MovieChat Forums > The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) Discussion > Why didn't Josie kill that backstabbing ...

Why didn't Josie kill that backstabbing coward Fletcher?

posted 14 years ago by BigWhiskers
14 replies | jump to latest

I hadn't watched this movie in some time but caught it on TCM
last night ,seems other stations are broadcasting it too in tribute to Eastwoods career.

Anyways , regarding Fletcher .I'm referring to the part of the movie where he rides into the Union camp, talks with the Union commander and is told that his men will be granted amnesty if they surrender. It's quite obvious that he knows right then and there that it's total B/S - the commander is lying and offering him(Fletcher) a deal in exchange for leading the guerillas to their execution.
Josey Wales of course wisely refused the offer to surrender as I think he knew deep down it was B/S too.
So Fletcher takes the deal and betrays his men to save his own skin as evidenced during the massacre scene when Jamie is riding away on his horse and sees Fletcher sitting in a tent and warns him that it's a trap and to flee. Fletcher doesn't bat an eye while Jamie is shot confirming that he is a backstabbing betrayer.

Jamie and Josey ride away and of course Josey now knows it was Fletcher who betrayed them. So why doesn't he kill Fletcher at the end of the movie ?
Sure there were 2 marshalls with him but he could have killed all of them or after the marshalls left ,shot Fletcher dead. I think Fletcher got away with coming across as too sympathetic a character in the end when he was a murderer in his own right.

"So, a thought crossed your mind? Must have been a long and lonely journey"

[–] ck1-5 14 years ago

What movie did you watch? After the gunfire starts and his comrades start falling, Fletcher says something along the lines of, "Damn it, general, you told me that these men would be fairly treated!". Had he been in on it from the start, he'd have had no reason to say that to him. He was told just what he told his men on the hill before they came down to the camp--that if they surrendered and swore an oath to the Union, all past transgressions would be forgotten and they could go home. Fletcher's only crime was one of bad judgement in believing them. Did you not notice that Fletcher tried to make a move, and the Union soldiers immediately pointed their guns at him? Doesn't sound like he was part of the ruse to me. Regardless of opinions, at the end he tells "Mr. Wilson" that when he finds Wales, he'll try to tell him that "the war is over", and Wilson/Wales agrees that it is---they've both had enough killing, and just want to try to get on with their lives.

[–] BigWhiskers 14 years ago

You are correct , I mustve overlooked that part of the movie since it goes by so fast. But even so , why didn't the general have fletcher killed ? He was of no use to the general anymore or did the general figure fletcher earned his freedom in exchange for telling his men a lie to get them killed.

And of course Fletcher must have been hired to tag along with the texas rangers by the Union to track Wales down. So Fletcher in a sense was betraying Wales anyway. Why didnt fletcher walk away after the massacre or did the union say ,no way, track wales down or your dead.

"So, a thought crossed your mind? Must have been a long and lonely journey"

[–] jstang411 14 years ago

I believe Fletcher says something along the lines to the general of "Now I have no choice but to help you kill Josey Wales cause if I don't he'll kill me".

As to the scene at the end -- it was the end of the Civil War for Josey cause the incident ended in peace and an understanding rather than shots and dead bodies. Josey tried that with the bounty hunters as well, but the guy came back in the bar and pulled him back in.

[–] turtletommy 14 years ago

Yep that was Fletcher's line about why he joined up with the Union troops to hunt down Josey. Because he felt that Wales would THINK him a backstabber. Ironically Wales when told by the kid that Fletcher was in on the ambush at the surrender replied that he wouldn't have expected that from him- so he was genuinely surprised by that news.

[–] jstang411 14 years ago

Also have to understand that Josey had run with Fletcher for a couple years against the Yankees, and particularly the RedLegs. It was hard for him to grasp that someone that close to him could join their sworn enemy.

[–] origdeadbeat 14 years ago

I am going to make the obvious answer and say, Josey was out of bullets.

[–] linop90 13 years ago

Someone has to ask this...
Why did they hold out? continue fighting?
Lee had surrendered. The south was done.
Lee urged southerners to accept the outcome and be good Americans

Eat the Neocons.

[–] Tiberius27-1 13 years ago

Like many in war they believed in the righteousness of their cause more than their leaders per say. Lee may have surrendered but to some who had fought what they had considered to be the evil of the northerners the war must go on until their side (The south of course) had emerged victorious through guerrilla warfare if need be without an "official" standing army. Of course they had no realistic chance of achieving their objective but such is the power of belief.

"Be nice until it's time to NOT be nice."

[–] eliotno3 11 years ago

I am going to make the more obvious obvious answer and say the OP is a blatant troll that needs to go suck an egg for clogging up imdb forums with useless *beep*

[–] joekiddlouischama 11 years ago

Not only was Fletcher not as traitorous as imagined (one of the film's themes is the exaggeration and distortion that could occur due to war and in a frontier society), but the Outlaw Josey Wales is not ultimately a film about revenge. To quote Sara Anson Vaux on page 139 of her book The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood:

The Outlaw Josey Wales begins with peace, dissolves into seemingly endless blood revenge, and drowns out that life-denying narrative with a fresh vision of a reconciled community.

As the film progresses, Wales essentially offers his antagonists a choice between life and death, with the film building a strong subtext of reconciliation and even pacifism. After the brutality and nihilism of the war and its aftermath, committing a final act of revenge would have been gratuitous and futile. As Wales says, he and Fletcher have already "died a little." Indeed, the decision by Wales and Fletcher to go their separate ways turns the coda of The Outlaw Josey Wales into one of the best scenes, or sequences, in cinematic history.

[–] BigWhiskers 10 years ago

I am going to make the more obvious obvious answer and say the OP is a blatant troll that needs to go suck an egg for clogging up imdb forums with useless *beep*

Hey eliotno3

Vaffanculo , Vigliacco !

"So, a thought crossed your mind? Must have been a long and lonely journey"

[–] joekiddlouischama 11 years ago

But even so , why didn't the general have fletcher killed ? He was of no use to the general anymore or did the general figure fletcher earned his freedom in exchange for telling his men a lie to get them killed.

Which general?

And Fletcher is not working against the Union at that point. He is looking for Wales, his old comrade, and ultimately finds him, but then pretends not to recognize him when some others identify the outlaw as "Mr. Wilson."

By the way, you might want to change the thread title to avoid providing a spoiler.

[–] johnnyclueless 10 years ago

I think he means the Senator.

[–] pking-2 10 years ago

Because Josey retained some respect and benefit of doubt for Fletcher.

He realized, essentially, similar things about Fletcher that he realized about Ten Bears. That war, survival, revenge, and so on...drove men that otherwise would deserve to live onto bloody paths. And the way back from that path is choice.

So, he (and Fletcher) let it go, man. Just let it go. Very seventies, and a bit zen too...particularly for a western revenger.

Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.