The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’, boy.
THE SUMMARY: After Union militants murder a Missouri farmer’s family, he joins a rebel guerrilla band to exact his revenge, before he flees west to build a life for himself away from the pursuit of the law. An instant classic for me - excellent writing, gunfighting, and important themes of family, freedom, and the moral obligation to carry on after loss combine to build possibly my favorite Western.
FROM MOVIE-PICKER MICHAEL: One of Clint Eastwood's finest films, in my opinion. You get a strong sense of Eastwood's political views thru the story of a Civil War guerilla fighter turned outlaw turned leader of a growing and eclectic group of settlers.
THE BEST:
Straight to the point: Often people get the impression I prefer short movies and hate long movies - not at all. I just hate wasted time. Every scene should matter and mean something. As long as it does, I don’t care how short or long the movie is.
Josey is a decently long movie - 135 minutes - but it gets straight to the point. Guy’s family gets murdered and his house gets burned down, and it’s time for a revenge murderquest. Some might argue there should have been time showing more of his relationship with his family. Nah - just get straight to the dying in a fire. The pain and anger in Josey is apparent - the silent scene of him burying his family and the dead hand flopping out of the body bag accomplishes much more than any dialogue would.
I appreciate a movie that establishes something from the start - drama, suspense, comedy, anything attention-grabbing - and Josey does that well.
Excellent writing: The movie is full of excellent one-liners - clever, funny, and meaningful. When a bounty hunter confronts Josey and says he has to do something for a living, Josey responds with challenge, ‘dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’, boy.’ The scene when Josey confronts Ten Bears to pursue peace is amazingly well-written - I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better two minutes of dialogue. I could give a detailed breakdown on the deep meaning of every line:
Josey: Dyin’ ain’t so hard for men like you and me. It’s livin’ that’s hard, when all you’ve ever cared about has been butchered or raped. Governments don’t live together. People live together. With governments, you don’t always get a fair word or a fair fight - well, I’ve come here to give you either one, or get either one from you… I’m just giving you life and you’re giving me life. And I’m saying that men can live together without butchering one another.
…
Ten Bears: It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double-tongues.
The struggle of life is actually far more imposing than the fear of death, but one still has a moral obligation to pursue it. Governments are inherently deceptive and exploitative, but that doesn’t mean that their subjects can’t get along. Peace is actually a very difficult effort that requires constant maintenance - it is not the natural order of the world. These are complex themes of crucial importance, summarized beautifully in a believable short conversation. It’s amazing how simple but profound this scene is.
Even the movie’s jokes are well-written. When Josey is wooing Laura Lee and learns she’s from Kansas, he says ‘I always heard there were three kinds of suns in Kansas: sunshine, sunflowers, and sons-of-bitches.’
Legitimately one of the best scripts of all time.
A proper love story: Josey is also an example of a love story done right, which comes at an opportune time, considering I savaged the Hawkeye-Cora romance in The Last of the Mohicans Last week. As Josey leaves to confront Ten Bears, Laura Lee runs out of the cabin to stop him. Josey rides off without saying a word.
It comes off as cold and dismissive, like Josey doesn’t care about Laura Lee, only himself. But once the story develops, you can see it’s actually the opposite. Josey is going to secure their future together, the most important thing a man can do for a woman. A man’s love isn’t about sappy words. It’s about deeds. It’s about service. It’s about confronting danger to achieve security. Josey is an amazing love story that devotes almost no dialogue to it. Men don’t say it - they do it, as Josey does perfectly.
Go with your words, prepare with your guns: I can’t say enough but this scene with Josey confronting Ten Bears, but here’s another angle of profound philosophical importance: go with your words, prepare with your guns. Josey enters hostile, possibly deadly territory with the intent to talk his way through it, all while his crew ready the guns at the cabin. It’s the proper order of operations, morally and tactically. You bring your words and sincerely attempt to persuade, but you have a backup plan in case you are met with hostility and attack. It’s just as true today as it was in the Old West. It respects the rights of others, while readying for the preservation of your own.
And in Josey’s case, that preparation becomes vital when he’s attacked by a third party - bounty hunters, not the Indians. When we prepare in anticipation of one threat, it comes in handy when the unexpected threat arrives instead.
The moral obligation against the black pill: As a whole, the movie is a lesson of encouragement against the black pill. They might burn down your house. They might kill your family. They might chase you to a barren wasteland and still pursue you further. But that doesn’t mean you give up. It doesn’t mean you surrender. Because it doesn’t mean there aren’t people and things worth living for, and opportunities to better those lives as well as your own.
Josey could have much more easily taken his revolvers and shot himself after burying his family. He would have saved himself a lot of struggle. But he also would have doomed every person he picked up on his path to earn his revenge. And of course, he would have forgone that revenge entirely.
Josey is right - it’s living that’s the hard part, not dying - but that’s why we must pursue it, no matter the struggle, and no matter the discouragement. Great things are great because they’re difficult, not because they’re easy, and every day is an opportunity for something better than yesterday, unless we quit.
Even if it’s just to slowly stab the guy who murdered your whole family, there’s something worthwhile tomorrow if you commit to it.
THE WORST:
Laura Lee needs weapons training: Laura Lee’s rifle stock under the arm was hilarious. I suppose it’s not inaccurate presentation - I can definitely see a chick shooting this way - but with form like this, how was she so effective at taking out all those men?
Rifle stock under the arm - sorry for the crappy photo-of-the-TV quality. Screenshots were banned on my viewing platform.
THE RATING: 5/5 Wickies - I love everything about this movie. Its action, its writing, its themes - it’s rare that a movie is tense, deep, and funny, but this one accomplishes the trifecta.
YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇
NEXT WEEK: The Hunt (2020)
AFTER THAT? YOU PICK - VOTE! For the last Sunday in May, Matt’s personal favorite movies are up for the vote! This is one week and one week only, so choose wisely. Some of these movies I have not seen for years or even a decade plus. I have fond memories of all of them, but that’s no guarantee I will still love them re-watching them now. Additionally, I would have selected Idiocracy and Black Hawk Down, but those have already been reviewed.
Note: in recent weeks, there has been some malfunction with the polling. If you get an error when trying to vote, click ‘jump to results’ and then ‘view poll’ - that will take you to the Strawpoll website, and you should be able to vote there. Sorry for complication.
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