4. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Eastwood’s directorial debut is a simpler and more straightforward vision of the outlaw life, that also has some pacing problems. The heart of the story, however — a chased man’s search for a semblance of family and home, is very much in line with what we’ve seen in the trailers for Red Dead Redemption 2 so far.
The movie's not perfect — its action scenes and dialogues are a bit stilted by today's standards. Eastwood's Confederate sympathies are probably at their strongest here, which harms the story by crudely drawing a very thick line between good and evil. It's a beloved classic, though, drawing upon as well as cementing many tropes of the genre.
Published Aug. 26th 2018
