The Return of Josey Wales

Given my love of the western genre, I had wanted to see this movie for years, but it apparently never got any kind of release in my country (Canada). But thanks to YouTube, I watched it today, and it didn't take me long to figure out why no Canadian distributor apparently wanted to touch it. Even if you are a lover of westerns, you'll greatly dislike this movie, even more so if you don't care for the genre. It goes wrong in just about any way you can think of. While you'll (sort of) understand what the title figure is trying to do, the journey to that point is incredibly muddled. Maybe the original script made more sense, but under Michael Parks' direction, things happen out of nowhere, and other things make no sense at all, and this constantly happens from the start to the end. The action sequences and even the scenes of dialogue seem to have been edited with a very limited amount of available footage, and have no zip as well as coherence. The movie plods on scene after scene with almost no energy. Also, the movie has a really cheap feeling, seemingly filmed on whatever abandoned buildings and countryside the production could get its hands on. And while the movie was made in the mid 1980s, it has a weird look and feel of a production from the mid 1970s. Don't expect this movie to get a release on DVD or Blu-Ray any time soon.

An odd thing.

Following 10 years on from the release of 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', it's difficult to see why 'The Return of Josey Wales' even exists - especially without the involvement of the original's star, Clint Eastwood. It was hardly going to be a moneymaker, either.

I found this 1986 flick to be extremely slow and uninteresting, none of the actors or characters stick out even minutely. Michael Parks is an OK cast on paper, but as Josey Wales he just doesn't fit what we've previously seen from the character. Rafael Campos, in his final film role, would be the one I'd name as the standout if asked, but that's just via a process of elimination.

It's the absolute definition of pointless, and to make it even less enjoyable they continue the irritating chewing tobacco spitting thing from the first film. There are also some ultra amateur swoosh-like transitions used, which cheapen the whole thing further. No hate from me at all, but this is a very poor release from the 80s.

Having finally retired after several years of fighting, the outlaw "Josey Wales" (Michael Parks) is alarmed to hear that two of his friends have been killed in Mexico while another one named "Ten Spot" (Robert Magruder) has been abducted and is soon to be hanged by a corrupt government official named "Captain Jesus Escabedo" (Everett Sifuentes). So, to rectify this situation, Josey and two colleagues head south to free Ten Spot and kill everyone who had a hand in the death of his other two friends. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie had a pretty good plot to work from, but the low budget behind it seriously impacted the overall product. The lighting wasn't that good and the sound could have used some improvement as well. Along with that, although the actor chosen to play the part of Josey Wales didn't perform too badly, he wasn't quite able to really capture the on-screen presence or the magnetism of his notable predecessor. At least, I didn't think so. Be that as it may, I can't say that I was very impressed with this film, and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Only the names have been changed to protect the not so innocent in this film. Well, actually, it's just the names that give it a tenuous connection to the original Josey Wales starring Clint Eastwood. Sadly, Micheal Parks is no substitute for Eastwood either as actor or director and neither is any of the rest of the cast close to the characters in the first film.

At least you can't accuse anyone of trying to cash in on the original film's success as this was made ten years later. Exactly why they bothered is another question altogether. Filmed very cheaply, a couple of saloons and some outside shooting in a small town make up the locations. With a shootout in the open as the closing finale.

Little spent on the sound recording either or perhaps they were trying for the naturalistic dialogue as done by the likes of Marlon Brando or Mickey Rourke. All of which may be how ordinary people do actually speak in real life but just comes across as mumbling on the big screen.

Apart from the grisly comeuppance of the villain at the end, there is nothing to distinguish this from any of the countless 'oaters' or horse operas of the fifties that were churned out by the film studios of the time.

For dedicated western fans or people with too much time on their hands only.

The book was excellent as a followup to Josie Wales. The money for this sequel movie must have been lacking because it was done very cheaply to the point that I'm not sure anyone would recognize it as a sequel if they hadn't read the book. Michael Parks would have made a good lead character as was Clint Eastwood but there didn't seem to be any money for the production and cut much of the story line out along with bad flim and sound from the version I saw. Potential for a great sequel but it wasn't realized here.