SHUT-IN MOVIE #7: THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976)

I stumbled across this on TCM on Wednesday evening, it had already started and was already 15 minutes into the running time. This has always been one of my favourites so I decided to watch it properly without adverts, and this morning I sat down and watched it and all the extras on my 2001 DVD edition. I'm very glad I did. The story, set at the end of the American Civil War sees renegade Southern, Josey Wales searching for revenge after the brutal slaughter of his family as he's hunted across American by the men who murdered his wife and torched his farm. But it's also about a man, emotionally dead, rediscovering his humanity as he inadvertently creates a new family made up of other damaged souls he encounters along the way. Watching Josey's character soften and his humanity rekindled is what gives this film it's true heart and a charm, a charm that is sorely missing in most Westerns. People often claim Unforgiven is Eastwood's best western, but for me it's this one. And his Josey Wales is by far his most sympathetic and stoic western hero. Clint Eastwood directs and stars along with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, John Vernon and Bill McKinney. The cinematography by Bruce Surtees, James Fargo, and Fritz Manes is rich and natural. Clint shot the film on many locations in early Autumn to catch the right sort of light. The dialogue, from a script by Phil Kaufman and Sonia Chernus is well written and nicely clipped and nearly every line Josey utters is worthy of a t-shirt. And the music by Jerry Fielding is a perfect fit. Just love this film and once again I barely noticed the running time of 131 minutes, indeed this is one of those rare films I would happily of continued to watch if it had run for another 131 minutes. Finally if you own this on DVD or blu and haven't watched the extras give them a go, there' two of merit a short 7 minute piece filmed at the time showing Eastwood behind the cameras and a longer 30 minute docu filmed in 2001 and talking to Eastwood and several member of the original cast which is worth watching. There's also a wonderful end credit sequence featuring every scene of Eastwood spitting while he explains which chewing tobacco he used. 9/10