Plot: Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) is a peaceful farmer in the days near the end of the Civil War. After his house is burned and his family murdered, he hardens into a human bullet, dedicated to destroying the renegades who took his "life". He joins a band of unreconstructed rebel guerilla fighters who continue to fight the Union, even after the official surrender of the Confederacy, an action which makes them, legally, outlaws. Josey is driven by vengeance, but after a while, that's not enough. Back before his own personal Holocaust, he had been a builder, of home, family, farm, and life. And no matter how much ice he's wrapped himself in, down inside there's still the soul of a living man. While Wales exists, he's pulled by this hidden yearning to live. Each day offers him chances to remember, to assuage his yearning, to begin again. And the movie shows us how Josey Wales, a mere seeker of vengeance, learns to live again, rededicated to the values he chose so long ago.
Alternative Plot: Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) watches helplessly as his wife and child are murdered, by Union men led by Capt. Terrill (Bill McKinney). Seeking revenge, Wales joins the Confederate Army. He refuses to surrender when the war ends, but his fellow soldiers go to hand over their weapons -- and are massacred by Terrill. Wales guns down some of Terrill's men and flees to Texas, where he tries to make a new life for himself, but the bounty on his head endangers him and his new surrogate family.
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