Bill McKinney, Chief Dan George, Clint Eastwood

Josey Wales is a peacful farmer and devoted family man, until renegades murder his family, and destroy his farm. Fueld by hatred, he becomes an outlaw dedicated to seeking vengance on the people who t...( read more  read more... )ook everything he had.

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88% liked it

38,004 ratings

Critics

97% liked it

31 critics

PG, 2 hrs. 15 min.

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Release Date: January 1, 1976

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DVD Release Date: March 30, 1999

Stats: 1,602 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,602)


  • November 9, 2009
    Arguably Eastwood's most underrated western. Had it been made at the end of his career, as was Unforgiven, I dare say that THIS might be the film everyone talks about.
  • May 26, 2009
    The Outlaw Josey Wales is a just decent movie. Nothing really stood out here for me but at the same time it wasn't horrible. Clint Eastwood had some great one-liners and his chemistry with Chief Dan George was great. Oh, and I liked how Sondra Locke was supposed to be retarded. O...( read more)r... slow. Overall I thought the movie was kind of all over the place between the revolving door of characters and Eastwood's developing directorial style. The cast was great even if the story was a bit on the bare bones side.
  • March 7, 2009
    an epic western starring and directed by clint. it's a film of two half's. the first first half a confederate soldier fighting the blue bellies. the second an altogether slower half about a settler with a few companions in commanche territory. after a while ya get a bit fed up wi...( read more)th the "iconic" spitting though!
  • January 30, 2009
    Josey Wales: Now remember, 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 you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.

    The Outlaw Josey Wales chronicles t...( read more)he hero's violent journey westward after the Civil War...

    Fresh memories of his family's slaughter by the vicious Red Leg soldier Captain Terrill (Bill McKinney), is all that is left for this once peaceful Missouri farmer Josey Wales (Eastwood)...
    Wounded and left for dead Josey picks up himself and trudges through the charred wreckage of his homestead, finds and buries his kin and in the midst of the smouldering ash also finds his gun and begins practicing his aim in preparation for taking his revenge...
    He's happened upon by a group of pro-Confederate Missouri guerrillas led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson, with the idea of settling up the score, he readily joins them...but the war comes to an end, and even with the supposed promise of amnesty, Josey refuses to join his captain Fletcher (John... More 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, after they gun down his comrades, 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...

    Josey Wales: When 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.

    The film starts out seemingly as just being another 'revenge western', something awful happens to fuel the need for revenge, the bad guys get taken out one by one in some grand shoot out and Eastwood rides off alone... but things really change and come to life at the appearance of Chief Dan George...
    He brings real depth to the film...
    He's a noble savage who is disheartened at his waning powers when faced with old age and "civilisation"...
    "(he's humiliated, as an Indian, that he's grown so old he can no longer sneak up behind people)"
    But that takes nothing away from his wisdom...

    Lone Watie: We thought about it for a long time, "Endeavor to persevere." And when we had thought about it long enough, we declared war on the Union.

    Or his warmth and his special brand of humour...

    Lone Watie: I didn't surrender, but they took my horse and made him surrender. They have him pulling a wagon up in Kansas I bet.

    His personality is as open as Josey's is close, and I think that this ingenious ploy is what really helps create the true character that is Josey Wales...
  • January 26, 2009
    a solid early directing job by eastwood. the evolution of the title character from farmer to outlaw was extremely lacking, but the rest of the story was engaging and the characters were fun despite some fairly average acting. solid western.
  • October 29, 2009
    An epic western and one of Clint´s best films as actor and director.
  • October 28, 2009
    "Dyin' and much of a livin' boy."
  • October 16, 2009
    Epic Eastwood, tremendous scenery and dialogue. "He's meaner than a rattler, and twice as fast with them pistols." This is Clint's best Western, all the others are measured against this film. The Top Ten (Eastwood) order:
    1. The Outlaw Josey Wales
    2. Unforgiven
    3. The Good, ...( read more)The Bad and The Ugly
    4. High Plains Drifter
    5. Pale Rider
    6. For A Few Dollars More
    7. A Fistful of Dollars
    8. Hang 'Em High
    9. Joe Kidd
    10. Two Mules For Sister Sara
  • September 6, 2009
    This is one of the best westerns of the 1970's. By the beginning of the 1970's Hollywood had forgotten how to make a good western. The Italians made better westerns in the 1960's. Only a few directors and actors new how to make a good western in the late 1970's. Clint Eastwood wa...( read more)s one of them. In the opening scene Clint is trying to plow a field with a mule and plow. Somehow he's not doing it right. He is a much better gunfighter than a farmer. This is the first movie I can remember that used replicas of the actual firearms used during the Civil War. Most westerns used modified modern weapons and hoped no one noticed. The locations were good representations of Missouri, Oklahoma and west Texas. The story is set during the closing days of the Civil War in the west. Unlike the Civil War in the east there were no large scale battles, just hundreds of small fire fights and a few small battles. It was the first of the modern low intensity conflicts. Per capita there were more deaths in the west than in the east but were spread out over time. This lead to a more personal conflict were the combatants knew each other and were fighting over personal grudges not related to the issues of the overall war. This was the story of Josey Wales.
  • September 1, 2009
    epic western old injun very funny

Critic Reviews


October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Eastwood is such a taciturn and action-oriented performer that it's easy to overlook the fact that he directs many of his movies -- and many of the best, most intelligent ones. full review

View more The Outlaw Josey Wales reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • perfectgentlemn
    July 20, 2008
    Excellent western, sure it's an older movie, but most times they are the best ones ! Enjoy ;-)

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The Outlaw Josey Wales Trivia


  • Clint Eastwood stars as a Confederate Outlaw being hunted by Union soldiers who slaughtered his unit.  Answer »
  • In what movie does Clint Eastwood say "...you gonna pull those pistols, or just whistle Dixie..."?  Answer »
  • In which movie did Clint Eastwood portray an American Southerner seeking vengeance on the people who murdered his family and destroyed his farm?  Answer »
  • who played in these films? High Plains Drifter Million Dollar Baby The Outlaw Josey Wales For a Few dollars more Unforgiven  Answer »

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