The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 American revisionist Western

Revisionist Western

The Revisionist Western, Modern Western or Anti-Western traces to the mid 1960s and early 1970s as a sub-genre of the Western movie....

 film set during and after the end of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...

 (as the eponymous Josey Wales

Josey Wales (gunfighter)

Josey Wales is a fictional character created by author Forrest Carter, for his novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales . Wales is portrayed in the 1976 western film The Outlaw Josey Wales by actor and director Clint Eastwood...

), with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke

Sondra Locke

Sondra Locke is an American actress, singer and film director.She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress...

, Sam Bottoms

Sam Bottoms

Samuel John "Sam" Bottoms was an American actor and producer.-Personal life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the third son of James "Bud" Bottoms and Betty , both of whom survive him...

, and Geraldine Keams

Geraldine Keams

Geraldine Keams is an American actress. She is best known for her work in numerous television series often playing a motherly role...

.

The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman

Philip Kaufman

Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter. His movies have adapted novels of widely different types – from Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun; from Tom Wolfe’s heroic epic The Right Stuff to the erotic writings of Anaïs Nin’s...

 from the novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (republished in 1975 as Gone to Texas) by Forrest Carter

Asa Earl Carter

Asa Earl Carter was an American political speechwriter and author. He was most notable for publishing novels and a best-selling, award-winning memoir under the name Forrest Carter, an identity as a Native American Cherokee...

. In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

 of the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

.
Josey Wales

Josey Wales (gunfighter)

Josey Wales is a fictional character created by author Forrest Carter, for his novel The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales . Wales is portrayed in the 1976 western film The Outlaw Josey Wales by actor and director Clint Eastwood...

, a peaceful Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 farmer, is driven to revenge by the brutal murder of his wife and son by a band of pro-Union

Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

 Jayhawker

Jayhawker

Jayhawkers is a term that came to prominence just before the American Civil War in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause. These bands, known as "Jayhawkers", were guerrilla fighters who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri known...

s — Senator James H.