The people who produced "The Return of Josey Wales" should have changed the hero's name. "Return" went straight to video in 1986 without any theatrical release, while "The Outlaw Josey Wales" was released in 1976. Ten years is a long time to delay a sequel, though "Star Trek" fans weathered decades before their cult NBC-TV show finally reached the big-screen. Reportedly, Clint Eastwood had considered making Forrest Carter's second Josey Wales novel "The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales" into a movie. Nothing, however, came of the project. Anyway, only the fictional characters from the original show up in "The Return of Josey Wales." None of the original cast members reprised their roles, and Clint Eastwood had nothing to do with the low-budget oater. Interestingly, Forrest Carter—the author of both "Josey Wales" western novels—received screen credit for story and screenplay, but the producers changed the ending and staged scenes in different settings. Several characters from the original novel reappeared in the second novel in an early chapter. Nevertheless, "The Return of Josey Wales" is at best generic from fade-in to fade out compared not only with the original movie as well as Carter's novel. Producer/Second Unit Director R.O. Taylor received credit as "writer: special scenes." "The Outlaw Josey Wales" qualified as an indisputable magnum opus, while "The Return of Josey Wales" amounts to little more than a drab, saddle-sore, horse opera. According to IMDb.COM, the film was lensed on location at the Alamo Village, in Brackettville, Texas, where John Wayne filmed "The Alamo" in 1960. A large percentage of the cinematography is done in what is designated as master shots. Master shots are typically long shots where actors are shown from head to toe in their environment. Star/director Michael Parks, who gives himself several close-ups, should have realized that he was setting himself up for a fiasco because the original "Josey Wales" overshadows his lackluster, threadbare sagebrusher. Had the protagonist's name been altered, "The Return of Josey Wales" wouldn't have been at such a wholesale disadvantage compared to its prestigious predecessor. The Internet Movie Database doesn't list a release date, but I remember seeing a trailer at a drive-in movie theater. Like an earlier reviewer, I obtained a VHS copy through Amazon so I could say I have seen it. The picture quality is mediocre, and the film was probably cropped to accommodate the standard 1:33.1 screen ratio.
Unless you schedule repeated viewers, you're going to feel like you're watching a conventional TV western, despite the somewhat brutal events in the prologue. Tame, lame, with none of the same from the original, "The Return of Josey Wales" ranks as an uninspired sequel. Repeated viewings of the Eastwood original allow you to appreciate its perfection. Eastwood did a marvelous job of condensing the entire Civil War in the prologue after Union sympathizers slaughtered his wife and son, and later he joined Bloody Bill Anderson. "Return" doesn't raise the stakes significantly, breaks no new ground, and doesn't leave you wanting more. Character actor Michael Parks—an outstanding thespian in his own right—replaced Clint Eastwood. Indeed, some resemblance appears between the two actors, and Parks looks authentic in his black sombrero, white shirt, and dark britches. Apart from preserving Josey's tobacco spitting routine, however, Park's Josey Wales isn't as interesting as Eastwood's character. He has no love interest in this film. Parks packs one revolver in a standard, low-slung holster, like a prime-time, TV cowboy, and wields an occasional Winchester. Eastwood's Josey Wales armed himself to the teeth with as many as four revolvers. Eastwood knew how to make an entrance, whereas Parks ambles into and out of scenes without a trace of charisma. He mumbles most of his dialogue, some of which is serviceable.
As director, Parks delivers little that would make you want to scrutinize this movie more than once. I've seen it several times for the purpose of writing this review. Worse, you'll have to wait patiently about 20 minutes for the first gunfight. The shoot'em up scene is fairly minor. Rafael Campos is the only other recognizable cast member. Campos gives the best performance in what amounted to his last film. Everybody else, even in speaking parts, looks and sounds like amateurs. Some of the male extras wear atrocious hats that resemble party favors instead of Stetsons. Basically, like Clint Eastwood's "The Outlaw Josey Wales, "The Return of Josey Wales" has an savage opening scene involving an atrocity. The hero's extended family of friends suffers at the hands of the wicked villains. "The Return of Josey Wales" doesn't deliver an eye-for-an-eye western with an icy-cool looking hero dispensing justice. Parks can be heroic, and he does handle himself acceptably in the first shoot-out. Appropriately enough, the baddies—Mexican Rurales who scalp Apaches for the bounty on their heads--are thoroughgoing dastards.
These Rurales rape a defiant saloon hostess, Rose (Suzie Humphreys of "Deep in the Heart"), and beat a powerless bartender, Charlie (Charles McCoy of "Executive Action"), to a pulp, while a one-armed Mexican peon, Pablo (Paco Vela of "The Job"), witnesses this dreadful behavior. Later, Paco relays his information to Josey Wales. Predictably, Wales hits the trail, but with considerably less gusto compared to its precedecessor. Furthermore, one of Josey's friends, a tin-horn gambler named Ten-Spot (Robert Magruder of "Five Days from Home") is taken by the Mexican Rurales commander, Jesus Escabedo (Everett Sifuentes of "Selena"), and Josey tracks them down with the help of his other Mexican vaquero, Chato (Rafael Campos of "The Appaloosa"), but he gets himself shot-up, even Ten-Spot catches a bullet in the finale. Josey leaves Escabedo buried up to his neck in the ground as he rides off with his friends. In Carter's novel, Wales repeatedly shot Escabedo during a shoot-out in a canyon and killed him. Furthermore, in Carter's novel, real-life Apache chieftain Geronimo had a peripheral role.
Josey Wales shouldn't have returned in this grubby little western.
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