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Movies that feel like The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

If you loved The Outlaw Josey Wales, the closest films we have are Unforgiven (1992), My Darling Clementine (1946) and Red River (1948). All three share The Outlaw Josey Wales' gritty and relentless feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.

πŸ… 91% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.8 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Clint Eastwoodgrittymelancholyrelentlessromantic

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If The Outlaw Josey Wales hit the spot, these will too

Unforgiven poster
Unforgiven
1992 Β· dir. Clint Eastwood
πŸ… 96%β˜… 8.2western

Clint Eastwood working the same nerve twice

The difference: None of the melancholy The Outlaw Josey Wales is built on

William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff.

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My Darling Clementine poster
My Darling Clementine
1946 Β· dir. John Ford
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.7western

Both are built on the same subject: revenge

The difference: 30 years apart, and the 1940s show

Three brothers stop off for a night in the town of Tombstone. The next morning they find one of their brothers dead and their cattle stolen. They decide to take revenge on the culprits.

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Red River poster
Red River
1948 Β· dir. Howard Hawks
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.7western

The same preoccupation in both: texas

Following the Civil War, headstrong rancher Thomas Dunson decides to lead a perilous cattle drive from Texas to Missouri. During the exhausting journey, his persistence becomes tyrannical in the eyes of Matthew Garth, his adopted son and protΓ©gΓ©.

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Cool Hand Luke poster
Cool Hand Luke
1967 Β· dir. Stuart Rosenberg
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8drama Β· crime

One thread runs through both: grief

The difference: Sits closer to drama than The Outlaw Josey Wales does

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

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Places in the Heart poster
Places in the Heart
1984 Β· dir. Robert Benton
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.4drama

Common ground: grief

In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.

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Thief poster
Thief
1981 Β· dir. Michael Mann
πŸ… 80%β˜… 7.4crime Β· thriller Β· drama

Gritty and melancholy in the same breath

Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.

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High Plains Drifter poster
High Plains Drifter
1973 Β· dir. Clint Eastwood
πŸ… 91%β˜… 7.4western Β· drama Β· mystery

Clint Eastwood directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the Stranger to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.

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Mystic River poster
Mystic River
2003 Β· dir. Clint Eastwood
πŸ… 89%β˜… 7.9thriller Β· drama Β· mystery

Western built on romance, twice over

The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.

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Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father poster
πŸ… 94%β˜… 8.5documentary Β· crime

Gritty western in both cases

In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.

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The Outfit poster
The Outfit
1973 Β· dir. John Flynn
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7crime Β· drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: revenge

A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.

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Lady Snowblood poster
Lady Snowblood
1973 Β· dir. Toshiya Fujita
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.6action Β· crime Β· drama

Both lean on relentlessness more than on western

A strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.

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The Godfather poster
The Godfather
1972 Β· dir. Francis Ford Coppola
πŸ… 97%β˜… 9.2drama Β· crime

A streak of melancholy through both

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Outlaw Josey Wales’ defining feeling.