Eastwood is Josey Wales, a man trying to raise a wife and son after the Civil War. One day, out of nowhere comes a group of men called "red legs" who kill his wife and son and leave him for dead.
Wales joins another group hunting them down. The group gets most of the job done and then decides to quit since the war is long over and they accept a peace settlement from the US Government. All surrender except Josey Wales, who wants everyone associated with the murder of his family to pay.
Josey sees his friends killed in an ambush set up by the Union Army, and that sets him off. He rides into the camp an kills almost everyone. The news spreads fast and Josey is labeled a killer and has a huge price put on his head.
On his adventure Wales meets up with an Indian named Lone Watie (Chief Dan George) who joins him on his mission. It seems everywhere Wales goes, people end up dying since he has a price on his head.
"Wales eventually settles down with a rag tag group of people including a woman named Laura Lee (Sondra Locke), Little Moonlight (Geraldine Keams), Grandma Sarah (Paula Trueman) and a few others. His past catches up to him and the final showdown takes place between the small group and the people looking to kill Wales.
This is an excellent example of a great western. Eastwood stars and also directed, which he shows he has considerable talent for both. The film has some great comedic moments between Eastwood and Chief Dan George and also contains some of the best action sequences ever in a western film.
A Highly Recommended gem.
A very nice write up on my favorite movie, thanks! I finally got to see this on the big screen last year and it was awesome.
ReplyDeleteI hope I can catch a big screen showing of it sometime.
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