Classic Eastwood
Other than John Wayne and Gary Cooper, there are so few actors that just have that particular, totally believable look and demeanor about them whenever they play a western role. Eastwood is as gritty and believable a cowboy or old west star as they come, and that presence is evident in The Outlaw Josey Wales.
After seeing his family die before him, Josey gets his guns together and rides off with a band of Confederates. During the opening credits we see a variety of quick scenes that tell us that this group stayed busy harassing and killing Union men. Of course, the Union eventually wins the war; and while the rest of his comrades turn themselves in, only to get tricked and murdered by the Union, Josey rides on intending to continue to avenge the death of his family.
He becomes an outlaw, with the Union and a variety of bounty hunters and pretty much anyone with a gun out to capture him and claim their reward. Fortunately, not everyone Josey encounters is against him. He meets Lone Watie, played by Chief Dan George, and rescues Little Moonlight (Geraldine Keams). An uneasy relationship at first, and also one that brings some well placed comic relief, this trio continues to elude their pursuers. Eventually they run into a family under much duress that includes Laura Lee (Sondra Locke) and Grandma Sarah (Paula Trueman). Wales meets other people in a small Texas town that help him out, and eventually, a big showdown occurs as Wales wonders if life could, maybe, just ever be ‘normal’ again.
The Outlaw Josey Wales is clearly an American classic and one of many superb films by Eastwood. This is one of those movies that you can watch over and over again, and it never loses its zeal year to year.
The Blu-ray Treatment
I thought Warner did a great job with this Blu-ray release. It starts with the packaging: a Blu-ray book which is an unusual format usually reserved for classic films, which is a category Josey Wales certainly fits in to. This full color booklet includes a lot of still images and quotes from the film as well as several short articles related to the movie and Clint. Sure, you may only read it once, but it goes to show that Warner cared about this release and they made something special out of it.
The presentation quality is very good if not great. Some scenes are a little grainy, maybe not as vibrant as others, but in general the image quality is solid. Several spoken language tracks are included too, with the English track being in DTS-HD 5.1, and it sounds great.
There are two new extra features included on this Blu-ray release and a few older features, too. Here’s what you get:
-Audio Commentary by Richard Schickel, a famous film critic. This is one of the new features.
-“Clint Eastwood’s West” (29m, HD) – An interesting documentary about Eastwood and his stamp on the western film. This is the second of two new features.
-Hell Hath No Fury – The Making of The Outlaw Josey Wales (30m, SD) – A vintage making of documentary, including Eastwood talking about his role, both as an actor and director. Lots of production and behind the scenes footage, too.
-Eastwood In Action (8m, SD) – This is sort of an eight minute promo for the movie.
-Theatrical Trailer (SD) – Good to see this included.
To the summary…