Clint Eastwood once proclaimed that his performance in Clint Eastwood's Westerns were notable for having a darker, more violent edge than Hollywood's Golden Age "Oaters," and the star himself signed off on the genre with 1992's acclaimed Unforgiven.
Westerns like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or Unforgiven tend to soak up all the attention on Eastwood's filmography, though his anti-war epic The Outlaw Josey Wales is another classic on that list. Clint both directed and starred in this 1976 adventure, and follows a farmer turned gunslinger looking to avenge his family's murder during the Civil War. It has all the action and cool one-liners audiences could want from Clint, but it's also a movie that's surprisingly emotional and warm, as Josey gradually learns to become a human being again through the surrogate family he forms.
Clint Eastwood Believes The Outlaw Josey Wales Features His Greatest Performance
Clint called Dirty Harry and The Outlaw Josey Wales his best acting work
During an interview with journalist Paul Nelson (later collected in Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983), Eastwood is asked what he thinks are his best performances. Eastwood responded with "I think Dirty Harry and Josey Wales would be my two best performances," and quickly added "Josey Wales maybe is as good as I can do it."
It's rare for Eastwood to comment on his work or offer any best/worst assessment on either his movies or performances. That's what makes his comments to Nelson so interesting, as he not only singles out his turn in The Outlaw Josey Wales, he goes into specifics as to why he feels his performances worked so well. In particular, Clint feels he mapped the character's entire emotional journey - from world-weary cynic to a man who opens himself up to living again - with hardly any dialogue or exposition.
For that kind of character, I told a lot about a guy without telling a lot about a guy. Using a minimal amount of exposition, the picture of a man and the changing of a man as he went along, through the experiences with meeting other people, were shown without having to stop and do explanatory scenes.
Josey Wales is deeply wounded when the movie opens, and appears to be fighting because he's not sure what else to do. It's only when he's forced to go on the run and encounters the likes of Lone Watie (Chief Dan George) or Laura Lee (Sondra Locke) that he begins to see a life beyond killing. It's true Josey isn't all that verbose (though he speaks a little more than the average stoic Clint Eastwood cowboy), but it's an impressive performance because Eastwood is conveying Josey's evolution almost entirely through facial expression or body language.
Josey's showdown with Captain Terrill (Bill McKinney), the man responsible for slaughtering his family, is a great example of Eastwood's non-verbal performance. Following the final shootout, Josey tracks Terrill down and torments the trapped Captain by dry-firing his empty revolvers. Finally, Josey kills Terrill by stabbing him with his own sword, and Eastwood's face cycles through several emotions, from relief to shock and finally acceptance that his quest to avenge his family is finally done.
Clint Eastwood Is A Better Actor Than He's Often Given Credit For
There is more to Eastwood than a squint
It's worth ing that Eastwood claimed The Outlaw Josey Wales was his best performance over 40 years ago, so his opinion may have changed in the decades since. He's not an actor who toots his own horn about how great his work is, but it's clear Josey Wales is a character he really invested in. Critics might see Eastwood as an auteur now, but he was never given much credit as either an actor or director when he started out.
From The Beguiled to Honkytonk Man or The Bridges of Madison County, Clint has always shown a willingness to break away from his own typecasting...
Clint's famous drawl and squint are always effectively deployed in projects like Eastwood's favorite Western of his own), he plays an overgrown dreamer who wants to live out his fantasy of being a cowboy. It's a warm, optimistic performance, and much funnier than people might expect. On the opposite end of the spectrum is 2004's Million Dollar Baby, where he plays a cranky boxing trainer who becomes a surrogate father to Hilary Swank's promising amateur boxer.
Nobody plays a loveable grump quite like Eastwood, but it's a much more complex role than that. Like Josey Wales, Million Dollar Baby's Frankie is a cynic who gets rejuvenated thanks to his time with Swank's Maggie - which makes the tragic third act all the harder to bear. Frankie's emotional final scene with Maggie might be some of the best acting Eastwood has ever done, and it features a lot of dialogue instead of playing out on his face.
