Review of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) by Georges D — 20 Jan 2010

"You know there ain't no forgettin'"...

That unfairly underrated movie by Eastwood is not only a story of vengeance, it is also a story about the injustice of imposing official forgiveness and amnesia, i.e. amnesty, after a conflict or a war is over. It might be a necessary act in terms of politics in order to bring a nation back together, but as far as individuals are concerned, that cannot satisfy the legitimate thirst for justice when crimes have been committed under the cover of war.

By becoming an outlaw, Josey Wales is not really better than the people he seeks revenge from. Actually, he kills many people who have nothing to do with the murder of his family and to that extent he could not be called a real hero. Yet there is something in his behaviour that makes him different from normal outlaws, who usually are ruffians: the law is running out from is the law of governements, but he still retains a personal morality, ethics based on humans. And the way he constitutes a new family made of other victims from the governement injustice is very interesting: an old indian, a young squaw, the widow and daughter of a dead Confederate soldier.

The final sequence makes perfect sense; once revenge could be exercised, the bluecoat who had been chasing after him forever (but who was not part of the initial massacre) offers a second amnesty to Josey Wales, a true one extending to the oblivion of his name...