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Home , A Perfect World, Bay City Blues, Bill McKinney, Breezy, Bronco Billy, Bruce Surtees

Please turn off cellphones during screening March 20, 2012 (XXIV:9) , THE OUTLAW (1976, 135 min.)

Directed by Clint Eastwood Screenplay by and Sonia Chernus Based on the novel by Forrest Carter Produced by Original Music by Cinematography by Film Editing by

Clint Eastwood…Josey Wales …Lone Watie …Lee Bill McKinney…Terrill …Fletcher Paula Trueman…Grandma Sarah Sam Bottoms...Jamie Geraldine Keams…Little Moonlight …Carpetbagger John Verros…Chato Will Sampson…Ten Bears John Quade… Leader …Bloody Bill Anderson Charles Tyner…Zukie Limmer …Al …Josey's Son Richard Farnsworth…Comanchero

1996 1983 , 1982 , 1982 Firefox, 1980 , 1977 The Gauntlet, 1976 , 1975 The Eiger Sanction, 1973 , 1973 , Clint Eastwood (b. Clinton Eastwood Jr., May 31, 1930, San 1971 , and 1971 The Beguiled: The Storyteller. Francisco, ) has won five : best He has 67 acting credits, some of which are 2008 , director and best picture for (2004), the 2004 Million Dollar Baby, 2000 , 1999 True Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1995) and best director and Crime, 1997 Absolute Power, 1995 The Bridges of Madison best picture for (1992). He has directed 35 films, County, 1993 , 1993 , 1992 among them 2011 J. Edgar, 2010 Hereafter, 2009 Invictus, 2008 Unforgiven, 1990 White Hunter Black Heart, 1989 Pink Gran Torino, 2008 Changeling, 2006 , Cadillac, 1988 , 1986 , 1985 2006 Flags of Our Fathers, 2004 Million Dollar Baby, 2003 , 1984 Tightrope, 1983 Sudden Impact, 1982 “The Blues”, 2003 Mystic River, 2002 Blood Work, 2000 Space Honkytonk Man, 1982 Firefox, 1980 Any Which Way You Can, Cowboys, 1999 True Crime, 1997 Midnight in the Garden of 1980 Bronco Billy, 1979 Escape from Alcatraz, 1978 Every Good and Evil, 1997 Absolute Power, 1995 The Bridges of Which Way But Loose, 1977 The Gauntlet, 1976/I The Enforcer, Madison County, 1993 A Perfect World, 1992 Unforgiven, 1990 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1975 The Eiger Sanction, 1974 The Rookie, 1990 White Hunter Black Heart, 1988 Bird, 1986 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, 1973 , 1973 High Heartbreak Ridge, 1985 “Amazing Stories”, 1985 Pale Rider, Plains Drifter, 1972 , 1971 , 1971 Play Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—2

Misty for Me, 1971 The Beguiled, 1970 Kelly's Heroes, 1970 has 104 composer credits, including 1979 Escape from Alcatraz, Two Mules for Sister Sara, 1969 Paint Your Wagon, 1968 Where 1979 Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, 1978 The Big Sleep, 1978 Eagles Dare, 1968 Coogan's Bluff, 1968 Hang 'Em High, 1966 Gray Lady Down, 1977 The Gauntlet, 1977 Semi-Tough, 1977 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1965 , Demon Seed, 1976/I The Enforcer, 1976 “The Bionic Woman” 1959-1965 “Rawhide” (217 episodes), 1964 , (10 episodes), 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 The Bad 1958 Ambush at Cimarron Pass, 1958 Lafayette Escadrille, 1956 News Bears, 1971-1976 “McMillan & Wife” (24 episodes), 1975 Away All Boats, 1955 Lady of Coventry, 1955 Francis in , 1975 “Matt Helm”, 1974 “Police Woman”, 1974 the Navy, and 1955 Revenge of the Creature. The Gambler, 1974 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, 1973 The Outfit, 1973 Scorpio, 1972 , 1971 Straw Dogs, Philip Kaufman (October 23, 1936, Chicago, Illinois) has 17 1971 Johnny Got His Gun, 1969-1970 “The Governor & J.J.” (27 screenplay titles, among them 1993 Rising Sun, 1990 Henry & episodes), 1967-1969 “Mission: Impossible” (7 episodes), 1969 June, 1988 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1983 The Right , 1967 “”, 1965-1966 “Hogan's Heroes” Stuff, 1979 The Wanderers, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1972 (24 episodes), 1964 McHale's Navy, 1962 Advise & Consent, and The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, 1967 , and 1952 “The Jerry Fielding Show” (14 episodes). 1964 Goldstein.

Sonia Chernus (August 14, 1909 – June 29, 1990, , California) has only one screenplay credit—this films. She also has TV writing credcits for “Mister Ed”, 1962 and “Rawhide”, and a story credit for 1947 The Big Fix.

