The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)
In a way "The Outlaw Josey Wales" takes up the same themes as "Beloved" in a different way. It portrays the difficulty of doing good things in bad times, and the difficulty of forgiving yourself for the things you may have done to cope with the bad times.

Both of those films take place in and around the time of US Civil War, which disrupted as many moral compasses as any time in recent memory. After all, it featured much more than Americans at war with other Americans. It was grounded in a philosophical dispute about people "owning" other people, and it featured neighbors and family killing each other.
Josey was a Missouri farmer whose home was looted and his family slaughtered by marauding Kansas "redlegs". He ended up joining a Confederate renegade unit which was pretty much built on the same tenuous moral ground as the redlegs themselves.

NUDITY REPORT
Sondra Locke is briefly topless.
When the Civil war was over ... well, the fat lady still hadn't sung for anybody in the south. The hatred was still there, the country was filled with displaced slaves trying to find a new existence, and carpetbaggers were trying to scam everyone. The Federal Government, which had tried to obtain the moral high ground in the Civil War by pontificating about the human rights of the slaves, turned around and started taking a lot of those same rights away from the indigenous native tribes. It was an ugly time which made people do ugly things.

So the farmer Josey Wales, who didn't even know how to shoot a gun, became the ruthless slayer of hundreds and a hunted man. But the hardest adjustment of all was to become a man again, in the company of other men, after years of being a killing machine and a loner.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • widescreen anamorphic 2.35:1

  • no major features
Clint Eastwood directed himself in this movie, and he did a great job. He was still under the spell of Sergio Leone a bit, so there are a few too many squinty-eyed close ups for my taste, but this is a great epic Western. The photography is outstanding, the minor characters are great (especially Chief Dan George as an old Indian with a sharp wit), the history and period reproductions are accurate, the music is from that era, and Eastwood is excellent at telling an economical straightforward narrative yarn.

I don't know if it is the best Western ever, but it's probably my favorite, I guess because it's more human and touching than The Searchers or Unforgiven.

The Critics Vote

  • No consensus, but I guess an average of three stars. Maltin 2.5/4, Apollo 90/100

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.6, Apollo users 95/100, both indicating classic status greater than the critical overview on the left. If you ignore Maltin, then everyone agrees.
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a B. You don't have to like Westerns to enjoy it.

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