The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976, PG)

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Grade: A

The Outlaw Josey Wales fully deserves to be viewed as a western masterpiece.  Clint Eastwood's masterpiece to get more specific.  He did, after all, call this his most favorite film that he ever did.  The Outlaw Josey Wales is a very important instrument in western filmmaking, as it clearly illustrates how far the iconic western can go.  Yes, the Outlaw Josey Wales is an iconic film, one that echoes back to another great western epic of equal value as this one, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  In both films, the lanky but tough Mr. Eastwood is an anti-hero, as he sits on his trotting horse, ready to draw his revolvers at any moment, and doing what's good in his own view of right and wrong.  But in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Eastwood's character was motivated by greed for wealth.  In the Outlaw Josey Wales, he is motivated further by revenge for the murder of his family, and the urge to help another family so that the same thing won't happen to them.  Thus, the Outlaw Josey Wales goes deep into characterization, which is only one of the many elements that clarifies this western motion picture as a crowning winner in the western genre.