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The Outlaw Josey Wales

Directed by Clint Eastwood,  Writing Credits,  Forrest Carter...(book)  Philip Kaufman...(screenplay) (as Phil Kaufman) and  Sonia Chernus...(screenplay) Bruce Surtees...director of photography
TOJW  tells the story of Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered by Union militants during the Civil War. Driven to revenge, Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla band and makes a name for himself as a feared gunfighter.

TOJW Themes

  • How the Civil War pitted citizen against citizen.
  • Personal integrity vs personal benefit
  • Subversion of religion during war
  • What is Civilization?
  • Definitions and importance of Family

Clint Eastwood Westerns

Common Western Themes

  •  The conquest of the wild west
  • The cultural separation of the East and the West
  • The West’s resistance to modern change
  • The conflict between Cowboys and Indians, outlaws
  • Treasure/gold hunting.
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News of the  World 

Dir: Paul Greengrass. Starring: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Michael Covino, Fred Hechinger, Neil Sandilands, Thomas Francis Murphy. Based on 2016 Novel by Paulette Jiles
Tom Hanks plays Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hank's first Western!)
This could be considered a "Revisionist Western". - The Romantic view of traditional Westerns is of the new American exploring and conquering untamed lands. In the 1970's, Westerns started to question the purity of that vison of the American West. News of the World expands on the question of "were Americans the good guys or the bad guys" as they invaded and collected land through violence and force. Kidd fought for the Confederate Army but did not believe what they stood for. Still, he killed under the flag. Now, he is concerned about healing the country and himself.

  • What new genre - themes are introduced or reinforced?
  • How does Kidd justify and/or seek to redeem himself?
  • How do the two protagonists represent a divide nation? What can fix it?
  • Does this film do anything to change the old Western narrative of the "white man" and his progression during this time of history?
  • Director Greengrass actually uses "fake news" in a scene. What can we take from that?
  • Obviously, there were no media like we have today. Yet, the storyteller was still revered and needed. How is our thirst for "information" changing our world today?