- Actors: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Bill McKinney, John Vernon
- Directors: Clint Eastwood
- Writers: Forrest Carter, Philip Kaufman, Sonia Chernus
- Producers: James Fargo, John G. Wilson, Robert Daley
- Format: VHS
- Language English
- Classification: 18
- Studio: Warner
- VHS Release Date: 1 Oct 1999
- Run Time: 135 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004CJOS
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,028 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
During the Civil War, Union "Redlegs" attack Southerner Josey Wales's dirt farm and wipe out his family. Seeking vengeance, Wales throws in with a company of Reb guerrillas. 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. Which 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.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Clint Eastwood's 31st film as an actor, 20th as international star, and 5th as director, was the first to win him widespread respect. Critics had grumbled when the producer-star replaced Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) in the director's chair a week into shooting. 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.
Though it's been honoured with a place in the National Film Registry, Josey Wales is good, not great, Eastwood. 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. 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. --Richard T Jameson
Product Description
A Missouri farmer joins a Confederate guerilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Until Dances with Wolves and then Eastwoods own Unforgiven this was the best western post 1970. Eastwood plays the title role who is a certainly a match for the man with no name, but unlike that character Josey Wales is not amoral, in fact quite the contrary.
This is the first movie that Eastwood directed that made people sit up and notice him as a filmmaker rather than an action hero. Some classic trademark Eastwood lines are in this film, perhaps the best of which is:
Bounty Hunter - "You're wanted Wales"
Josey Wales - "Reckon I'm right popular. You a Bounty Hunter?"
BH - "A man's got to do something for a living these days"
JW - "Dyin' ain't much of a livin' boy"
The difference with this film (over say the spagetti westerns) is that Eastwoods character gradually becomes part of a family like gang of people. Most noteably an aging Indian (played by Chief Dan George) which makes for some wonderfully understated comic moments. One of the strengths of this film is you do care what happens. Yes there are gun fights and people are killed but in the end there is a sort of reconcilliation.
Already by this stage of his career Eastwood had a regular team around him to make the film. Standout amongst which is Bruce Surtees cinematography. This really is beautiful looking film.
This is the first movie that Eastwood directed that made people sit up and notice him as a filmmaker rather than an action hero. Some classic trademark Eastwood lines are in this film, perhaps the best of which is:
Bounty Hunter - "You're wanted Wales"
Josey Wales - "Reckon I'm right popular. You a Bounty Hunter?"
BH - "A man's got to do something for a living these days"
JW - "Dyin' ain't much of a livin' boy"
The difference with this film (over say the spagetti westerns) is that Eastwoods character gradually becomes part of a family like gang of people. Most noteably an aging Indian (played by Chief Dan George) which makes for some wonderfully understated comic moments. One of the strengths of this film is you do care what happens. Yes there are gun fights and people are killed but in the end there is a sort of reconcilliation.
Already by this stage of his career Eastwood had a regular team around him to make the film. Standout amongst which is Bruce Surtees cinematography. This really is beautiful looking film.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Thirty years after it was made, The Outlaw Josey Wales still stands up as Eastwood's finest outing as director. 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. For me, this makes for a far more meaningful and enjoyable film than something like High Plains Drifter, in which Eastwood is just an inexplicable figure of vengeance; he isn't given a lot of credit for his acting skills, but when called upon do something other than just shoot people and look mean, Eastwood can deliver the goods. The Outlaw Josey Wales is one of only three films in which he cries onscreen, and in the opening scenes of the film he actually convinces as a meek farmer unable to stop his family`s murder. Whilst, throughout the film, he projects an image of violence and hatred, we see this image punctured as he continually comes into contact with other, weaker outcasts from society whom he is compelled to help. A story about redemption, not revenge, the film finally acknowledges that Josey Wales' true nature, of a family man, provider, and protector, still exists inside the feared outlaw he has become, and when he finally confronts the man who killed his wife and child, he is willing to forgive, and only kills him because the man in question is unable to comprehend this forgiveness. Ending on an upbeat note of new life, The Outlaw Josey Wales is Eastwood's most positive and emotionally complex work.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Can't express how much I loved this film. Great story from the start. Non stop pacey action with a great gun battle at the end. Eastwood knows how to make great westerns and this one is up there with the best.
Just brilliant!
Just brilliant!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
classic
excellent story how they get across such an interesting story in such a short time , i will never know.
Published 23 hours ago by psop
An old favourite
I first saw this film when it was released in the cinema and thought it was great then. I have seen it a couple if times since but not for a few years. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Rob Lundy
the outlaw josey wales
one of the best westerns ever made, clint eastwood is an exceptional actor and he was great in this.BRILLIANT is the only way to describe this movie. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. J. Docherty
Josey Wales
I bought this film for a friend who had been unable to find it in any shop. Although the video did not start well and the picture not perfect, he was very satisfied. Read more
Published 3 months ago by V. Conran
The Outlaw Josey Wales
"As The Outlaw Josey Wales, Clint Eastwood is ideally cast as a hard-hitting, fast-drawing loner, recalling his "Man with No Name" from his European Westerns. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Fluclo
fabulous blu-ray
I,ll try to keep this "short",The Outlaw Josey Wales Blu-ray is up alongside The Searchers/How the West Was Won/The Comancheros,and even ZULU,for Picture Quality,and that,s HIGH... Read more
Published 11 months ago by mr david cairns
Good revenge Western from Clint
In "The Outlaw Josey Wales" Eastwood directs an entertaining and fairly conventional western revenge tale set in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Read more
Published 13 months ago by haunted
I guess we all died a little in that damned war.
The Outlaw Josey Wales is directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars as Wales, and is adapted by Sonia Chernus & Phil Kaufman from the novel "The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales" written... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Spike Owen
AMAZON Mistake ???
Not sure why BUT I received the 2004 edition NOT the 2005 Ultimate Western version, which is the one on sale ...... difference being the DVD cover.
Published 18 months ago by Mr. A. Brookes
How is it with stains
This is a revenge story set around the time of the American War.
Clint is playing his A Few Dollars More character chasing the group who murder his family. Read more
Clint is playing his A Few Dollars More character chasing the group who murder his family. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. Paul Minihan
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