Classic late western. Believable atmosphere. Great landscapes. Good looking. Eastwood basically being again the man w/o name. It adds nothing innovative to the Western genre though: due to a tragic personal loss, an ordinary farmer subsequently becomes a feared outlaw (we must assume since this part isn't told) who hates authorities, who likes other people on the margins of society, who is a violent man but kept some basic decency. It drags a little but it's still a solid Western.
It seems a bit unfair to judge a46-year old movie by today's standards, but I'm a latecomer to the "Josey Wales" dance, having never seen it before. As someone has pointed out, the opening scenes are horribly acted...it was almost bad enough to cause me to stop watching, but I wanted to give it a fair shake, and it was Clint Eastwood, so I had to at least try. The acting got a teeny bit better (nothing Oscar-worthy, though, so don't hold your breath) and there were some flashes of brilliance. ("Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.") But overall, it was far too long and drawn out, especially considering there was never much of a back story. Apart from revenge, what happened to cause Josey Wales to become such a renowned and wanted outlaw? We have absolutely no idea. From all appearances, he was nothing more than just a poor "dirt farmer" (to coin Louis L'Amour's famous term) content to live out his life in the middle of nowhere. Yet by the end of the film, he's known and wanted all over the country, able to singlehandedly take out a small army by himself, and talk a tribe of Comanche indians into making peace with the white man.... I don't know. I'm a big fan of Clint Eastwood, but this one was a disappointment. Like I said, it had a few moments, but they were few and far between and not worth sitting through a 2+-hour movie for. The biggest thing is, with a movie that long, I kept expecting them to tell us how Josey Wales came to be such a bad hombre, but they never did. Not sorry I watched it, but I certainly couldn't recommend it to anyone...not even Clint Eastwood fans. There are better ones out there.
A little overlong, though 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' is an entertaining watch - with cool action sequences and a pleasing ending.
You have a strong performance from Clint Eastwood and good support showings from the likes of Chief Dan George and John Vernon. The plot is interesting and the road-esque nature of it keeps it moving well. I do think they could've trimmed the run time slightly, while Eastwood's character really didn't need to spit so much - on a dog and some insects, no less. Just bizarre, it adds zero and simply becomes an irritation.
A sequel, without the involvement of Eastwood, was released ten years after this - I'm intrigued to check it out.
This movie marked Clint Eastwood's directorial debut and he is also the star. The movie starts off in incredibly awkward fashion. The opening scenes are so awkwardly put together that it is almost like watching a train wreck. The acting in these scenes isn't much better. And then the movie seems to get on track quite a bit and we start to get into the story. Then an odd thing happened: the movie started to get interesting. By the end of the movie I must say that I was actually engrossed in the plot and the characters. Clint was... well, Clint... but the supporting cast was excellent and the script actually wasn't half-bad. It's nowhere near his top 3 westerns.
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This is easily my favorite Western of all time. It is moving and it's pacing you get the feel for what the old west would have truly been like. Not a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western or a shoot-'em-up bang bang movie, but a real reflection on an outlaw trying to make his way in the old west. I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in westerns.
Clint and western at their best!
Cinema Paco 1. Sound and image 3.5/5. Good western with elements reminiscent unforgiven
I loved this. It's up there with the very best "westerns" ever made.
NB: The... uh... commentary on... uh.... on the... uh... Blu-ray is... uh... another uh... atrocious uh... uh... offering by... uh Richard Schickel.
I trust the cunt writes better than he narrates.
What a movie! To you young people this is when Hollywood was alive and kicking. A MUST WATCH!!!!
Great film overall, watched many times. The issue with watching it many times you start to see major flaws in the plot. But still a great watch
Eastwood proves that as a Cowboy he is priceless
Watched on HBO Max. Good movie, with a solid plot, no defects in the narrative, and overall a classical western. It sort of shows how much of scumbags most people back in the old west era were. Nonetheless, there is honor, bravery, and courage also. This mix of lonely cowboys like Josey Wales, mercenaries like the bounty hunters, regular militias of the Union, and Indians make the movie entertaining, but also realistic. I see some nostalgia towards the South also. Maybe because the movie was based on a novel written by a segregationist southerner. I wish more movies like these were made these days for entertaining, for mass consumption.
Clint and western at their best!
Shout by Ninja PoonBlockedParent2021-10-17T23:01:00Z
I have forgotten the sheer variety of people places things and animals that Clint spits tobacco on bahahahaha ...worth watching for that alone