Amazon.com Essentials:
Clint Eastwood fired the original director, Philip Kaufman
(The Right Stuff),
and took over the reins of this project himself. He may have had a
point: this brutal, thoughtful western, a near-tragedy about a Civil
War veteran whose past comes looking for him, is probably Eastwood's
most mature frontier drama prior to the Oscar winning
Unforgiven. Hoping
to build a quiet life in a cooperative community of settlers,
Eastwood's Wales blames himself when his enemies attack the homestead,
and he has to revert to his warrior instincts to help fend off the
threat. The jittery intensity of Sondra Locke (who would be
Mrs. Eastwood, at least for a while), and the screen-filling charisma
of the late Chief Dan George harmonize beautifully with Eastwood, who
had finally figured out how to add depth and texture to his
stock-in-trade Man of Steel persona. This one may be too short on
action to satisfy fans of Eastwood's
Dirty Harry films,
or of the Italian westerns he made with Sergio Leone, but it's an
honorable effort. --David Chute
Amazon.com video review:
As both an actor and a director, Clint Eastwood has had a string of unparalleled critical and commercial successes, from his trademark Westerns to the Dirty Harry action films. This set of six Eastwood films captures the actor as both cowboy and cop, from the 1970s to the '90s. Eastwood ventured into new territory with 1971's The Beguiled, a creepy and seductive thriller about an injured Civil War soldier who causes strife at an all-girls school. While there, he tempts an innocent girl (Elizabeth Hartman), and engages in an unnerving battle of the minds with the school headmistress (Geraldine Page, at her tortured best). The same year, Eastwood burst onto screens with Dirty Harry. This action blockbuster introduced the world to Harry Callahan while making waves with its aggressive violence and nonstop thrills. Eastwood himself helmed the vigilante Western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) as well as the comedy Bronco Billy (1980), which films show Eastwood at different ends of the cowboy spectrum: a vengeful family man seeking revenge and an amiable traveling showman who runs a Wild West extravaganza, respectively.
With his Oscar-winning film Unforgiven, Eastwood showed himself as the master of the revisionist Western, crafting a morally complex tale of Western justice that turns the notion of good guys and bad guys on its head. And he proved he still had star status with the thriller In the Line of Fire, playing an aging FBI agent who takes on a cunning psycho (John Malkovich) determined to assassinate the president. While this selection doesn't feature any Sergio Leone Westerns or Eastwood's later acclaimed dramas, it remains a great snapshot of a long and illustrious career. --Mark Englehart
Amazon.com Essentials:
During the Civil War, Union "Redlegs" attack Southerner Josey Wales's
dirt
farm and wipe out his family. Seeking vengeance, Wales throws in with a
company of Reb guerrillas. Tagged as a renegade after the surrender, he
flees
west into the vastness of the Indian Territories, where, quite
unintentionally, he finds himself cast as the straight-shooting
paterfamilias
of an ever-growing, spectacularly motley community of misfits and
castaways.
Which is to say, Josey's personal quest for survival and something like
peace
of mind evolves into a funky, multicultural allegory of the healing of
America.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Clint Eastwood's 31st film as an
actor, 20th as
international star, and 5th as director, was the first to win him
widespread
respect. Critics had grumbled when the producer-star replaced Philip
Kaufman
(The Right Stuff) in the director's chair a week into shooting.
They ended up
cheering when Eastwood delivered both his most sympathetic performance to
date
and--with the heroic collaboration of cinematographer Bruce Surtees--an
impressive Panavision epic that stresses the scruffiness, rather than the
scenic splendors, of frontier life.
Though it's been honored with a place in the National Film Registry, Josey
Wales is good, not great, Eastwood. The big-gun fetishism can get tiresome,
and too many characters exist only to serve as six-gun (and at one point
Gatling gun) fodder. But mostly the film is agreeably eccentric, and almost
furtively sweet in spirit--a key transitional title in the Eastwood
filmography, and one of his most entertaining. --Richard T. Jameson
Amazon.com Essentials:
Clint Eastwood fired the original director, Philip Kaufman
(The Right Stuff),
and took over the reins of this project himself. He may have had a
point: this brutal, thoughtful western, a near-tragedy about a Civil
War veteran whose past comes looking for him, is probably Eastwood's
most mature frontier drama prior to the Oscar winning
Unforgiven. Hoping
to build a quiet life in a cooperative community of settlers,
Eastwood's Wales blames himself when his enemies attack the homestead,
and he has to revert to his warrior instincts to help fend off the
threat. The jittery intensity of Sondra Locke (who would be
Mrs. Eastwood, at least for a while), and the screen-filling charisma
of the late Chief Dan George harmonize beautifully with Eastwood, who
had finally figured out how to add depth and texture to his
stock-in-trade Man of Steel persona. This one may be too short on
action to satisfy fans of Eastwood's
Dirty Harry films,
or of the Italian westerns he made with Sergio Leone, but it's an
honorable effort. --David Chute
