The Outlaw Josey Wales

• 1. Introduction

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  The Outlaw Josey Wales closes with these words: "I reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damned war." The 1976 Clint Eastwood film earned $31.8 million at the box office against a production budget of $3.7 million. It arrived in theaters in August of that year at a moment when critics widely believed the Western was a dying genre in Hollywood.

  The film's production had fractured midway through, when Eastwood replaced his original director and took over the project himself. That episode triggered an industry fine and a new rule that still applies today. Behind the film lay a source novel whose author had hidden his real identity. The film's commercial success helped bring that deception to light.

  At the heart of the story is a Missouri farmer named Josey Wales, who loses everything before the Civil War even ends.

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• 2. The Author's Hidden Past

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  Asa Earl Carter published his novel under the pen name Forrest Carter, concealing a past most of his readers never knew about. Carter had been a Ku Klux Klan leader. He had also written segregationist speeches for Alabama governor George Wallace. His true identity remained largely hidden during the film's production, but the adaptation's commercial success helped bring it to public attention.

  The novel had originally appeared in 1972 under the title The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales. By the time the film reached theaters, it had been republished as Gone to Texas, a change reflected in the film's opening credits. Eastwood personally contributed funds to secure the screen rights. Philip Kaufman, who helped develop the production, described Carter's work as "written by a crude fascist." Kaufman also felt "the man's hatred of government was insane" and believed the political content needed to be severely toned down. When Eastwood declined to make those cuts, Kaufman described the impasse plainly: "Clint didn't, and it was his film."

  What Kaufman preserved from Carter's novel was Wales' exact manner of speech. Words like "reckon," "hoss" for horse, and "ye" for you were kept from the source. So was Wales' habit of spitting tobacco juice on animals and, sometimes, victims. The characters of Lone Watie, Little Moonlight, Sarah Turner, and her granddaughter Laura Lee all came directly from Carter's pages as well.

  Kaufman's team had already scouted filming locations in Page, Arizona; Tucson; Kanab, Utah; and Oroville, California before cameras began rolling.

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• 3. The Eastwood Rule

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  Principal photography on The Outlaw Josey Wales began on the 6th of October 1975. Sonia Chernus had developed the screenplay alongside Michael Cimino, with Kaufman directing and overseeing the script. Kaufman's approach to production was meticulous; he demanded period accuracy and detailed attention in every scene. That put him in regular conflict with Eastwood. Eastwood had also cast a specific actress in the female lead over Kaufman's explicit objections.

  One evening, Kaufman left the set to find a beer can needed as a prop. While he was gone, Eastwood ordered cinematographer Bruce Surtees to shoot the scene quickly; the natural light was fading. Eastwood drove away before Kaufman returned. On the 24th of October 1975, producer Bob Daley, acting at Eastwood's direction, fired Kaufman from the film. The dismissal drew immediate outrage from the Directors Guild of America, since Kaufman had completed all pre-production work. Prominent figures in Hollywood objected. Warner Bros. Pictures and Eastwood refused to back down. The studio paid a fine reported to be around $60,000 for the rules violation.

  The Directors Guild passed what became known as "the Eastwood Rule." It prohibits an actor or producer from firing the director and then personally stepping into that role. Filming wrapped on the 6th of December 1975, with producer Bob Daley serving as Eastwood's second-in-command for the remainder of the shoot.

  Ferris Webster handled the film's editing, and Jerry Fielding composed the score.

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• 4. Casting and Conflict

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  Chief Dan George had already received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor before Kaufman cast him as Lone Watie. George had earned that recognition for his earlier role in Little Big Man. Lone Watie becomes one of Wales' closest companions on the journey, accompanying him as an unlikely group of outcasts slowly comes together in Texas.

  Sondra Locke, cast by Eastwood over Kaufman's objections, played Laura Lee, the granddaughter of Kansas widow Sarah Turner. Locke, who brought her own Academy Award nomination to the role, was 32 at the time, a decade older than the character as written. She was still married to Gordon Anderson during filming. The professional and personal relationship between Eastwood and Locke that began here would span six films and continue into the late 1980s.

  In June 1975, Eastwood had been announced as the film's lead, with a Bicentennial Celebration release originally planned.

  Before its release, the film was pre-screened at a conference called "Western Movies: Myths and Images," held in Sun Valley, Idaho over six days.

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• 5. Critical Triumph

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  Directors King Vidor, Henry King, William Wyler, and Howard Hawks attended the screening alongside critics Jay Cocks and Arthur Knight and the academic Bruce Jackson.

  Time magazine placed The Outlaw Josey Wales in its list of the year's top ten. Roger Ebert compared Eastwood's portrayal of Josey Wales to his earlier "Man with No Name" character from the Dollars Trilogy. Ebert also praised the atmosphere and the vulnerability Eastwood brought to the role.

  Orson Welles offered one of the film's most striking endorsements. Appearing on The Merv Griffin Show, Welles called Eastwood "one of America's finest directors." The retrospective view on Rotten Tomatoes settled at 91 percent, based on 46 reviews. Critics described it as the first of Eastwood's great revisionist works of the genre.

  Jerry Fielding's score earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Original Music Score at the 49th Academy Awards.

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• 6. Legacy and Meaning

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  In 1996, the United States Library of Congress selected The Outlaw Josey Wales for preservation in the National Film Registry. The designation cited it as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

  Clint Eastwood offered his own interpretation of the film in 2011, calling it an anti-war picture. He described seeing parallels to contemporary conflicts at the time of production. "Everybody gets tired of it, but it never ends," he said of war. He also noted a troubling dimension: "A war is a horrible thing, but it's also a unifier of countries." He cited weapons development during World War II as evidence, pointing to ships, guns, tanks, and planes including P-38s and P-51s. All of it was built in four short years, driven by urgency and camaraderie. "Man becomes his most creative during war," he said. His final observation was uncomfortable: "that's kind of a sad statement on mankind, if that's what it takes."

  In 1986, Michael Parks took the title role in the sequel, The Return of Josey Wales, with Mary Ann Averett as Laura Lee.

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