John Marston, a former outlaw trying to live straight and narrow, who once ran as part of a gang, is forced by the government to track down core members of his old gang-Bill Williamson, Javier Euscella, and the gang’s leader, Dutch Van Der Linde. His family is held in prison, ensuring his cooperation.
Josey Wales, the hero of the 1977 Clint Eastwood epic, The Outlaw Josey Wales. On the surface, there’s already a few similarities-and I mean literally the surface-both have similar scars. However, while John’s are the result of a wolf attack from back during his gang days, Wales’s are far more traumatic on a personal level-he failed to save his wife and son from union soldiers.
Josey Wales also once rang with a gang, a pro-confederate group, that is forced to surrender. However, like Marston is eventually at the end of the first game, they are betrayed and gunned down. Wales managed to escape with wounded partner Jaime.
While Marston is coerced into helping track down his former gang in “Red Dead”, in “Outlaw” this role doesn’t fall to Josey, but to Fletcher, his former leader. Josey, on the other hand, retains his outlaw lifestyle, heading south to evade the troops, bounty hunters, and Fletcher, all on his tail.
Both their adventures feature of course an array of interesting side-characters. Early on there’s the Snake Oil Salesman who later blows his cover…
Red Dead has a similar character in a few ways, Nigel West Dickens. However, while the “Carpetbagger” as he’s called has a fairly small role in the movie, Nigel’s role is much more important, and vital to the first part of John’s quest, as his stagecoach proves a nice hiding place for a gattling gun.
There’s more of a visual similarity here than anything; while Clint uses the gattling gun as revenge for his butchered gang and to cover his and Jaime’s escape…
John’s use is mainly against the armies of his former gang members.
As Josey tries to avoid the army by going farther south into Texas, he finds an array of interesting people after Jaime’s death-Native Americans Lone Watee & Little Midnight, Laura Lee and her grandma Sarah, as well as allies in the local (if broke) community of San Rio and the nearby Comanche tribe…who sort of form a family unit that somewhat replaces some of Josey’s loss of his own.
Marston is somewhat different. A lot of the characters he meets he sort of sees as a means to an end, of sorts, to take down his former gang and save his family.
The only real bond he forms is with Bonnie Mcfarlane, a rancher who saves him after his first botched attempt to take down Bill. However, while Josey forms a romance with Laura Lee (although he still of course misses his family), John remains faithful to his wife Abigail.
Towards the end of the movie and the game, we’re given a big shootout to protect the ranch that’s been settled. In both cases, our heroes are protecting their family-Josey, his adopted one, and Marston’s his actual one.
Let’s just say it works a bit better for Josey. He manages to kill Terrel, who killed his original gang, and to top it off, Fletcher, without Terril’s hold, covers for Josey’s new life by saying he died in the shootout. John however, is not so lucky, and it’s ultiametly up to his son Jack, a few years later-to take care of unfinished business, a somewhat more tragic outcome.
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