Dano.
The movie was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman from the novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (republished in 1975 under the title Gone to Texas) by Forrest Carter.
In 1996, this film was placed in the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The opening of the movie portrays an embellished version of 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 brutal and pointless slaying of his family by a band of pro-Union (Civil War) Jayhawkers—James H. Lane's "Redlegs" from Kansas. (During the historical raid, several male civilians of Osceola were executed after a drum-head court martial, but women and children were not killed.)[citation needed]
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 Cherokee man and a young Navajo 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 (Will Sampson). 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 a confrontation with Union soldiers on his farm on Corn Creek near Edgar Springs, Missouri. Wilson then struck back with vengeance and became a wanted outlaw before leaving for Texas.[1] "Mr. Wilson" is a pseudonym for Josey Wales in the film, possibly an acknowledgment of the plot's debt to the legend of the historical Bill Wilson.
[edit] Significance
The film 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.
The film is considered a 'Revisionist Western' because the lead character and hero is an outlaw and parts of the Union Cavalry (and therefore the United States) are shown in a negative light. Such a depiction of U.S. Cavalry ran counter to traditional Westerns preceding it. The Outlaw Josey Wales has also become a cult favorite (along with the similar Ride with the Devil) among many University of Missouri Tiger supporters, due to its subject matter of a man fighting "Kansas Jayhawkers".
Clint Eastwood has stated on the 1999 DVD release of the movie 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 (1925-1979), a former KKK member and speechwriter for politician George Wallace. 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.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nichols, Bruce, "Bill Wilson of Phelps County in 1864", Historian's Missouri Civil War Message Board posting of sources
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||
