I was amazed, this movie had a real message. The movie Cold Mountain is another, with the small farmer caught up in the politics of the North and South.

An excellent movie of the border states during the civil war. Ear, strife and redemption and forgiveness

I saw the edited for television version every year on network TV over and over threw out the 70's. I never really understood why his family being murdered lead to him becoming an outlaw until I read the description above; perhaps the part where his family is massacred and he then kills the Union solders was always removed; because it was the height of the Vietnam War and the networks didn't want American solders being seen murdering innocent civilians.
SPOILER ALERT:
I always loved the scene where the Confederate solders are revealed to be Union solders covered with gray dust.

Unfortunately, the hit-or-miss acting took me out of the story and rather spoiled it for me.

This movie, in my humble opinion, represents the height of what a Western can be. Excellent landscapes, a scintillating story looking at the post Civil War South and Texas in particular, it goes beyond to examine the different interactions between the various factions that inhabited the frontier. I think there are nods to novel's author, Forrest Carter, and his "Education of Little Tree," especially in the interactions with the Native Americans at the end of the film. This particular copy of the film does, however, have a few scratches that made the first few minutes a jumbled and staticky mess.

At last, a first-class movie by Clint Eastwood. Granted, he had shown his technical prowess in his first feature, the deadly dull thriller Play Misty for Me, and perhaps he honed them in the action thrillers he made between Misty and Josey Wales, but action thrillers are about my least favorite kind of movies, so I'll have to gird my loins to find out. Anyway, with Josey Wales he has a first-class property, the tougher-than-the-toughest, auto-idiomatic post-Civil War western, Gone to Texas (its second and better title) by KKK-leader-turned-novelist Forrest Carter. Screenwriters Phil Kaufman and Sonia Chernus adapt the novel to give Eastwood the elbow room for a positively John Fordian epic that faces down an especially horrifying era in our national existence and, despite feinting at criticism of government and the military, places the inherent evil in mean front and center. Eastwood and editor Ferris Webster cut with near-Eisensteinian speed but never chaotically, and DP Bruce Surtees shoots the seemingly light-devouring interior scenes--in which the characters aid and abet each other's wickedness so scabrously that one almost wishes he couldn't see what he does see--with aplomb; note that Josey's entry often if not always comes as a flash of light, confined but obvious. The extra characters Kaufman and Chernus introduce, ruthless Redleg Captain Terrill and the conforming ex-Confederate, Fletcher, glue the various episodes together and provide some relief and escape to possible normalcy at the end, something that would have been essential to Ford but that Carter implies but doesn't push or endorse in the novel (to which there's a fine sequel, The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales). The only upfront contributor to the movie, composer Jerry Fielding, is, alas, the only one who rather lets the side down; his score sound too tinny and too much like 1970s TV music. Can't have everything. --Ray Olson

Excellent Western- AS good as the best Spaghetti Westerns.

excellent movie great western

Sooo much better than the 'spagetti Westerns' ! Even better this second time around. Well worth the re-visit.

I hadn't seen this one since it's original theatrical release, making it a virtually "new" movie, lucky me! It was a ripping ride back to the wild West with Clint Eastwood hell-bent on revenge! Also directing, Clint (I call him "Clint"!) drew fine performances out of a crack cast, notably a fine comedic turn out of Chief Dan George. Recommended to anyone who likes Westerns, Clint Eastwood, or adventure; after all, they're synonymous!