clint eastwood's fifth film as a director is perhaps his most remarkable. "the outlaw josey wales" is simply an utter joy of a film, turning the western and revenge genre's on their respective heads and pushing the boundaries of hollywood drama.
everybody knows the story of how "the outlaw josey wales" is an analogy for the war in vietnam, so i wont explore that concept here. i like looking at the film as a predecessor to the modern vogue of taking a hero and emphasising the concept that the hero in question is out of their time. this is where any similiarities bear to real conflict, be it vietnam, iraq or the battle of endor, and their heroes (read victims) are strongest.
the modern western, in the shape of "the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford" (2007) and "there will be blood" (2007) take a lot of inspiration from eastwood's film, in fact its probably not an overstatement to suggest that "the outlaw josey wales" paved the way for the aforementioned films, as well as countless others (not forgetting eastwood's own "unforgiven").
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