The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Clint Eastwood plays Josey Wales, a farmer whose life is turned upside down when Kansas Red Legs attack his home during the Civil War.

That home is burned to the ground. His wife and young son are killed.

And when Bloody Bill Anderson and his Confederate guerillas ride by, Josey Wales is quick to join the cause.

It turns out to be a lost cause, of course. But Josey Wales developes quite a reputation as a deadly foe.

When guerilla leader Fletcher convinces the remnants of Anderson’s band to surrender, Wales is the only man to refuse.

Those who did surrender wind up being mowed down by a Union Gatling gun.

Watching from afar, Wales charges into the Yankee camp, guns down a handful of Red Legs, then flees with a badly wounded youngster name Jamie.

From that point on, Wales is on the run from Capt. Terrill and his regulators.

Jamie eventually succumbs to his wounds, but Wales is soon joined by a new band of acquaintances.

They include aging Indian Lone Watie (Chief Dan George), an Indian girl named Little Moonlight and two survivors of a Comanchero raid, Grandma Sarah Turner and her young daughter Laura Lee (Sondra Locke).

Their journey leads them to the Crooked River Ranch in Texas.

But one thing about Josey Wales: Where he goes, trouble follows.

Review:

A classic Western, beautifully filmed and full of memorable characters.

Screenwriter Phil Kaufman started the project as director, but was later fired in a dispute with the film’s star.

This film also marked the beginning of a long-term romantic and working relationship between Eastwood and Sondra Locke, 46 and 32 at the time, respectively.

They wound up making six films together, including “The Gauntlet” (1977), “Every Which Way But Loose” (1978) and “Bronco Billy” (1980). They also lived together for 13 years before their relationship came to an acrimonious end.

You’ll notice lots of other familiar faces too, with Chief Dan George of “Little Big Man” fame shining again here as Josey’s aging Indian “sidekick.”

If there’s a scene the seems ill-conceived, it’s when Wales rides into a Comanche camp for a face-to-face meeting with 10 Bears, trying to convince him they can live in peace.

Eastwood wouldn’t make another real Western for nearly a decade, his next being “Pale Rider” in 1985.

Directed by:
Clint Eastwood

Cast:
Clint Eastwood … Josey Wales
Chief Dan George … Lone Watie
Sondra Locke … Laura Lee
Bill McKinney … Capt. Terrill
John Vernon … Fletcher
Paula Trueman … Grandma Sarah Turner
Sam Bottoms … Jamie
Geraldine Keams … Little Moonlight
Woodrow Parfrey … Percy Long
Joyce Jameson … Rose
Sheb Wooley … Travis Cobb
Royal Dano … Ten spot
Matt Clark … Kelly
Will Sampson … Ten Bears
William O’Connell … Sim Carstairs
Madeline Taylor Holmes … Grannie Hawkins
John Quade … Ciril E. Forebaugh, comanchero
Richard Farnsworth … Comanchero
Frank Schofield … Sen. James H. Lane
John Russell … Bloody Bill Anderson
John Mitchum … Al
John Chandler … Bounty Hunter

Runtime: 135 min.

Memorable lines:

Union officer: “Kinda young, ain’t you kid? To be ridin’ with this rabble?”
Jamie: “Who you callin’ rabble, you blue scum belly?”

Senator: “Fletcher, there’s an old saying — to the victor’s belong the spoils.”
Fletcher: “There’s another old saying, Senator. Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s rainin’.”

Fletcher: “Dammit, Senator, you told me those men would be decently treated.”
Senator: “They were decently treated. They were decently fed. Then they were decently shot.”

Josey Wales, running into four Red Legs on the street of a Western town: “Well? You gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?”

Josey Wales: “It’s always like that.”
Lone Waite: “Like what?”
Wales: “Whenever I get to likin’ someone, they ain’t around long.”
Lone Waite: “I notice when you get to dislikin’ someone, they ain’t around for long either.”

Terrill: “He’s not a hard man to track. Leaves dead men wherever he goes.”

Lone Waite to Grandma Turner when he spots Josey on the horizon: “Get ready, little lady. Hell is coming to breakfast.”

Josey Wales: “You a bounty hunter?”
Bounty hunter: “Man’s gotta do something to make a livin’ these days.”
Wales: “Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’, boy.”

Josey Wales, as he and his new acquaintances prepare for a Comanche attack: “Now, 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 lose nor win. That’s just the way it is.”

Josey Wales: I guess we all died a little in that damned war.”

Sondra Locke as Laure Lee and Paula Trueman as her grandmother, Sarah Turner, watching Josey Wales flee after gunning down three men in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Matt Clark as Kelly, owner of the Santa Rio saloon, surprised by Josey Wales arrival in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Joyce Jameson as saloon girl Rose of Santa Rio, introducing herself to Grandma Turner in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Royal Dano as Ten Spot, the Santa Rio resident who claims to have knowledge of Josey Wales demise in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Woodrow Parfrey as Percy Long, trying to sell snake oil to Lone Watie in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Sondre Locke as Laura Lee, warming up to Josey Wales after he rescues her in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)