The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this sprawling western set in the aftermath of the Civil War.
The story, about a wronged farmer whose home was burnt and wife and child murdered who is now out for revenge whilst also on the run from a renegade army officer. Although vast in scope this feels something of a personal journey for Eastwood and kind of plays out as a series of vignettes (if that's the right word) as Wales attempts to salvage some sort of life for himself whilst picking up an assortment of stragglers along the way. For me it's reminiscent of a western take on Easy Rider (1969) with horses substituted for motorcycles.
Part of the fun of the film is the characters who join Wales in his journey. There's the brilliant Chief Dan George as Lone Wattie, an old Cherokee man whose better days seem to be long gone. We also have a young Navajo woman saved from a life of slavery and an elderly woman and her grand daughter, rescued by Wales and Wattie from a group of marauding Comancheros. Oh and a dog. There's a dog too.
Eventually the rag tag group make a home which again reminded me of the commune from Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider until of course trouble arrives in the form of Union killers.
Despite running to two and a quarter hours and it's episodic style structure The Outlaw Josey Wales never flounders and holds the attention from first to last. Eastwood is as dryly cool as ever and this is one of his great westerns.
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