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Actors: Clint Eastwood, John Vernon, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Will Sampson, Bill McKinney
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Outlaw Josey Wales |
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Clint Eastwood's fifth film as a director and eighth Western as a star (ninth if you count Paint Your Wagon), The Outlaw Josey Wales chronicles the hero's violent journey westward after the Civil War. With fresh memoris of his family's slaughter by Red Leg soldier Terrill (Bill McKinney), Confederate Josey Wales (Eastwood) refuses to join his captain Fletcher (John Vernon) and the rest of his comrades in surrender to a U.S. Army regiment. Deemed a dangerous outlaw after a bloody one-man battle with that regiment, Josey is pursued by U.S. cavalry soldiers led by the unwilling Fletcher and the murderous Terrill, as well as by bounty hunters who eventually learn how coolly lethal Wales can be. Despite his desire to remain a lone fugitive, Josey soon has a crew of travelling companions that includes Cherokee Lone Watie (Chief Dan George) and the pretty Laura Lee (Sondra Locke) and her vigorous Grandma Sarah (Paula Trueman), settlers on their way to a ranch near ghost town Santa Rio. The few Santa Rio residents welcome the group, but their peace and Josey's burgeoning romance with Laura Lee are soon interrupted by Terrill's arrival.
--Tanya McKnight, Resident Scholar
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Josey Wales is a farmer in the South who finds himself caught up in the dirty side of the Civil War. Marauders, in league with the Union Army, called "Red Legs" attack his farm house and murder his family in the process. When he tries to intervene he is slashed in the face with a saber by Captn. Tyrell, the "Red Legs" leader. When they have gone he buries his family and sits in the stupor of shock and depression until 'Bloody Bill Anderson', A Confederate and his paramilitary forces in league with the Southern Forces, pick him up. He rides with them and becomes famous for single-handedly avenging his slain companions who surrender to Union forces and are massacred. He teams up with a wounded young Confederate soldier and nurses him while they play "hide and seek" with the "Red Legs." Eventually the boy dies and he picks up two more unlikely partners, a disenfranchised Cherokee Indian and Cheyenne Squaw. Together they fight off Commancheros, the Red Legs, and the Commanche with the help of some Greenhorns recently out from the settlements. Finally they settle down on the ranch belonging to one of the newcomer's sons. But peace eludes them again when Commanches attack and Red Legs too. Eventually, he gets far enough away from his grief to stop killing so many people. His grief begins to assuage and he finds love and rest after killing the Red Legs Captain who was responsible for the butchering and burning of his family.
--KERRY BULLS, Resident Scholar
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After watching union soldiers kill his wife and son, a farmer joins the confederate army. He refuses to surrender and becomes an outlaw. The redlegs trail him, but can't ever kill him. After saving some folks from bandits, the outlaw escorts them to their ranch. Indians don't want the ranchers there, but the outlaw brings everyone to an agreement. Eventually, the redlegs find the outlaw, but the ranchers put up a fight. The leader of the redlegs, and the man that killed the outlaw's family, turns tail and runs. The outlaw tracks him into town and ends up stabbing him with his own sabre.
--Brandon Swenson, Resident Scholar
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THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES is a movie directed by Clint Eastwood in 1976. Jerry Fielding was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Music, Original score category.
In the final weeks of the U.S. Civil War, Josey Wales's wife and boy are murdered by soldiers of the Union. Josey, a farmer, joins then a bunch of guerilla soldiers fighting the North, hoping to find those who have destroyed his life. When the war is over, Josey refuses to surrender. Followed by a group of unionists who want him dead, he leaves the Missouri, heading to the indian reservations and the Texas. In the company of an old indian Cherokee and of settlers coming from Kansas, Josey will travel through the deserts of Texas looking for a place where he can rest at last.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Outlaw Josey Wales |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 40%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 19th century
War Thriller
Yes
Specific to
- US Civil War
Western
Yes
Kind of western:
- traveling across the west
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- white/grey
Body type
- average build (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- American Indian
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Texas
- Midwest
Prairie?
Yes
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- gory visuals of deaths
How many deaths in film?
- dozens
Kind of violence:
- guns
- knives
- swords
Unusual forms of death
- perforation--bullets
- perforation--swords/knives
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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