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 starring Clint Eastwood (as the eponymous Josey Wales), Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon, Paula Trueman, Sam Bottoms, Geraldine Keams, Woodrow Parfrey, Joyce Jameson, Sheb Wooley, and Royal Dano. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 410 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (517 × 755 pixel, file size: 97 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher or the creator of the work... Clint Eastwood (born Clinton Eastwood, Jr. ... Forrest Carter, (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was the pseudonym of Asa Earl Carter, an American novelist. ... Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is a film director and screenwriter from Chicago, Illinois. ... Clint Eastwood (born Clinton Eastwood, Jr. ... Chief Dan George (July 24, 1899–September 23, 1981) was a chief of the Burrard Band, a Salish First Nations people located in Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. ... Sondra Locke, actress and director (born May 28, 1947 in Shelbyville, Tennessee), made her film debut in 1968 in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter with Alan Arkin for which, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. ... Jerry Fielding (born June 17, 1922 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was an American radio, film and television composer, conductor, and musical director. ... Bruce Surtees (27 July 1937, Los Angeles, California, USA) is an Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated American cinematographer best known for his extensive work in Clint Eastwood films, mostly westerns of the 1970s and early 1980s. ... Ferris Webster (April 29, 1912–February 4, 1989), an American film editor, was nominated for Academy Awards for his work on The Blackboard Jungle (1955), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and The Great Escape (1963). ... Warner Bros. ... is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Clint Eastwood in a classic shot from The Outlaw Josey Wales, a Revisionist Western The Revisionist Western traces to the late 1960s and early 1970s as a new sub-genre of the Western movie. ... Broncho Billy Anderson, from The Great Train Robbery The Western movie is one of the classic American film genres. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... Clint Eastwood (born Clinton Eastwood, Jr. ... Chief Dan George (July 24, 1899–September 23, 1981) was a chief of the Burrard Band, a Salish First Nations people located in Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. ... Sondra Locke, actress and director (born May 28, 1947 in Shelbyville, Tennessee), made her film debut in 1968 in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter with Alan Arkin for which, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. ... Bill McKinney (born September 12, 1931 in Chattanooga, Tennessee) is an American character actor whose most famous role was Don Job, the mountain man who abused and then sodomized Bobby Trippe (Ned Beatty) in the movie Deliverance. ... John Vernon was the stage name of Adolph Raymond Vernon Agopsowicz (February 24, 1932–February 1, 2005). ... Sam Bottoms (b. ... Born October 5, 1922 in New York City. ... Shelby F. Sheb Wooley (April 10, 1921 - September 17, 2003) was a character actor and singer, best known for his 1958 novelty hit Purple People Eater. Wooley was born in Erick, Oklahoma and grew up on a farm. ... Royal Dano (born November 16, 1922; died May 15, 1994) was an American film and television character actor. ...

The movie was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman from the novel Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter. Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is a film director and screenwriter from Chicago, Illinois. ... Forrest Carter, (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was the pseudonym of Asa Earl Carter, an American novelist. ...

This film is considered by many enthusiasts to be one of the greatest westerns ever made.

Plot

Screenshot from film

The events are based on the September 23, 1861 sacking of Osceola, Missouri, following a skirmish early in the Civil War. Image File history File links Official screenshot from The Outlaw Josey Wales This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links Official screenshot from The Outlaw Josey Wales This work is copyrighted. ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... 1861 (MDCCCLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar) // January 1 - Benito Juárez captures Mexico City January 2 - Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia dies and is succeeded by... The Sacking of Osceola was a Union Jayhawker initiative on September 23, 1861, to push out pro-South elements at Osceola, Missouri. ...

Josey Wales (Eastwood), a peaceful Missouri farmer, is driven to revenge by the savage, brutal and pointless slaying of his family by a band of pro-Union (Civil War) Jayhawkers—James H. Lane's "Redlegs" to be exact—from Kansas. 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. Official language(s) English Capital Jefferson City Largest city Kansas City Largest metro area St Louis Metro[1] Area  Ranked 21st  - Total 69,709 sq mi (180,693 km²)  - Width 240 miles (385 km)  - Length 300 miles (480 km)  - % water 1. ... In this map:  Union states prohibiting slavery  Union territories  Border states on the Union side which allowed slavery  Kansas, which entered and fought with the Union as a free state after the Bleeding Kansas crisis  The Confederacy  Confederate claimed and sometimes held territories During the American Civil War, the Union... A jayhawker was a radical guerrilla fighter during the American Civil War. ... James Henry Lane (June 22, 1814 – July 11, 1866) was a United States Senator and Union partisan. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Motto Deo Vindice (Latin: Under God, Our Vindicator) Anthem (none official) God Save the South (unofficial) The Bonnie Blue Flag (unofficial) Dixie (unofficial) Capital Montgomery, Alabama (until May 29, 1861) Richmond, Virginia (May 29, 1861–April 2, 1865) Danville, Virginia (from April 3, 1865) Language(s) English (de facto) Religion... Guerrilla warfare (also spelled guerilla) is a method of unconventional combat by which small groups of combatants attempt to use mobile and surprise tactics (ambushes, raids, etc) to defeat a foe, often a larger, less mobile, army. ... Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare during the American Civil War that was particularly prevalent in rural areas where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. ... In U.S. history, Border Ruffians were pro-slavery sympathizers who infiltrated into Kansas from the slave state of Missouri in the 1850s to harass abolitionists and others who desired Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a free state (one in which slavery was forbidden). ... William T. Anderson a. ...

