Clint Eastwood is an acknowledged master-director but even for him The Outlaw Josey Wales is truly experimental. Here Eastwood is a Missouri farmer turned Confederate guerrilla who teams up - yes - with the Indians (!).
The plot foreshadows the superior Unforgiven greatly as Josey is forced to fight in retaliation due to the deaths of his wife and son by pro-Union Jayhawkers. The emotions are authentic insofar as they go. But the politics of the film are the more fascinating as one delves into them; the source novel was written by a Klansman!!
Especially in the context of Vietnam, the film is weird meddling of anarchist and libertarian themes. Even today I'm not sure what to think of it. For Eastwood, it may affirm his conservative ideology but the common moviegoer may see this as simply another generic man-against-the-system movie.
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