1 Classic Clint Eastwood Western Has A Sequel No One Has Ever Heard Of
The Outlaw Josey Wales is one of Clint Eastwood's finest Westerns, and it also has a belated sequel from 1986 that almost nobody knows about.
There are plenty of roles Clint wouldn't be suited for, but looking across his body of work, he's a much more versatile performer than he's given credit for. From The Beguiled to Honkytonk Man or The Bridges of Madison County, he's shown a willingness to break away from his own typecasting - even if he openly embraced his own screen image too - and try out different kinds of roles.
The Outlaw Josey Wales Is Still Clint Eastwood's Most Underrated Western
The Outlaw Josey Wales is one of Eastwood's best movies
The Dollars trilogy offered a thrilling reinvention of the Western, while Unforgiven was a melancholy deconstruction of the myth of the Old West. It's obvious why those Westerns loom large on Eastwood's CV, and while The Outlaw Josey Wales has always been well-regarded and was a box office hit (grossing over $31 million on a budget of $3.7 million, according to Box Office Mojo), it doesn't get the acclaim that the likes of Unforgiven does. This is despite the fact that Josey Wales is one of Eastwood's best movies, period.
Clint Eastwood replaced The Outlaw Josey Wales' original director, Philip Kaufman, after creative disagreements on the set. This later resulted in the DGA ing what's known as the "Eastwood Rule," whereby an actor is not allowed to fire a director and then take over the director's chair themselves.
It's filled with great performances (including Chief Dan George and John Vernon) and dialogue, it's one of Clint's most visually appealing Westerns and features some fantastic setpieces. There's Eastwood's performance fronting it, too, which only underlines why he became such a screen icon. It's also a great introduction to the genre for people unfamiliar with Westerns, as it features all the classic tropes and clichés while offering fresh spins on them.
Clint Eastwood Was Replaced For The Outlaw Josey Wales' Sequel
The Return of Josey Wales is almost totally forgotten
Eastwood is generally allergic to sequels, so while he mulled adapting The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales novel, he ultimately moved on to other projects. Instead, famed character actor Michael Parks (Red State) took over from Eastwood as both director and star of the 1986 sequel, The Return of Josey Wales. This saw the supposedly deceased outlaw come out of retirement to avenge some murdered friends, but the movie itself is a total bust.
Every Clint Eastwood Movie Franchise |
Years Active |
|---|---|
The Dollars Trilogy |
1964–1966 |
The Dirty Harry Series |
1971-1988 |
The Every Which Way... Movies |
1978-1980 |
There's little information on the production itself, but it was clearly shot on a low budget and is lacking the sweep and action of The Outlaw Josey Wales. Parks is never less than charismatic, but the sequel makes it plain that he's no Clint Eastwood either. The sequel arrived in the middle of the great Western dearth of the 1980s and was quickly forgotten; given how weak it is when compared to the original, perhaps that's for the best.
Source: Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983, Box Office Mojo
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The Outlaw Josey Wales
- Release Date
- July 14, 1976
- Runtime
- 135 minutes
- Director
- Clint Eastwood
Cast
Chief Dan George
WHERE TO WATCH
StreamingRENTBUYThe Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 Western film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Set during and after the American Civil War, the film follows Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer seeking revenge for the murder of his family by Union soldiers. As he becomes an outlaw, Wales forms an unlikely band of outcasts and confronts various adversaries while struggling with his quest for vengeance and a chance at redemption.
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The Return of Josey Wales
- Release Date
- October 1, 1986
- Runtime
- 90 minutes
- Director
- Michael Parks
- Writers
- Forrest Carter
Cast
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Michael ParksJosey Wales
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Rafael CamposChato
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Charles McCoyCharles
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Suzie HumphreysRose
The Return of Josey Wales is a 1986 Western film about the gunman Josey Wales, who seeks vengeance after his friends are murdered by rurales. Led by Commandante Escobar, the rurales kidnap Ten Spot. Josey embarks on a perilous journey to rescue his friend and exact retribution.
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