Following the killing his wife and children by the Yankees, Josey Wales, a farmer, enlisted at the southerners to take revenge.
After several successes including a brilliant trial run in the thriller ( A shiver in the night , 1972), and a pure black diamond under high influence Leone ( Man High Plains , 1973), it is with his fifth film as Eastwood finally imposed itself among the greatest.
While masters like John Ford or Howard Hawks made their swansong gender few years ago (The Cheyenne in 1964 for Ford, and Hawks with Rio Lobo in 1970) and that the old glories like John Wayne mired in the works of Mark Andrew McLaglen as jobbers, the '70s saw the decline and gradual disappearance of the western on the screens. The few successes emerged during this period will retain the frame to use for other purposes, the ecological fable of initiation ( Jeremiah Johnson Sidney Pollack, 1972), the humorous and picaresque tale (Little Big Man Arthur Penn , 1970) or the big goofy parody ( The Sheriff is in jail Mel Brooks 1974).
Initiate a western in such an environment is therefore a very risky bet (a situation that will find when Eastwood tackle Unforgiven in 1992). Everything starts when a colleague of his company forward in Eastwood Malpaso on a novel and obscure (edited to 75 copies per publishing house in Arkansas ) written by Forrest Carter, whose treatment of the consequences of war on the characters immediately captivated.
Although a first adaptation screenplay has already been drawn in by Sonia Chenus, Eastwood, wishing to incorporate more action and suspense (one of the major differences with the book is that Wales is hunted until the last moments of the film) decides to entrust the rewriting Philip Kaufman. The quality of his script to Eastwood inspire them carry the film, just as he had given his chance in the very young Michael Cimino's Thunderbolt and Lightfoot for . The rest is history, different artistic producer incentives Eastwood Kaufman to return and resume the movie itself, which episode will set a precedent in the film industry can not now be taken up by a team member in case of return of the director at least officially.
If visually and thematically The Man in the High Plains , paid tribute to Eastwood spaghetti western, this influence is more subtle here. We find the realism with a specific Leone West rough and dirty, threatening and glaucous but devoid of any flamboyance, carried by the splendid autumnal photo of Bruce Surtees. Relieved of the Baroque and humorous dimension of Leone, the West is seen by Eastwood be a monument of barbarism in the most violent moments of the film. (The massacre of the family of Josey, attempted rape on Sondra Locke). Finally it is in the iconize character Josey Wales need to see the footprint of Leone. Preceded by its reputation and fear wherever he goes, Wales itself as a guerrilla almost invincible. True to its policy at least is most, Eastwood is particularly threatening by its mere presence (filmed almost always showing a slight dive against his ascendancy over his rivals) and many duels scattered throughout the film are wonders waiting and tension on the brink of explosion.
The scene where he faces Comancheros alone in the desert carrying a white flag (which happens to be attached to a rifle) is very successful in this vein. The characterization of the character with his famous habit of spitting his chewing tobacco is a wonderful invention, the potential comic or dramatic depending on the situation and enhancing the casualness and the coldness of the character (as when he spit on the corpses of the fiercest opponents) just as some mumbled between his famous replicas teeth of an icy tone (a specialty of specialties Eastswood), some have become legendary. Bounty hunter
: You're wanted, Wales.Josey Wales: Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?
Bounty Hunter: A Man's Got to Do Something for a Living These Days.
Josey Wales: Dyin 'Is not Much of a living, boy.
The film has the merit of addressing an issue not dealt with, after the Civil War. Just a few years after the withdrawal of the last troops from Vietnam, the subject is have contemporary resonances before it is discussed in more frontally in future works. Few aspects discussed previously about the Civil War we have shown in all their crudities mitigating the coup Manichaeism North / South rigor: the defeated southerners betrayed and murdered at the surrender, militias raping and killing with impunity The disillusionment of the once prosperous villages .
In this troubled context the haven may be possible that the family, Josey Wales, who lost his of the most violent and most dramatic manner, the revenge is now the only engine of his actions, yet in spite of himself a new family will be around him. It is there that addresses what is one of the greatest achievements of film, its great and endearing cast of characters. Wales will meet during term individuals are amazing and picturesque that it will be necessary to protect and he should team up well at his expense: Lone Watie, a crafty and malicious Indian (great performance by Dan George real old chieftain One of the Indian characters more human and humorous view on the screen Little Big Man with ), a cantankerous grandmother and her little girl played by a young Sondra Locke, who starts his story with Eastwood) and a young Cheyenne full of up despite a journey of more painful.
Josey Wales therefore also the story of redemption, the contact with his new "family" reducing his desire for revenge and allowing him to find inner peace. The exchange with the Indian leader Ten Bears and the final dialogue with former comrade in arms Fletcher (John Vernon excellent) are wonderful messages of peace and forgiveness that affect the viewer right in the heart as this plan that ends the fixed final film in the most perfect that is, all having been told not need to press unnecessarily we know which makes and Josey galloping ...
Released on DVD zone 2 french Warner
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