YOU DON’T have to be a son or daughter of the South to love the Clint Eastwood film, The Outlaw Josey Wells, but it doesn’t hurt if you are. This 33-year-old film is the story of a man whose Missouri home and family were destroyed by Civil War era Jayhawkers out of neighboring Kansas.

Missouri was not part of the Confederacy, but parts of southern Missouri were de facto supporters of the Confederacy. Kansas was strongly pro Union. A vigilante group out of Kansas called the Jayhawkers had raids on southern Missouri areas which were pro Confederacy, and those raids were largely slash, kill and burn raids. These raids had a viciousness that made lifelong enemies of the Missourians.

THIS WAR within the Civil War led to seriously bad blood between the men of the two neighboring farm states in what was to become America’s Midwest.

Even today, the University of Kansas has as its mascot the Jayhawks. It is a reminder of those days of the Civil War, when the Jayhawkers were riding into Missouri, often killing and maiming men, women and children, often destroying without mercy farms and communities.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is a fictionalized account of the end of that war, and of a man from Missouri who had seen his wife and son die at the hands of the Jayhawkers, his farm burned to ground. It is loosely based upon the tale of a man by the name of Wilson.

I do not defend the slavery which was a centerpiece of the Confederate states, but we can discuss the excesses of the victors and still revile the misconduct the Jayhawkers committed both before and after the Civil War ended.

The film is one of the best films ever made about the Civil War and its effects on both sides of the battle. There was little about the men from Kansas and Missouri to distinguish them except their loyalty or non-loyalty to the Union during that war. The lesson of their conflict is one which stands even today: good men can become monsters when they find a reason to see each other as evil, when they lose their humanity.

THE OUTLAW Josey Wales can be seen on television just about any month. It’s always being played, because it has a timeless message, delivered with wit, charm, action, and a smattering of real history. It was one of Eastwood’s first really outstanding performances, and his first classic of the variety which would become his standard fare.

Sam Bottoms delivers a compelling performance as Josey’s young Southern sidekick, but the film is frequently stolen by the always charming and irrepressible Chief Dan George. Sondra Locke provided a love interest for Eastwood, and her capture by some very bad men is a hair-raising episode, no matter how many times viewed.

There are too many good lines to repeat them all, but my personal favorite has always been Eastwood’s comment, upon refusing to bury two vanqished foes, “buzzards gotta eat, same as the worms.”

The film is about history, about the excesses of war, about men losing their humanity, about strangers thrown together in a quest to find a new home, a new life. If you’ve never seen it, take the time to do so. It’s a keeper.

© 2009, Pappy Moore, All Rights Reserved.

Pappy Moore is a humorist, a native son of East Texas who still makes the piney woods his home.

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