Forrest Carter (Asa Carter, 4 September 1925, Anniston, Alabama—7 June 1979, Abilene ,). From IMdB: “Forrest Carter, the author of the controversial memoir (now recognized as a work of fiction) The Education of Little Tree, was the pen- name of Asa Earl Carter...a rabid segregationist who was an infamous racist propagandist in the . A leader of the White Citizens Council (a group dedicated to opposing desegregation and one that was generally considered to be a front group for the Ku Klux Klan) of North Alabama, Carter was the head of a "klavern" of the Ku Klux Klan. He was an unofficial Clint Eastwood and Bruce Surtees on set of "Hang 'Em High" speechwriter for segregationist Governor , the Bruce Surtees (director of photography) (b. Bruce Mohr segregationist governor of Alabama and candidate for the Powell Surtees, July 27, 1937, Los Angeles, California – Presidency (1968, '72). Asa Earl Carter wrote white supremacist February 23, 2012, Carmel, California), was often called “The literature, and was a major contributor to The Southerner, a Prince of Darkness” for his uncanny ability to film in scenes with white-supremacist publication that he edited and published first almost no light at all; he often worked with Eastood. Some of his under the aegis of the racist White Citizens Council. Originally 56 cinematographer credits are 2002 Joshua, 2000 “American accepted as an actual work by a Cherokee Indian, The Education Tragedy”, 2000 “Thin Air”, 1999 “That Championship Season”, of Little Tree ranks as one of the great literary hoaxes of 1998 Just a Little Harmless Sex, 1996 The Substitute, 1995 The American literature. Taking the pen of name Forrest Carter, he Stars Fell on Henrietta, 1992 That Night, 1991 The Super, 1990 published two Westerns, including The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Men Don't Leave, 1988 License to Drive, 1986 Ratboy, 1986 Wales…. After the Eastwood film was released, the New York Psycho III, 1985 Pale Rider, 1984 Beverly Hills Cop, 1984 Times revealed that "Forrest Carter" was actually Asa Earl Tightrope, 1983 Sudden Impact, 1983 Risky Business, 1983 Bad Carter, the segregationist. At the time it was fashionable among Boys, 1982 Honkytonk Man, 1982 White Dog, 1982 Firefox, some critics, in line with Paulene Kael’s criticism of the movie- 1981 Inchon, 1979 Escape from Alcatraz, 1978 Big Wednesday, star/director, to portray Eastwood as a "fascist," and Carter's 1977 Three Warriors, 1976 , 1976 The Outlaw Josey outing was more likely made to embarrass Eastwood rather than Wales, 1976 Leadbelly, 1975 Night Moves, 1974 Lenny, 1973 to out Asa Earl Carter. The Outfit, 1973 Blume in Love, 1973 High Plains Drifter, 1972 Joe Kidd, 1972 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, 1972 The Robert Daley has 17 producer credits, all of them with Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, 1971 Dirty Harry, 1971 Play Eastwood: 1980 Any Which Way You Can, 1980 Bronco Billy, Misty for Me, and 1971 The Beguiled. 1979 Escape from Alcatraz, 1978 Every Which Way But Loose, 1977 The Gauntlet, 1976/I The Enforcer, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Ferris Webster (April 29, 1912, , – February Wales, 1975 The Eiger Sanction, 1974 Thunderbolt and 4, 1989, San Luis Obispo, California) has 74 editing credits, Lightfoot, 1973 Magnum Force, 1973 Breezy, 1973 High Plains among them 1982 Honkytonk Man, 1982 Firefox, 1980 Any Drifter, 1972 Joe Kidd, 1971 Dirty Harry, and 1971 Play Misty Which Way You Can, 1980 Bronco Billy, 1979 Escape from for Me. Alcatraz, 1978 Every Which Way But Loose, 1977 The Gauntlet, 1976/I The Enforcer, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1975 The Jerry Fielding (b. Joshua Feldman, June 17, 1922, , Eiger Sanction, 1974 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, 1973 Magnum – February 17, 1980, , , Canada) Force, 1973 Breezy, 1973 High Plains Drifter, 1972 Joe Kidd, Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—3

1971 The Organization, 1970 A Walk in the Spring Rain, 1970 1974 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, 1974 “The Execution of Start the Revolution Without Me, 1968 , 1966 Slovik”, 1974 “Columbo”, 1974 “Mannix”, 1972 The Life and Seconds, 1964 , 1963 The Great Escape, 1962 Times of Judge Roy Bean, 1972 Junior Bonner, 1972 The Manchurian Candidate, 1961 By Love Possessed, 1960 The , 1970 “McCloud”, 1968 Firecreek, 1968 The Road Magnificent Seven, 1959 Green Mansions, 1958 Cat on a Hot Hustlers, and 1967 She Freak. Tin Roof, 1958 , 1957 , 1956 Tea and Sympathy, 1956 The Fastest Gun Alive, John Vernon… Fletcher (b. Adolphus Raymondus Vernon 1956 Forbidden Planet, 1955 , 1952 Lone Agopsowicz, February 24, 1932, Zehner, Saskatchewan, Canada Star, 1950 Father of the Bride, 1949 Madame Bovary, 1946 – February 1, 2005, Los Angeles, California) has almost 200 Undercurrent, and 1945 The Picture of Dorian Gray. acting credits, some of which are 2008 Delgo, 2002 Warrior Angels, 2002 Sorority Boys, 2002 Welcome to America, 2000 Star Trek: Klingon Academy (Video Game), 1996-1997 “The Incredible Hulk” (9 episodes), 1996 “Spider-Man”, 1995 “Walker, Texas Ranger”, 1992-1994 “” (9 episodes), 1993 The Naked Truth, 1993 “Renegade”, 1992 “Tales from the Crypt”, 1992 “The Ray Bradbury Theater”, 1990 Object of Desire, 1990 Deadly Stranger, 1989 Mob Story, 1988 I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, 1988 Hostile Takeover, 1987 Terminal Exposure, 1987 Ernest Goes to Camp, 1985 “Murder, She Wrote”, 1984 The Blood of Others, 1983 “”, 1983 “The A-Team”, 1983 Chained Heat, 1982 Airplane II: The Sequel, 1979 “Delta House” (13 episodes), 1978 , 1978 “Quincy M.E.”, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1973-1975 “Cannon”, 1975 “McMillan & Wife”, 1975 Brannigan, 1974-1975 “Kung Fu”, 1975 “Gunsmoke”, 1973 , 1969-1972 “Mission: Impossible” (6 episodes), 1971 Dirty Harry, 1969 Topaz, 1969 Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, 1968 “”, 1968 “Felony Squad”, 1966-1968 “Wojeck” (14 episodes), 1967 Point Blank, Chief Dan George… Lone Watie (b. Tes-wah-no, July 24, 1960 “The Unforeseen”, and 1960 “R.C.M.P.” 1899, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – September 23, 1981, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) has 29 acting Paula Trueman… Grandma Sarah (April 25, 1900 in New credits, among them 1972-1981 “The Beachcombers” (7 York City, New York – March 23, 1994, , New episodes), 1980 Nothing Personal, 1979 Spirit of the Wind, 1978 York) has 37 acting credits, including 1985-1988 “Tales from the “Centennial”, 1976 Shadow of the Hawk, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Darkside”, 1987 Moonstruck, 1987 Dirty Dancing, 1987 “The Wales, 1976 Cold Journey, 1975 “McCloud”, 1974 Harry and Equalizer”, 1986 Seize the Day, 1984 Mrs. Soffel, 1983 Zelig, Tonto, 1974 The Bears and I, 1973 “Kung Fu”, 1971 “Bonanza”, 1980 Can't Stop the Music, 1977 Annie Hall, 1976 The Outlaw 1970 Little Big Man, and 1960 “Cariboo Country.” Josey Wales, 1975 The Stepford Wives, 1974 Homebodies, 1971 The Anderson Tapes, 1969 Paint Your Wagon, and 1957 Sondra Locke… Lee (b. Sondra Louise Smith, May 28, 1944, “Decoy.” Shelbyville, Tennessee) has 30 acting credits, among them 1999 Clean and Narrow, 1984 “Tales of the Unexpected”, 1983 Sam Bottoms...Jamie (b. Samuel John Bottoms, October 17, Sudden Impact, 1980 Any Which Way You Can, 1980 Bronco 1955, Santa Barbara, California – December 16, 2008, Los Billy, 1978 Every Which Way But Loose, 1977 The Gauntlet, Angeles, California) has 51 acting credits, including 2007 1977 , 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1973-1975 Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee, 2006 “Cannon”, 1974 “Planet of the Apes”, 1974 “Kung Fu”, 1972 Sherrybaby, 2005 Winter Passing, 2005 Havoc, 2003 Seabiscuit, “The F.B.I.”, 1971 Willard, and 1968 The Heart Is a Lonely 2002 True Files, 1997 Snide and Prejudice, 1995 “The X-Files”, Hunter. 1993 The Trust, 1987 Gardens of Stone, 1981 “East of Eden”, 1980 Bronco Billy, 1979 Up from the Depths, 1979 Apocalypse Bill McKinney… Terrill (September 12, 1931 in Chattanooga, Now, 1978 “The Eddie Capra Mysteries”, 1976 The Outlaw Tennessee – December 1, 2011, Van Nuys, California) has 110 Josey Wales, 1976 “Marcus Welby, M.D.”, 1974 “Savages”, acting credits, including 2011 The Custom Mary, 2007 Lucky 1973 Class of '44, and 1971 The Last Picture Show. You, 2006 The Devil Wears Spurs, 2005 2001 Maniacs, 2003 Hellborn, 1999 The Green Mile, 1995 “Batman”, 1992 Geraldine Keams… Little Moonlight (August 19, 1951, “Baywatch”, 1990 “Hunter”, 1989 Pink Cadillac, 1987 “Falcon ) has 21 acting credits, among which are 2010 Faster, Crest”, 1983-1985 “The A-Team”, 1985 “Riptide”, 1984 Against 2010 “Big Love”, 2005 A Thousand Roads, 2003 “Edge of All Odds, 1983 Heart Like a Wheel, 1982 , 1980 Any America”, 2003 Scrambled, 2002 Angels Don't Sleep Here, 2002 Which Way You Can, 1980 Bronco Billy, 1979 When You Comin' The Slaughter Rule, 2001 “Dharma & Greg”, 1991 “Northern Back, Red Ryder?, 1978 Every Which Way But Loose, 1977 The Exposure”, 1991 “Twin Peaks”, 1982 “Born to the Wind”, 1977 Gauntlet, 1977 Valentino, 1976 The Shootist, 1976 The Outlaw The Car, and 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales. Josey Wales, 1975 “The Manhunter”, 1974 , Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—4

Woodrow Parfrey… Carpetbagger (b. Sydney Woodrow “Starsky and Hutch”, 1977 “Roots”, 1974-1976 “McCloud”, Parfrey, October 5, 1922, New York City, New York – July 29, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 The Last Hard Men, 1976 1984, Los Angeles, California) appeared in 191 films and TV “Kojak”, 1975 “Police Story”, 1975 92 in the Shade, 1975 series, among them 1984 “The Yellow Rose”, 1984 “Remington Rancho Deluxe, 1975 “The Rockford Files”, 1974 “Kung Fu”, Steele”, 1983 “”, 1976-1983 “Quincy M.E.”, 1974 “McMillan & Wife”, 1973 , 1973 Papillon, 1973 1983 The Sting II, 1983 “The Fall Guy”, 1982 Frances, 1982 “The Blue Knight”, 1973 High Plains Drifter, 1972 “Ironside”, “Bring 'Em Back Alive”, 1980 Bronco Billy, 1979 “Vega$”, 1972 Bad Company, 1968-1971 “Bonanza”, 1971 “Gunsmoke”, 1979 “Dallas”, 1978 “WKRP in Cincinnati”, 1978 “Police 1969 “The High Chaparral”, and 1968 “The Wild Wild West.” Woman”, 1978 “Baretta”, 1978 “Little House on the Prairie”, 1977 “Charlie's Angels”, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 John Russell… Bloody Bill Anderson (b. John Lawrence “The Return of the World's Greatest Detective”, 1976 Stay Russell, January 3, 1921, Los Angeles, California – January 19, Hungry, 1976 “The Blue Knight”, 1968-1975 “Mannix” (9 1991, Los Angeles, California) has 71 acting credits, including episodes), 1972-1974 “Ironside”, 1973 “Maude”, 1973 Papillon, 1988 Under the Gun, 1985 Pale Rider, 1982 Honkytonk Man, 1973 Charley Varrick, 1973 “Kung Fu”, 1966-1972 “Bonanza”, 1982 “Simon & Simon”, 1981 Six Tickets to Hell, 1979-1981 1971 Dirty Harry, 1971 “The Waltons”, 1970 “The “Jason of Star Command” (12 episodes), 1976 The Outlaw Josey Andersonville Trial”, 1968 “Judd for the Defense”, 1968 Wales, 1976 Where the Wind Dies, 1975 Noon Sunday, 1974 “Bewitched”, 1968 , 1962-1968 “The Virginian”, 1968 “Police Story”, 1974 “McCloud”, 1974 “Gunsmoke”, 1973 Planet of the Apes, 1967 “The Flying Nun”, 1964-1966 “The “Emergency!”, 1971-1972 “Alias Smith and Jones”, 1969 “It Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, 1966 “Batman”, 1965 The War Lord, Takes a Thief”, 1968 If He Hollers, Let Him Go!, 1958-1962 1962-1963 “Perry Mason”, 1962-1963 “The Untouchables”, “Lawman” (156 episodes), 1958-1960 “Maverick”, 1959 Rio 1963 “Have Gun - Will Travel”, 1963 “Gunsmoke”, 1956 Bravo, 1955-1957 “Soldiers of Fortune” (52 episodes), 1953 Fair “Studio One in Hollywood”, 1954 “Ponds Theater”, and 1950 Wind to Java, 1949 Slattery's Hurricane, 1948 Yellow Sky, 1947 “Danger.” Forever Amber, 1945 A Bell for Adano, 1945 Don Juan Quilligan, 1945 A Royal Scandal, and 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Charles Tyner… Zukie Limmer (June 8, 1925, Danville, Virginia) has 82 acting credits, some of which are 1999 “ER”, 1994 “Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is”, 1992 “Matlock”, 1988 “Dallas”, 1987 Planes, Trains & Automobiles, 1985 “”, 1984 “St. Elsewhere”, 1982 “The Incredible Hulk”, 1981-1982 “Father Murphy” (10 episodes), 1977 “Charlie's Angels”, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 “City of Angels”, 1976 Family Plot, 1976 “Rich Man, Poor Man”, 1975 “McCloud”, 1974 The Longest Yard, 1973 “Mannix”, 1973 “The Waltons”, 1973 Emperor of the North, 1973 “Kung Fu”, 1972 Bad Company, 1972 Jeremiah Johnson, 1972 Fuzz, 1972 , 1971 “Alias Smith and Jones”, 1971 Harold and Maude, 1970 Sometimes a Great Notion, 1970 Will Sampson… Ten Bears (September 27, 1933, Okmulgee, Monte Walsh, 1970 The Cheyenne Social Club, 1969 The Oklahoma – June 3, 1987, Houston, Texas) has 25 acting credits, Reivers, 1967 Cool Hand Luke, 1964 Lilith, 1961-1963 “Naked including 1986 Firewalker, 1986 Poltergeist II: The Other Side, City”, and 1959 That Kind of Woman. 1983-1984 “The Yellow Rose” (7 episodes), 1978-1979 “Vega$” (6 episodes), 1977 Orca, 1977 The White Buffalo, 1976 The John Mitchum… Al (b. John Newman Mitchum, September 6, Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting 1919, Bridgeport, Connecticut – November 29, 2001, Los Bull's History Lesson, 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Angeles, California) appeared in 143 films and TV series, among and 1975 Crazy Mama. them, 1990 “A Family for Joe”, 1983 “Quincy M.E.”, 1977 Telefon, 1976/I The Enforcer, 1976 Pipe Dreams, 1976 The John Quade… Comanchero Leader (b. John William Saunders Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 “Little House on the Prairie”, 1975 III, April 1, 1938, City, Kansas – August 9, 2009, , 1975 “Police Story”, 1975 “The Waltons”, Rosamond, California) has 109 acting credits, including 1993 1974 “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”, 1973 Magnum Force, 1973 “Return to Lonesome Dove”, 1990 “Baywatch”, 1989 “Hunter”, High Plains Drifter, 1971 Dirty Harry, 1968-1971 “Ironside”, 1983-1985 “The A-Team”, 1985 “Hill Street Blues”, 1982 1971 “Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate”, 1970-1971 “Knight Rider”, 1982 “Quincy M.E.”, 1981 Cattle Annie and “Bewitched”, 1961-1971 Bonanza (7 episodes), 1963-1970 “The Little Britches, 1980 Any Which Way You Can, 1980 “CHiPs”, Virginian” (9 episodes), 1970 , 1969 Paint Your Wagon, 1979 “The Dukes of Hazzard”, 1978-1979 “Vega$”, 1979 “Buck 1966-1967 “Batman”, 1957-1964 “Gunsmoke” (6 episodes), Rogers in the 25th Century”, 1979 “How the West Was Won”, 1957-1962 “Have Gun - Will Travel”, 1958 Johnny Rocco, 1958 1978 Every Which Way But Loose, 1978 “Baretta”, 1975-1978 “Maverick”, 1956-1958 “Dragnet”, 1958 Cole Younger, “Police Woman”, 1978 “Charlie's Angels”, 1977 “The Hardy , 1957 Up in Smoke, 1957 “The Life and Legend of Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries”, 1977 “The Bionic Woman”, 1977 Wyatt Earp”, 1957 “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin”, 1956 Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—5

“Sergeant Preston of the Yukon”, 1953 Stalag 17, 1950 In a what's all the hubbub? Well, it would seem that the book's author Lonely Place, and 1949 Knock on Any Door. has a past as an outspoken, professional racist. Forrest Carter, author of Outlaw Josey Wales and The Education of Little Tree, Kyle Eastwood… Josey's Son (b. Kyle Clinton Eastwood, May was first known as Asa "Ace" Carter. Always a talented writer, 19, 1968, Los Angeles, California) appeared in 7 films: 2011 J. in the 1960s he lent his wordsmithing skills to George Wallace, Edgar, 2008 Summer Hours, 2005 , 1995 The Bridges and is credited with the infamous, "Segregation now! of Madison County, 1982 Honkytonk Man, 1980 Bronco Billy, Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" Other inquiries and 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales. into Asa's past connect him with racist publications and the KKK. However, in the 1970s, after losing the race for Alabama governor, Asa moved to Florida, changed his name to Forrest (an homage to Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general), and began to write genre fiction. And so we come to the central question: so what? Does it matter? After all, the book is fiction, and as such, the question of merit becomes a personal one. Fiction, an imaginative creation, is by its nature interpretive. The meaning and merit of the work becomes individual—the response of each reader to the work's themes and characters. So the question is: does the author's life really matter to you? One issue which complicates the debate is the fact that this book -- the touching story of a Cherokee boy who comes of age, learning about the good and the bad of life through a warm relationship with his grandparents and abbrasive experiences with white culture -- was initally marketed as an autobiography. This has since been corrected and the book is now sold as fiction, but when evaluting the cultural worth of the work, this detail is noteworthy. Richard Farnsworth… Comanchero (September 1, 1920, Los It would also seem that, upon closer inspection, the Angeles, California – October 6, 2000, Lincoln, New Mexico) author hasn't abandoned his earlier convictions. Like his previous has 84 acting credits, some of which are 1999 The Straight Story, work, Outlaw Josey Wales, this book has a palpable anti- 1994 The Getaway, 1990 The Two Jakes, 1985 Space Rage, 1984 government stance. In a story about Native American life this is Rhinestone, 1984 The Natural, 1983 Independence Day, 1982 not entirely unheard of; after all, Native people, among them the Waltz Across Texas, 1982 The Grey Fox, 1981 The Legend of the Cherokee, were some of the first victims in a history of ignorant Lone Ranger, 1980 Resurrection, 1980 Tom Horn, 1978 Comes a and intolerant colonial and US government policy. In the end, Horseman, 1977 “Roots”, 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976 Little Tree and his family are victimized by white society and the The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, 1974 Blazing Saddles, 1973 government, and so it would seem to be to their benefit that they Papillon, 1972 The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, 1972 live separate ...segregated -- be it in the Mountains or off in "the Ulzana's Raid, 1971-1972 “Bonanza”, 1972 The Cowboys, 1970 Nations." Interestingly, it was this same paternalistic theory Monte Walsh, 1970 “The High Chaparral”, 1960-1961 which fueled Andrew Jackson's fire in passing the Indian “Laramie”, 1960 Spartacus, 1958 “Adventures of Wild Bill Removal Act that lead to the Trail of Tears. Hickok”, 1956 The Ten Commandments, 1953 The Wild One, But again, does it matter? Are those themes relevant if 1949 Mighty Joe Young, 1948 Red River, 1943 This Is the Army, the reader derives different meaning from the work? Leni 1939 Gone with the Wind, 1938 The Adventures of Marco Polo, Riefenstahl's photographs and films were pro-Nazi and promoted and 1937 A Day at the Races. themes of racial purity and eugenics. But despite that, she was a talented filmmaker and photographer. At what point do we Christina Berry, “The Story Behind The Education of Little separate the art from the artist, the work from its context? The Tree,” All Things Cherokee, 17 March 2012. Education of Little Tree is a great book. I was moved to tears the Most of us have read, or at least heard of The Education of Little first time I read it, and when I first learned of the author's past I Tree, a book by Forrest Carter published in the 1970s and now was angry and hurt, but I still like the book. celebrating more than 25 years in print. The book was first I would argue that the book has actually made an published as an autobiography, a touching tale of a Cherokee boy incredibly positive impact. It wasn't long ago that books and raised by his loving grandparents in the hills of the Appalachian films filled with blatant sterotypes of savage Indians (played by Mountains. Readers responded to the naturalist themes and white actors in red paint) was the norm. The mere fact that this Indian spirituality of the book and it became an instant hit. The title has generated so much debate and discussion regarding the title helped to spark an interest in Native American literature plight of Indians in American popular culture is a positive step which has since blossomed into its own genre. However, the title forward. Personally, I think that this is a great book, both for the has also sparked decades of heated debate and controversy. themes of culture and life that the author himself addresses, and In the years since its publication, and the death of its for the heated historical and cultural debate which has grown out enigmatic author, this title has gone from the top of critics lists to of it. the bottom, but no amount of bad press seems to hurt its sales. So Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—6

CLINT EASTWOOD, from The St. James Film Directors more anguished urban equivalent given expression in Dirty Encyclopedia. Ed Andrew Sarris. Visible Ink, Harry’s eponymous anti-hero. have provided Eastwood with Detroit/NY/Toronto/, 1998, entry by Andrew Tudor. well-established and economical starting characters for so many American. Education Oakland Technical High School, Los of his performances. In directing himself, furthermore, he has Angeles City College 1953-54. Military Service Drafted into US used that persona with a degree of irony and distance. Army 1950….Career Under contract with Universal 1954-55; Sometimes, especially in his Westerns, that has meant leaning sporadic work in film, late 1950s; played Rowdy Yates in TV toward stylization and almost operatic exaggeration (High Plains series Rawhide, 1959-65; went to Europe to make three highly Drifter, Pale Rider, the last section of Unforgiven), though rarely successful westerns with , 1965; returned to US, reaching Leone’s extremes of delirious overstatement. On other 1967; formed Malpaso Production company and directed first occasions, it has seen him play on the tension between the film, Play Misty for Me, 1971; first effort as producer, Firefox , seemingly assertive masculinity of the Eastwood image and the 1982; mayor of Carmel ,CA, 1968-88. Awards Chevalier des strong female characters who are so often featured in his films Arts et des Lettres, France, 1985… Fellowship of British Film (Play Misty for Me, The Gauntlet, Heartbreak Ridge, and in part Institute, 1993. at least, The Bridges of Madison County). It is, of course, In 1992, after almost forty years in the business, Clint notoriously difficult to both direct and star in a movie. Where Eastwood finally received Oscar recognition. Unforgiven brought Eastwood has succeeded in that combination (not always the him the awards for Best Achievement in Directing and for Best case) it has depended significantly on his inventive building on Picture, along with a nomination for Best Actor. Indeed, this the Eastwood persona. strikingly powerful was nominated for no fewer than It is important to give Eastwood full credit for his nine Academy Awards, collecting Best inventiveness in any attempt to assess his work. His better films Supporting Actor for his performance as the movies ruthless as a director have a richness to them, not just stylistically— marshall “Little Bill” Daggett, and taking the Oscar for though in those respects he has learned well from Leone’s editing. It seems appropriate, therefore, that this film, which concern with lighting and composition and from Siegel’s way brought him such recognition, should end with the inscription with in-frame movement, editing, and tight narration—but also a “Dedicated to Sergio and Don.” For without the intervention and moral complexity which belies the one-dimensionality of the influence of his two “mentors,” directors Sergio Leone and Don Eastwood image. The protagonists in his better films, like Josey Siegel, it is difficult to imagine Wales in The Outlaw Josey Wales, Eastwood achieving his present Highway in Heartbreak Ridge, Munny in respectability, let alone emerging as Unforgiven, even Charlie Parker in the the only major star of the modern era flawed Bird are not simple men either in who has become a better director than their virtues or their failings. Eastwood’s he ever was an actor. fondness for narratives of revenge and That is not to belittle redemption, furthermore, allows him to Eastwood, who has always been draw upon a rich generic vein in generous in crediting Leone and American cinema, a tradition with a Siegel, and who is certainly far more built-in potential for character than a passive inheritor of their development and for evoking human directorial visions. Even in his complexity without giving way to art- Rawhide days of the 1950s and early film portentousness. 19060s he wanted to direct; more than In these respects, Eastwood is once Eastwood has told of his the modern inheritor of traditional attempts to persuade the series’ Hollywood directorial values, once producers to let him shoot some of the epitomised in the transparent style of a action rather more ambitiously than as , , or John the TV norm. Not surprisingly, they Huston (himself the subject of were reluctant, but they did in the end Eastwood’s White Hunter, Black Heart), allow him to make trailers for and passed on to Eastwood by that next upcoming episodes. He was not to generation carrier of the tradition, Don take on a full-fledged directorial Siegel. For these filmmakers, as for challenge until 1971 with Play Misty Eastwood, the action movie, the for Me, but in the intervening years he had become a massive Western, the thriller were opportunities to explore character, box-office attraction as an actor, first with Leone in Europe in the motivation, and human frailty within a framework of accessible three famous and founding “spaghetti westerns,” and then in a entertainment. Of course, all of them were capable of “quieter” series of films with Siegel back in the , most films, harnessing the same commitment to craft, the same significantly Dirty Harry. attention to detail, in the service of less action-driven narratives, It is not easy to untangle the respective influences of his just as Eastwood has done most recently with The Bridges of mentors. In general terms, because they both contributed to the Madison County. But in the end their and Eastwood’s real art formation of Eastwood’s distinctive screen persona, they helped was to draw upon Hollywood’s genre traditions and make of him to crystallise an image which, as a director, he would often them unique and perceptive studies of human beings under stress. use as a foil. The Italian Westerns’ “,” and his Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—7

Though his directorial career has been uneven, at his best continued beyond the 1970s. ’s last Western was an Eastwood has proved a more than worthy carrier of this flame. Italian production, Il mio nome e Nessuno in 1973. and made their last Western together, The from Unforgiven. Edward Buscombe. bfi Publishing. London, Shootist, in 1976. It was directed by , and its story, of 2004. an elderly gunfighter who knows he is dying, could scarcely be Unforgiven opens with a sunset. Outlined against the more appropriate, either to Wayne’s own career (he was in fact red sky, a man is digging a grave beside a lonely shack on the dying of cancer at the time) or to the melancholy mood of the prairie, beneath a solitary tree. Sunsets have a special resonance genre. in the Western. It’s the time of day by which you have to get out The ideological framework within which the Western of town or else, a tradition that goes back at least as far as Owen has had to work has shifted markedly since John Ford’s high- Wister’s seminal novel, The Virginian, first published in 1903. In water mark in the mid-1950s; already by the 1970s many of its ‘Duel at Sundown’, the title of a 1959 episode of the TV series certainties were being undermined. In particular, the central Maverick in which Clint Eastwood appeared as a boastful figure of the hero, confident in his masculinity and physical gunslinger, he gives just such an ultimatum. But prowess, the man who knows what a man’s gotta do, was there’s more to it than that. The sun sets, after all, in the west; threatened by an alliance of forces, of which feminism was only that’s the direction across the map the pioneers are always the most directly challenging. Even in the 1950s deep-seated travelling, but it’s less metaphorically the direction we’re all faults in the bedrock of American society were causing cracks to travelling (We all have it coming, appear in the previously impregnable Kid’). One way or another, Westerns male carapace of the male hero. In the are always about death. remarkable series of Westerns directed Hence the mood of by Anthony Mann and starring James melancholy with which so many of Stewart, beginning with Winchester them are tinged. But this may also ’73 in 1950, the Western hero is a derive from the fact that Westerns troubled figure. in the grip of are set in the past, a past that is gone powerful, even irrational obsessions, for ever, cannot be recovered,and so his emotions barely under control. In there is often a sense that something the middle of the decade, John Ford’s has been lost. In the 1960s the mood magisterial The Searchers (1956) cast of nostalgia deepened…. John Wayne, the embodiment of all During the 1960s, nostalgia that was most dependable and extended from regret at the passing uncomplicated, as a man driven to near of the west toward the genre itself. madness by his hatreds. Even works by The production of Westerns in lesser directors, such as Edward Hollywood fell steeply, down to a Dmytryk’s Warlock (1959), featured mere eleven in 1963, barely ten heroes, in this case the saintly Henry percent of what it had been ten years Fonda, whose motivations were earlier. For a time this decline was complex and actions not always masked by the unexpected admirable. phenomenon of the Italian Western, By the 1970s, heroism itself in which, as everyone knows, Clint seemed a troubled concept. Westerns Eastwood made his name as The were now full of anti-heroes such as Man with No Name. John Ford, the comic figure of Jack Crabb in Little informed by fellow Western director Big Man (1970), forever changing Burt Kennedy that Westerns were now being made in Italy, could sides in an attempt to avoid confrontations. Robert Altman’s only respond, “You’re kidding.” But the several hundred demythologising Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976) exposed the spaghetti Westerns made in the middle of the 1960s helped venality and cynicism involved in the creation of William revive Hollywood’s own contribution, not so much in absolute Frederick Cody, who first saw the full possibilities of the west as numbers, which remained stuck at an annual figure of twenty or a commodity, as packaged entertainment. Mel Brooks’s so, but in terms of themes and styles. Peckinpah’s The Wild irreverent satIre, Blazing Saddles (1974), sent up the whole Bunch, coming at the end of the decade, is inconceivable without genre. There had been parodies before, but they had been the stylised violence and ideological disillusion of Sergio affectionate; for Brooks nothing was sacred. The historical Leone’s films. foundations of the genre also came under systematic attack in Yet the revival was temporary. As the 1970s progressed, films that debunked the real-life figures that previous decades the Western slipped to the margins of Hollywood production. had so assiduously built up. In Doc (1971) it was Wyatt Earp and there may be many reasons for this. Audience demographics Doc Holliday, in Dirty Little Billy (1972) Billy the Kid, in The were changing, with younger filmgoers finding the genre old- Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) it was Jesse James. fashioned compared to science fiction or the newly reinvigorated In the parallel field of the history of the west, the horror film. The death or retirement of the genre’s greatest stars triumphalist version of western history informed by the notion of accelerated the decline. Ride the High Country had been manifest destiny, the idea that the white race had a God-given Randolph Scott’s last performance. None of the other major stars right, even a duty, to expand into the lands which it misleadingly Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—8 called ‘virgin’ but which were already the preserve of native or particular from the young girl who convinces herself she is in Latino peoples, was already being questioned in the 1970s. love with him, while in its focus on hydraulic mining and the Possibly this was propelled by events in Vietnam, which damage it does to the environment, the film echoes the increasing undermined America’s imperialist ambitions. In 1987 Patricia consensus of the ‘new western historians’ that economic Nelson Limerick’s The Legacy of Conquest mounted a full-scale development in the west was frequently rapacious and assault upon the theories of westward expansion that had so far destructive. dominated the field and which originated in the so-called What all these films indicate is that Eastwood has been ‘frontier thesis’, first formulated by Frederick Jackson Turner in alive to the changing social milieu in which the Western has had 1893. Limerick charged that this account (which saw America’s to make its way since 1970. One could not simply reproduce the social and political virtues, identified as adaptability, ingenuity old certainties, whether of masculine or white supremacy, or of and energy, as deriving from the free and easy life of the frontier) progress. If the Western was to continue to be viable, it would left out a great deal, in particular the contribution of women and need to be adapted to contemporary sensibilities, show that it was of ethnic minority groups, and was over-celebratory, ignoring aware of its own past and in touch with the present And that is much in the history of the west that was shameful or disastrous. precisely what Unforgiven tries to do, by turns drawing its In this context, it seemed, only Clint Eastwood had the strength from the roots of the genre, the accreted meanings of necessary star power and vitality to ensure the Western’s character and convention, but then always inflecting them, survival. From his first leading role in a Hollywood Western, adapting them, subverting them to refashion the genre into Hang ‘Em High in 1968, he was to make a total of ten Westerns something viable for the modern age…. up to Pale Rider in 1985. If this could scarcely compare with the Living in a society in productivity of earlier stars which women’s rights are (Randolph Scott made no fewer minimal but where money talks than thirty-nine Westerns between (though ironically , 1945 and 1962), it meant where the films is set, was the first nevertheless that Eastwood was state in the Union to give women almost single-handedly carrying the the vote, in 1869), the prostitutes’ genre upon his shoulders. only means to empower There is hardly space to themselves in by buying justice, trace in detail Eastwood’s career as and so they decide to hire gunmen a Western hero, but what is most to act for them; they want striking, beyond the deepening of personal vengeance; an eye for an the actor’s and directors craft that eye, or more; in effect capital has marked his progression, is the punishment but outside the law, a extent to which he has been alert to life in exchange for a the shifts of tone and perspective disfiguration. Both cowboys which have been forced upon the genre over the past third of a involved in the attack are eventually murdered at the women’s century, as the result of changes both within the cinema and instigation, though one clearly has had only a minimal without. involvement and shows remorse. Yet though the roles of all the As the above dates suggest, the Western film was in men involved in the unfolding of events, both heroes and villains, some respects in advance of the historians on the question of come under severe scrutiny, there’s never any overt criticism of manifest destiny, having already done something to redress past the women’s actions. Implicitly the film sides with these women. imbalances in respect of the Indians and other ethnic groups, and It does not question their right to do what they do, only the readily acknowledging that the west was often a dark and dirty motives and actions of those who perform on their behalf. place. Eastwood’s Westerns were alert to these currents from an In this respect, Unforgiven seems to go against the grain early date. As we shall see, the role of women in his films, of the genre. The Western is not celebrated for favoring women. including his Westerns, underwent a subtle development over Traditionally there’s a limited range of roles on offer (young time. But in other respects too his films did not simply recycle marriageable girl, wife, schoolteacher, whore), all of them the traditional versions of the Western myth. In Outlaw Josey subordinate….No one would claim Eastwood for feminism, but Wales (1976) Eastwood as the eponymous hero, starting as a by the early 1990s his films had come a long way from the loner, as Western heroes traditionally are, gradually collects straightforward macho attitudes of Dirty Harry (1971). Eastwood around him a disparate group of individuals, who include several has always been a canny player in the industry. When muscle women, an elderly Cherokee with a delightfully ironic take on men like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwartzenegger were the role of the Indian, and a stray dog. Bronco Billy (1980), set in flaunting their torsos in the early 1980s with movies like the the present day, has Eastwood playing the owner of a wild west initial Rambo First Blood (1982) and Conan the Barbarian show whose innocent, even childish belief in ‘Western’ values, is (1981), Eastwood had already moved on to Bronco Billy, an tested almost to destruction by the cynicism of those around him. ironic take on the whole myth of the Western. By the time of In In Pale Rider, Eastwood’s last Western before Unforgiven, his the Line of Fire (1993), when the Eastwood character shows a role is certainly heroic, leading a group of gold-miners in their lack of respect for the presence of female agents in the secret struggle against a heartless corporation. But there is something service, agent Rene Russo is allowed to refer to him as a ultimately unhealthy about the hero-worship he attracts, in dinosaur…. Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—9

One of the most pleasurable things about Unforgiven is His anger must be slow to burn, and when it comes to the boil he the variety of different ways it finds to inflect a story that is in must have adequate cause. As so often in American cinema, it is essence as generic as they come: a retired gunfighter is called out the personal rather than the political that is the ultimate of retirement to do one last job. Ageing is a common enough motivation. Men fight for families, for sweethearts, for friends, theme in the Western. In Henry King’s (1950) for property, but rarely in the Western for an abstract cause is Jimmy Ringo, a gunman who is looking to alone. The cause may give legitimcy to their violence, which has finally settle down. He’s weary of the wandering life. Tragically, a redemptive quality beyond its merely contingent causation, but just at the moment he has made his decision, he’s gunned down it is rarely enough to cause the hero to draw his gun…. by just the sort of glory-hunting little punk he has been trying to avoid. In The Searchers John Wayne as Ethan is self-conscious from Master of Cinema Clint Eastwood. Bernard Benoliel. about his age (‘No need to call me sir, either, nor grandpa, nor Cahiers du Cinéma, Paris, 2010. “Finding Community From Methuselah’). Both Ride the High Country and The Shootist , as The Outlaw Josey Wales to Pale Rider” we’ve seen, explore this theme, and in Monte Walsh (1970) and Jack Palance are two aging cowboys threatened by During the shoot of The Outlaw Josey Wales, at the end unemployment. So having Eastwood play a character who may of 1975, Eastwood already had four films under his belt as be too old for heroics is not a novel director. Yet in some senses Josey idea. What’s fresh is the ingenuity Wales should really be regarded as and subtlety with which it is played his real directorial début. It is with out. this film’s definitive success and Eastwood was over sixty artistic accomplishment that when he made Unforgiven, and for Eastwood found his feet and the first time, perhaps, he looks his confirmed any unresolved age. He has an emaciated look, the questions about his future ability skin stretched tight on his face and as a genuine filmmaker. the thinning hair greying and wispy. The film goes to some Crossing over, taking the plunge length to emphasise just how Right from his early success as an unheroic he is. … actor in the United States and then There’s a consistent with his later work with Siegel, pattern to the opening of a Clint Eastwood had never been fully Eastwood Western. In The Outlaw satisfied with the way Universal Josey Wales the hero is a poor had promoted his work….In 1975, southern farmer who is attacked by between Universal’s release of The northern guerillas during the Civil Eiger Sanction and the beginning War. His wife is raped and of the filming of Josey Wales, murdered, his child killed, his farm Eastwood decided to definitively burned. So Josey, at first seen jump ship and change studio, peacefully ploughing his fields, is moving his production company turned into an implacable pursuer Malpaso to the Warner of his assailants, thirsting for revenge. In Pale Rider he is a buildings….This new approach and environment played a mysterious preacher, apparently a man of peace, who is definitive role in the success of Josey Wales, which heralded a persuaded, after witnessing a brutal assault on an unarmed man, fruitful partnership between Warner Bros. and Eastwood that to assist a group of miners against a large corporation which is endures to this day. The film benefited from and also marked the attempting to drive them away. Unforgiven goes even further in beginnings of other important encounters for Eastwood, in emphasising the hero’s unwillingness to get involved in the particular his meeting with Sondra Locke, who would go on to be situation that confronts him. His life has been changed by the his personal partner for thirteen years and would also act with love of a good woman; he has left violence behind him. And he’s him in seven of his films. More than this, Josey Wales marked too old anyway. Eastwood’s coming out as a director. In fact, Eastwood fired the Of course it’s not just Eastwood who has employed this film’s original director and scriptwriter Philip Kaufman after just structure. In his book Sixguns and Society, Will Wright identifies fifteen days of shooting, taking his place and securing absolute the hero’s reluctance to get involved as a key constituent of the authority over the film. Although he received fines and classical Western plot…. reprimands from the Directors Guild of America as a result, his The hero’s reluctance to pick up his gun provides action clearly demonstrated his belief in his own artistic vision tension and drama for the narrative. In terms of motivation there and an irrepressible desire to express himself as a filmmaker, may be several reasons why the hero holds back. but there is even using this new role to assure his freedom as an actor. It is always an underlying imperative. As we have seen, violence is precisely with Josey Wales that Eastwood finally gains control necessary to the establishment of civilisation. Savagery and over his image and his concept of character. In fact, from here on outlawry cannot be defeated by reason and good example alone. in, every film in which Eastwood acted was to also have him in Yet the hero must not be seen to relish violence. That would put the director’s seat. And later on, if the credit of certain films list him on a level with the lawless, with those he must overcome. another as director—for example , Richard Tuggle, Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—10

Richard Benjamin or (whose careers were taking up the continuity of the western genre’s founding myths, promoted by Eastwood) or even credits the name of an through a rereading and re-examination of them…. established professional like Wolfgang Petersen, the director of In the Line of Fire (1993), who was not part of the Malpaso Critical voices and vox populi ‘stable’—one thing remains ...One wonders whether constant: if Eastwood is acting in a Welles, like Wales (Josey), had film, he ultimately runs the creative the fictional hero’s outlaw and show. maverick tendencies—as well as In Josey Wales, having a similar name. Or maybe Eastwood’s character has an inner Eastwood and Welles had a violence that cannot be exhausted common enemy in Kael. by any outward violent action, but However, it was not until 1982 during the course of his journey he that the maker of Citizen Kane becomes the ringleader of a group unexpectedly appeared on of disparate characters brought American TV publically praising together by fate, who in return lead The Outlaw Josey Wales s well as him to a form of inner peace, as decreeing that Eastwood was ‘the long as he is able to be in charge. In most underestimated director in a sense this character is a reflection the world’. and sublimation of Eastwood the person and filmmaker, who would similarly show himself able to Did you say westerns? take on the collective experience, making it one of his most important cinematic subjects. Between the years 1976 and 1985, Yes: more than two hundred episodes of Rawhide, Sergio the filmmaker was to gather around him and organize various Leone’s historical trilogy, Hang ‘Em High, Two Mules for Sister different communities, in his films as in his life. Sara, Joe Kidd (to a lesser extent). two films that are unclassifiable (The Beguiled, Bronco Billy) and, of course, High Towards a cinematic destiny Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider and Converging many strands of his career artistically and Unforgiven. Having made it late both on screen and behind the professionally, The Outlaw Josey Wales required Eastwood to camera within the genre (some might say the last of its great explore his own cinematic influences and modes of storytelling. figures), Eastwood still managed to leave an indelible mark on After Leone and his game of massacre, what could one add? this singularly american invention, which, continuing the Indeed what could one do that went beyond the graphically tradition of Homer, creates an epic of America’s Wild West. He staged pessimism of Siegel’s works? Clearly for both devised his own new blueprint for the genre, as well as bringing filmmakers, their films were not simply about cynicism or its themes full circle to cover new ground and directions. nihilism. Leone’s films expressed the idealist’s disappointment Eastwood’s Josey Wales, released in 1976, was already bringing and Siegel’s films were an almost up the rear of a highly criticized and prescient display of man’s disenchanted form of western made in progressive inhumanity. And the early 1970s (including Sam equally, their characters were Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch as early always individualists, if only as a 1969 and Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man result of circumstance. As the of 1970). Called ‘Vietnam westerns’, 1970s reached their mid-point, they indirectly explored America’s the question seemed to be what aggression in Southeast Asia and kind of fiction could one create to rewrote American history and the rules bring closure to the events of of the genre. As a result, the flow of Vietnam, which had officially westerns ground to a halt after 1976 ended but which had left in its and except for the sublime Heaven’s wake millions of dead on both Gate (, 1980), it barely side, shell-shocked survivors and survived—apart from Eastwood’s an America now at war with westerns, which would appear every itself? How could one believe in a system stripped bare by the ten years and the last of which, Unforgiven (1992), was to Watergate scandal which had forced Nixon to resign and had masterfully strip to the core America’s founding myths about its created a crisis about representative government? After so much conquering race. destruction, deconstruction, distortion and collapse. Eastwood’s Even more so in relation to each other, Eastwood’s westerns western seems to take the only path left at that time—that of seem to have an ongoing dialogue, each new one in the series rebirth and reconstitution. Using the stories of cinema and the suggesting a response to an earlier offering. Pale Rider seems to state of the world to suggest a new kind of humanism, this take up the motifs of High Plains Drifter (an unknown man who centres on the idea of s man that abandons no one at the roadside appears on the horizon and ultimately returns to it), while also and restores the thread of humanity and lines of narrative by inverting its themes (the essence of cowardice/the birth of courage), and Unforgiven, his most recent contribution, contains Eastwood—THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES—11 and summarizes all his earlier forays into the genre. Not only do disrupting a persistent set of western imagery in films whose Eastwood’s westerns have a finality—a way of closing the door power was able to pass off various fictions as historical truths. behind them before setting back off into the horizon, returning to Ultimately, Eastwood’s westerns conclude the genre’s place in the eternity and nothingness of the final shot of John Wayne in history but also the history of the genre itself. They have this The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)—they also present a review of sense of dual justification but are also tempered and some of the genre’s most important and iconic works of an counterpointed by Eastwood’s inimitable on-screen presence, the earlier era. High Plains Drifter radicalizes and mocks scale of his body and particular face simultaneously evoking a (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) and memory of the origins and pays a last tribute to Leone’s earlier archetypal characters. ironic approach to the genre, Eastwood’s cinematic presence while Josey Wales refers to and recalls another large body and draws inspiration from at least unique face, that of William S. three earlier important works: Hart (1864-1946), one of Yellow Sky (William Wellman, cinema’s first true cowboys, a 1948), Run of the Arrow handsome hero of the silent era, (Samuel Fuller, 1957) and, as known at the time as ‘The man already mentioned, The from nowhere’ and ‘The man Searchers. These earlier films with the light eyes’. He too was all exhibit a similar anxiety an elegant actor and filmmaker, around the need to establish a and seems an earlier form of sense of elusive community. as Eastwood’s characters, an older well as introducing a central brother even: character who is full of rage and “No one knows where he comes resistant to the laws of the Clint E & BJ at premiere of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, from. He passes through, roaming conquerors and the progress of Sun Valley 1976. Photo by Diane Christian. the West and its great vastness. He civilization. One can say that arrives on horseback, comes down Pale Rider evokes Shane (George Stevens, 1953) and off his horse into the land of men. The time he spends in the Unforgiven, although seemingly taking up the themes of Man of company of men is a time of suffering, meaning it is a time he the West (Anthony Mann, 1958) in its study of a former murderer spends trying to love others. When his brow has been sufficiently forced to take up the bloodshed of his past again. Unforgiven also furrowed and he has shaken his fists enough...he refuses to reversed John Ford’s famous axion ‘When the legend becomes a continue suffering on the land or the confines of a room and he fact. print the legend’, continuing the demystification project gets back up on his horse and that’s it, he’s gone...I think we already present in Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance have cinema here.’ (Louis Delluc, February 1919.) (19620, which was prompted by the political necessity of

FIVE MORE IN THE SPRING 2012 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS XXIV Mar 27 John Woo, The Killer 1989 Apr 3 Krzysztof Kieslowki, Kieslowski, Red 1994 Apr 10 , Thin Red Line 1998 Apr 17 Fernando Meirelles, City of God, 2003 Apr 24 Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight 2008

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