Like the later Unforgiven, it casts Eastwood in his traditional role of legendary gunfighter, but explores and humanizes the character, carrying him on a journey of genuine change and development. Thirty years after it was made, The Outlaw Josey Wales still stands up as Eastwood's finest outing as director. 205 in Action & Adventure (DVD & Blu-ray).Best Sellers Rank: 1,094 in DVD & Blu-ray ( See Top 100 in DVD & Blu-ray).

Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0), French (Dolby Digital 1.0), English (Dolby Digital 1.0) Richard T JamesonĬlint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, John Vernon, Bill McKinneyĪrabic, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, English, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Romanian But mostly the film is agreeably eccentric, and almost furtively sweet in spirit-a key transitional title in the Eastwood filmography, and one of his most entertaining. The big-gun fetishism can get tiresome, and too many characters exist only to serve as six-gun (and at one point Gatling gun) fodder. Josey Wales is good, not great, Eastwood. This is to say, Josey's personal quest for survival and something like peace of mind evolves into a funky, multicultural allegory of the healing of America. Tagged as a renegade after the surrender, he flees west into the vastness of the Indian Territories, where, quite unintentionally, he finds himself cast as the straight-shooting paterfamilias of an ever-growing, spectacularly motley community of misfits and castaways. Seeking vengeance, Wales throws in with a company of Reb guerrillas. They ended up cheering when Eastwood delivered both his most sympathetic performance to date and-with the heroic collaboration of cinematographer Bruce Surtees-an impressive Panavision epic that stresses the scruffiness, rather than the scenic splendours, of frontier life.ĭuring the Civil War, Union 'Redlegs' attack Southerner Josey Wales's dirt farm and wipe out his family. Critics had grumbled when the producer-star replaced Philip Kaufman ( The Right Stuff ) in the director's chair a week into shooting. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Clint Eastwood's 31st film as an actor, 20th as international star and fifth as director, was the first to win him widespread respect. Wales tries to protect his new 'family' by leading them to a safe haven where they can rebuild their lives. His obsession with revenge slowly lifts, however, as he picks up various outcasts in the wilderness. Clint Eastwood directs and stars as Josey Wales, a peaceful farmer at the time of the American Civil War who becomes a Confederate outlaw in order to avenge his family's death at the hands of Union guerillas.

Philip kaufman outlaw josey wales