Hoooo boy. On this week's episode we tackle the sometimes entertaining, often problematic western movie classic, The Outlaw Josey Wales.
What we did not when picked this, and we don't think any of the filmmakers knew when they made it was the following.
This curious movie was based on a book by a former member of the KKK, a man who wrote speeches for George McGovern, and was an ardent segregationist. The speeches and Klan activity he performed under the name Asa Carter. He called himself Forrest Carter, and took on the persona of a Cherokee when he penned his books about Josey Wales and later his false autobiography, The Education of Little Tree- a book that was selected to be featured in Oprah Winfrey's Book Club.
It is unclear how much Eastwood and his writers knew about this sad history, but for us the movie's origin in Forrest Carter's racist pseudo-history was never far from our mind. We spend a lot of time talking about the strange popularity of Lost Cause Narrative in American cinema as we wonder at this strange film.