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 Indian man and a young Indian woman. The Comancheros were natives of northern and central New Mexico who conducted trade for a living with the nomadic plains tribes, often at designated areas. ...

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 the 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, 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 his wife and children were brutalized and killed by renegade Union soldiers on his farm on Corn Creek near Edgar Springs, Missouri. Wilson then struck back with vengeance, tracking down those responsible. In the process, he became a wanted outlaw. "Mr. Wilson" is a pseudonym for Josey Wales in the film, possibly an acknowledgment of the plot's debt to the historical Bill Wilson. Edgar Springs is a city located in Phelps County, Missouri. ...

Quotes

• In a scene when Josey prepares his fellow travelers for a fight with the Comanches:

Josey: "And remember, when things look bad, and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean, I mean plumb mad dog mean, 'cause if you lose your head and give up, then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is."

• In a scene where Josey has escaped the Redlegs by crossing the churning Missouri river. The Redlegs proceed to cross the river by ferry. Josey sets up his sharpshooter rifle while an indignant carpetbagger looks on:

Carpetbagger: "Mr. Wales, we have a thing in this country called justice!"

Josey: "Well, Mr. Carpetbagger, we got something in this territory called the Missouri boat ride."

Josey then shoots out the ferry rope, leaving the men to wash helplessly down the river.

• In a scene where the elderly woman and her granddaughter have been captured by the comancheros. The rapacious men attempt to ravish the young woman but are stopped by their leader on account of her being young and attractive:

Leader: "...She'll fetch us twenty fine horses. If any of you's have to, take the old woman there; she can fetch us maybe one donkey."

• Facing down a bounty hunter in the saloon in Santa Rio:

Bounty Hunter: I'm lookin' for Josey Wales.

Josey: That'd be me.

Bounty Hunter: You're wanted, Wales.

Josey: Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?

Bounty Hunter: A man's gotta do something for a living these days.

Josey: Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy.

• Josey and Lone Watie riding together:

Josey Wales: Whenever I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long.

Lone Watie: I notice when you get to dislikin' someone they ain't around for long neither.

• Conversation between Fletcher and Senator Jim Lane:

Fletcher: Captain Terrel is a bloodthirsty son-of-a-bitch! He is a looter and a pillager! He's the worst enemy those men have got!

Senator Lane: Nah... the war's over. Our side won the war, and now we must busy ourselves winning the peace... and Fletcher, there's an old saying, "To the victors belong the spoils".

Fletcher: There's another old saying, Senator... "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's rainin'".

The Missouri River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the United States. ... In United States history, carpetbaggers were Northerners who moved to the South with Freedmen (freed slaves), and Scalawags (Southern whites) in the Republican Party, which in turn controlled ex-Confederate states for varying periods between 1867 and 1877. ...

Significance

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States 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. As defined by Rule Sixteen of the Academy Awards Rules, the Academy Award for Original Music Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. ... The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ...

It is considered a 'Revisionist Western'. This is due in no small part to the fact that the lead character and hero is an outlaw and the Union Cavalry (and therefore the United States) are shown as evil. This flies directly in the face of almost every John Wayne and Gary Cooper western where the hero of the film was invariably on the side of law & order.

The film could also be considered a revision of Eastwood's traditional role. Eastwood was often a loner with almost no one to accompany him on his odyssey; Here, however, Eastwood's character meets several other refugees of the Civil War who become a surrogate family.^{[citation needed]}

Clint Eastwood has stated in interviews 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. Director Guild of America building on Sunset Boulevard. ... Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is a film director and screenwriter from Chicago, Illinois. ...

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, a former KKK member and speechwriter for segregationist politician George Wallace. Carter reportedly wrote Wallace's famous line, "Segregation today, segration tomorrow, segregation forever!" 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. Forrest Carter, (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was the pseudonym of Asa Earl Carter, an American novelist. ... Asa Earl Carter (September 4, 1925 ? June 7, 1979) was a speechwriter to Governor George Wallace of Alabama; and, under the pseudonym Forrest Carter, an American novelist. ... George Corley Wallace, Jr. ... Chief Dan George (July 24, 1899–September 23, 1981) was a chief of the Burrard Band, a Salish First Nations people located in Burrard Inlet, British Columbia. ... This monument at the New Echota Historic Site honors Cherokees who died on the Trail of Tears. ...

External Links

• The Outlaw Josey Wales at Internet Movie Database