Stars: Jane Russell, Jack Beutel, Thomas Mitchell, Walter Huston, Joe Sawyer, Carl Stockdale, Frank Darien, Pat West

Director: Howard Hughes

Summary: Billy the Kid falls for a beautiful woman. The woman is on the run with Doc Holiday, both are being chased by Sheriff Pat Garrett.

On the trail of his stolen horse, Doc Holliday (Walter Huston) befriends the notorious Billy the Kid (Jack Beutel). Doc's old friend Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) is now a sheriff and wants to arrest Billy for murder, but Doc helps his new friend flee to a hideout, where Billy meets Rio (Jane Russell), a beautiful young woman who soon finds herself falling in love with him. As Doc and Billy try to evade the law, they run into a series of adventures involving Indians and gunfights, culminating in an epic showdown. This story of the legendary gunslingers veers sharply from historical reality, but the result is a fun and engaging classic that stands out from other Westerns of the era. Under the control of director Howard Hughes, the film also serves as a tribute to the charms of its leading lady, 19-year-old Jane Russell, whose cleavage was featured prominently in the film's publicity. As a result, THE OUTLAW became one of the most controversial films of the 1940s, leading to a protracted battle with censors that only added to the film's allure.

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The Outlaw Josey Wales(1976), Clint Eastwood's 31st film as an actor, 20th as international star and fifth as director, was the first to win him widespread respect. Critics had grumbled when the producer-star replaced Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) in the director's chair a week into shooting. They ended up cheering when Eastwood delivered both his most sympathetic performance to date and--with the heroic collaboration of cinematographer Bruce Surtees--an impressive Panavision epic that stresses the scruffiness, rather than the scenic splendours, of frontier life.

During the Civil War, Union "Redlegs" attack Southerner Josey Wales's dirt farm and wipe out his family. Seeking vengeance, Wales throws in with a company of Reb guerrillas. Tagged as a renegade after the surrender, he flees west into the vastness of the Indian Territories, where, quite unintentionally, he finds himself cast as the straight-shooting paterfamiliasof an ever-growing, spectacularly motley community of misfits and castaways. This is to say, Josey's personal quest for survival and something like peace of mind evolves into a funky, multicultural allegory of the healing of America.

Josey Walesis good, not great, Eastwood. The big-gun fetishism can get tiresome, and too many characters exist only to serve as six-gun (and at one point Gatling gun) fodder. But mostly the film is agreeably eccentric, and almost furtively sweet in spirit--a key transitional title in the Eastwood filmography, and one of his most entertaining. --Richard T Jameson

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1943
Release Date:	April 21, 2003
Runtime:	117 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	G M V S 1014
Keywords:	Outlaw, Westerns
Genre:	Westerns