The film begins with the murder of a Missouri man's family by rogue Union soldiers. Seeking revenge, Josey Wales chooses to join a Confederate guerilla group. Unwilling to surrender even after the end of the war, Wales becomes an outlaw pursued by both bounty hunters and former Union soldiers.
How historically accurate is The Outlaw Josey Wales?
9 The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
While Wales was a real person — and he did enact violence on Union soldiers — there are some inaccuracies to Eastwood's interpretation of the character. Most notably, the real-life Wales didn't attack Union soldiers because he lost his family to them (via Notes From the Frontier).
This resulted in the Director's Guild passing a new rule, known as "the Eastwood Rule", which prohibits an actor or producer from firing the director and then personally taking on the director's role.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Josey Wales is a fictional character created by author Asa Earl Carter (writing under the pseudonym Forrest Carter as a supposedly Cherokee writer) for his 1973 novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (republished in 1975 as Gone to Texas).
But his family was rousted from their house and their homestead burned to the ground by Union soldiers. The real Josey Wales was a Confederate guerilla fighter, a “bushwacker,” an associate of the bloody Quantrill Raiders, horse rustler, deadly shot, and killer of many.
Plunderers and militant abolitionists were referred to as "Jayhawkers" or "Red Legs" and both were used as terms of derision towards those from Kansas after the Civil War. The term "Jayhawk" has evolved over the years to a term of pride used by some Kansans.
Josey wales carying 4 pistols was actually a very commonly used tactic by Civil War Guerilla Fighters. Revolvers were almost never reloaded during battle, and were mostly thrown aside when they were emptied.
What pistol did Clint Eastwood carry in The Outlaw Josey Wales?
A screen-matched, blank-firing, hero Colt Walker-style revolver from Clint Eastwood's revenge Western The Outlaw Josey Wales. Wales (Eastwood) carried his signature dual Colt Army Model Whitneyville Walker revolvers with him throughout the film as he hunted the men who killed his family.
The Outlaw Josey Wales production team descended upon Lake Powell in October 1975 to commence filming. The production process took eight and a half weeks with various scenes filmed in other locations around Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, and Oroville, California.
Seeking revenge, Josey Wales chooses to join a Confederate guerilla group. Unwilling to surrender even after the end of the war, Wales becomes an outlaw pursued by both bounty hunters and former Union soldiers.
The Return of Josey Wales is a 1986 American Western film directed by and starring Michael Parks It is a sequel to Clint Eastwood's 1976 film The Outlaw Josey Wales and was adapted from The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales, the 1976 second novel featuring the Josey Wales character, by Asa Earl Carter.
That was Chief Dan George who played Lone Watie in the 1976 western. The actor was born Geswanouth Slahoot to a tribal chief on Burrard Indian Reserve No. 3 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and he was chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation from 1951 to 1963.
After the Confederate surrender and the end of the war, the character Wales continues to seek revenge on those individuals who were responsible. The story continues with Wales eventually finding peace and a relationship with a female rancher, presumably escaping his violent past and living out his days.
Ten Bears, played by the Muscogee actor Will Sampson, is portrayed in the film The Outlaw Josey Wales as a Comanche chief defending his home who then makes a "live and let live" peace with the title character, portrayed by Clint Eastwood.
Josey and Jamie cross the Missouri river on a ferry (tethered barge). The Union pursuers are on the next barge trip, and Josey shoots the rope sending the barge down the river. Josey was headed South and West towards Texas, and presumably was on the west side of the river.
He rode with both Quantrill and General Joe Shelby. All the Rangers frequented his place while in Sherman. While the movie Josie Wales had minor historical inaccuracies, it had many parallels to the life of the Bushwhacker Bill Wilson.
What kind of rifle did the outlaw Josey Wales use?
Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) carries a Sharps 1865 rifle fitted with a full length J. Stevens brass tube target scope, which he uses to shoot the ferry rope in two, leaving the pursuing Redlegs stranded in the water.
Doc carried a nickel-plated . 41 caliber Colt Thunderer or sometimes a . 38 caliber Colt Lightening, both modern (at the time) double action pistols. There is no reliable account record of Doc carrying two pistols at the same time as Doc was not a gun fighter but rather an acclaimed and award winning dentist.
Colt 1848 Pocket: Josey Wales carries the . 31 caliber pistol in a breast-pocket holster and uses it to kill one of the two men who try to capture him. Howitzer Cannon: Confederate soldiers fire a Howitzer Cannon at Union troops during a Civil War battle scene.
Gun ownership was commonplace in the post-Civil War Old West, but actual gunfights were rare. One reason was that, contrary to the mythology, many frontier towns had strict gun laws, especially against carrying concealed weapons.
The Colt Buntline Special was a long-barreled variant of the Colt Single Action Army revolver, which Stuart N. Lake described in his best-selling but largely fictionalized 1931 biography, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal.
