Clint Eastwood has always been the iconic lone rider in the Old West, looking formidable wielding a pistol as he deals with the goons and conservative American politics. His image has significantly transformed and staggered to unimaginable ranks from his work in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to High Plains Drifter.
As the western movie genre started losing its charm and was on the decline, one of Eastwood’s greatest and most subversive hits, The Outlaw Josey Wales created quite the stir. Eastwood had always aimed at the film being an anti-war Western and said that she “saw the parallels to the modern-day at that time” where people get “tired of it, but it never ends”.
Now streaming on Netflix, it is one of Eastwood’s greatest 1970s western hits and is creating quite the buzz.
He stars as the titular character who is an ex-Confederate guerilla war veteran-turned-outlaw by the time the war ends. Although he wants to ride alone, he picks up certain companions on the way, forming an odd ragtag team of sorts while being relentlessly chased by bounty hunters and Union soldiers.
Directed by Eastwood, the film was co-written by Phil Kaufman and Sonia Chersus. Eastwood had reportedly replaced Kaufman as the director of the production. This prompted the implementation of the Eastwood Rule where no other production member had the authority to fire a director from his job!
However, the result worked in favour of the film as Eastwood created a wonderful film out of convoluted Civil War politics narratives, and the film was an immense success. Eastwood’s innate vision helped him create Wales as the epitome of peace, besides signifying the nobility of the Confederates.
Wales is no longer the lone rider as he now has a family full of quirks and oddities who support him, unlike the previous images of the lone Western hero in The Searchers and more.
Watch the trailer below:
