FILM · 1976 · USA
The Outlaw Josey Wales
- Directed by
- Clint Eastwood
- Runtime
- 135 min
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures, Malpaso Productions
19 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.
19 Interesting Facts About The Outlaw Josey Wales
Interesting Facts (8)
- #001
- #002
Sondra Locke was surprised when Clint Eastwood shaved the beard he had grown for the film: "I had gotten so used to Josey that I had actually fallen in love with Josey, and now Clint had taken Josey away from him. For maybe 30 seconds there was a slight awkwardness between us, as if we had never met. But then it passed and the perfect and easy harmony between us was strongly regained."
- #003
- #004
Although it is adapted from a novel by Forrest Carter, there are striking similarities between the fictional character Josey Wales and the real-life outlaw Jesse James. Both men were from Missouri and had been victimized by Union soldiers from Kansas (known as "Jayhawkers"), which led them to join the Missouri Guerrillas and commit unspeakable acts of violence to avenge the persecution of Confederate-sympathizing Missourians by Kansas Union soldiers. Like the organization Wales was also part of, Jesse's group was forced to surrender and swear loyalty to the Union in exchange for amnesty for war crimes. While the surrender is a trap in the story, in real life James accepted the loyalty oath only to later return to the life of an outlaw.
- #005
Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke stayed in an ordinary hotel in Oroville, California, when production moved there in November. On Thanksgiving night, after sex, Eastwood suddenly and unexpectedly jumped out of bed, opened the hotel room door and, standing completely naked, shouted "Sveeeeeeeeeetie! I love you-u-u-u-u."
- #006
Lone Watie shares his surname with Stand Watie, the Cherokee chief who was the only Native American general in the Confederate army. Stand Watie had in fact been involved in negotiations with the federal government over tribal lands and may have been the model for the character of Lone Watie.
- #007
- #008
Production Story (1)
- #009
According to the famous music producer David Geffen, Clint Eastwood's tough demeanor is entirely real. While a young executive at Warner Brothers, Geffen was assigned to give notes on a screening of this film. While all the other executives heaped praise on the film, Geffen told Eastwood that it could be shortened by half an hour. Eastwood calmly said that he could do the cutting himself, and that he would be across the street making a new deal with Paramount. After this incident, Geffen was never invited to another Eastwood film.
Behind the Scenes (4)
- #010
- #011
Lead actor Chief Dan George was having trouble remembering his lines because of his advanced age. During filming, Clint Eastwood would unconsciously start mouthing his lines, and he was warned because this was ruining the scene. In the making-of documentary on the DVD, Eastwood recounts that the crew had George memorize the lines, but that at the moment of shooting he told him, 'Chief, forget the lines, tell me the story of the man coming down at me from above.' George, a natural storyteller, would tell the story flawlessly with this method.
- #012
In the film, the Gatling guns used in the scene where the surrendering Confederate soldiers are massacred are not models from the Civil War era. The 1861 model, which worked with individually loaded cartridges and had a side-fed mechanism, would have fired much more slowly than the one in the film. Those seen in the film are models from 1867 and later, fed by a top-mounted magazine and using fixed ammunition.
- #013
Characters & Cast (2)
- #014
Philip Kaufman began directing the film, but on October 24, 1975, Clint Eastwood replaced him, a controversial move that led the Directors Guild of America (D.G.A.) to ban a current cast or crew member from replacing a director on a film; the rule has since been called the "Eastwood rule." Many cast and crew members were unhappy with Eastwood and later felt that Kaufman had done much of the work for which Eastwood received credit. According to them, it was Kaufman who chose the locations and costumes and assembled the cast after seeing Chief Dan George in Little Big Man (1970).
- #015
Sondra Locke was taken aback when Eastwood shaved the beard he had grown for the film: "I had grown so used to Josey that I had practically fallen in love with him. Clint wiped Josey out in an instant. For about 30 seconds between us, there was an oddness, as if we had never met. But then it passed and we found that perfect harmony again."
Deeper Meaning (4)
- #016
- #017
- #018
- #019
When Fletcher sees the men loitering as bounty hunters, he mentions that some of them became bounty hunters because they had nothing left to return to after the war. But the "lone wolf" bounty hunter chasing fugitives across the plains of the Wild West is largely fiction. In reality, federal deputy marshals, sheriffs and detectives for the Pinkerton agency, Wells Fargo or the railroad companies collected bounties as part of their official duties; most bounty hunters did it for extra income rather than as their sole means of living.
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Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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