The Outlaw Josey Wales

A Missouri farmer joins a Confederate guerilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.

• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Genre:Action / Drama / Western
• Runtime:131 minutes

Cast

Clint Eastwood : Josey Wales Chief Dan George: Lone Watie Sondra Locke : Laura Lee Bill McKinney : Terrill John Vernon : Fletcher

Clint Eastwood portrays Josey Wales, a peaceful Missouri farmer, who is driven to revenge by the brutal rape and murder of his wife and family by a band of pro-Union Jayhawkers—Senator James H. Lane’s Redlegs from Kansas.

Wales joins a group of pro-Confederate Missouri guerrillas (bushwhackers or “border ruffians”) led by William T. Anderson. At the conclusion of the war, Captain Fletcher (John Vernon) persuades the guerrillas to surrender, saying they have been granted amnesty. Josey Wales, still holding a grudge, refuses and witnesses the massacre of the men by Captain Terrill’s (Bill McKinney) Redlegs, who’ve now joined the Union army.

Wales intervenes and guns down several Redlegs with a Gatling gun. Senator Lane puts up a $5,000 bounty on Wales. Wales begins a life on the run from Union militia and bounty hunters, while still seeking vengeance and a chance for a new beginning in Texas. Along the way, he unwillingly accumulates a diverse group of traveling companions, despite all indications that he would rather be left alone. His companions include an elderly Yankee woman from Kansas and her granddaughter rescued from a band of Comancheros, a wily old Cherokee named Lone Watie, and a young Navajo woman.

In the final showdown, Josey and his companions are cornered in a ranch house, which is fortified to withstand Indian raids. The Redlegs attack but are systematically gunned down or sent running by the defenders. Wales eventually runs out of ammunition and pursues the fleeing Captain Terrill on horseback. When he catches up to him, Josey confronts Terrill and dry fires his pistols through all twenty-four empty chambers before stabbing the captain with his own cavalry sword. Read more