Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales: The Last Great Western Of The 1970s

In 1976, Clint Eastwood made a Western so great that the genre itself died off in the aftermath. While he might not have made as many “Oaters” as icons like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood’s Westerns are still major landmarks. Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy reinvented Westerns when they were in danger of dying out, with Eastwood’s Man with No Name becoming an instant icon.

Eastwood’s outings subverted the tropes that had become entrenched in classic American Westerns. Clint’s antiheroes had no trouble lying, stealing or shooting people in the back, and they portrayed the Old West in a bleak light. John Wayne famously refused to work with Eastwood after being disgusted by the violence and cynicism displayed in 1973’s High Plains Drifter.

There’s a world where Eastwood could have pumped out Westerns on a regular basis, but he knew to quit while he was ahead. He only made a single Western in the 1980s and 1990s, and dropped the mic on the genre entirely after the acclaim that greeted Unforgiven. While the latter is undeniably his most beloved Western, Eastwood has claimed there’s another film he gets asked about more often.

That’s The Outlaw Josey Wales, where he plays the titular role. Eastwood also directed this 1976 adventure, where his vengeance-seeking gunslinger unexpectedly finds a new family forming around him while on the run from bounty hunters. From its great screenplay to Eastwood’s tight direction, it’s one of the best Westerns of its era.

Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales Was The Last Hit Western Of The 1970s

The Outlaw Josey Wales is a firm favorite amongst Clint devotees, but it’s significant for another reason. The movie made about ten times its production budget, hauling in $31.8 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). While critics could be sniffy about Clint’s merits as both an actor and director, the film still received almost universal praise upon release.

Notably, The Outlaw Josey Wales was also the last genuine hit Western of the decade. John Wayne’s final movie, The Shootist, was also a modest success in 1976, but it was nothing compared to Eastwood’s adventure. In the aftermath, Clint took a long hiatus from the saddle, and the genre soon found itself fading into irrelevance.

The Western Genre Went Into A Major Decline Following The Outlaw Josey Wales

Between 1977 and 1980, pickings were slim for Western fans. There were plenty of misfires like the forgotten prequel Butch and Sundance: The Early Days or Jack Nicholson’s Goin’ South, but none of them really hit. It didn’t help that the year after The Outlaw Josey Wales, a little sci-fi adventure named Star Wars was released.

This 1977 epic, combined with the gigantic success of Jaws two years earlier, set a new standard for what audiences wanted from movies. The Westerns of yesteryear looked impossibly old hat compared to Spielberg and Lucas’ blockbusters too. Of course, the biggest blow the genre was dealt came with 1980’s Heaven’s Gate.

This ambitious Western saga was director Michael Cimino’s follow-up to The Deer Hunter, and he was given a blank check to make his passion project a reality. Long story short, Cimino’s exacting perfectionism (which included pausing filming for hours until a certain cloud he liked rolled into frame) skyrocketed the budget to a reported $40 million.

Heaven’s Gate went on to disastrous reviews and box office and bankrupted its studio, United Artists. It also led Hollywood to believe audiences no longer wanted to see Westerns, leading to a dearth of new entries in the genre for the next decade.

Overexposure Badly Hurt The Western Genre During The 1970s

The real problem facing Westerns heading into the 1970s was simple: audiences were bored of them. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, there had been a glut of Western movies and shows, and the genre had grown stale. This could be seen with the cancellation of classic show Gunsmoke in 1975 after a 20-year run, and the underperformance of most of John Wayne’s final batch of Westerns, like Rio Lobo and Cahill U.S. Marshal.

There had been plenty of hits earlier in the 1970s, like A Man Called Horse or Robert Redford’s Jeremiah Johnson, but after The Outlaw Josey Wales, audience interest dropped off a cliff. In fact, it really wasn’t until Clint’s return to the genre with 1985’s Pale Rider that a Western could be labeled a genuine success.

So in one sense, 1976 was the year traditional Westerns died out, and it’s only fitting that John Wayne and Clint Eastwood had two of the final hits. Thankfully, The Outlaw Josey Wales has more than stood the test of time as a great movie, period. It’s got all the action and Eastwood quips a viewer could desire, while also having a lot to say about war, racism and politics.

Release Date

July 14, 1976

Runtime

135 minutes

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