{"product_id":"the-outlaw-josey-wales-アウトロー-original-japanese-movie-poster-1976-first-release-b2-size-51-73-cm-s251","title":"“The Outlaw Josey Wales” (アウトロー), Original Japanese First-Release Movie Poster 1976, Clint Eastwood, B2 Size (c. 51.5 × 72.8 cm) S251","description":"\u003cp class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\"\u003eThis is an \u003cstrong\u003eoriginal Japanese B2 theatrical poster produced for the first Japanese release of Clint Eastwood’s\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Outlaw Josey Wales\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cstrong\u003eアウトロー\u003c\/strong\u003e) in \u003cstrong\u003e1976\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003cspan class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchor\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDirected by and starring \u003cstrong\u003eClint Eastwood\u003c\/strong\u003e, the film was produced by \u003cstrong\u003eMalpaso\u003c\/strong\u003e and adapted from the novel \u003cem\u003eGone to Texas\u003c\/em\u003e. Today it is regarded as one of the defining revisionist Westerns of the 1970s: a violent but deeply elegiac examination of revenge, displacement, reconciliation and the human cost left behind by the American Civil War.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Japanese campaign is particularly striking, transforming Eastwood into an almost mythic frontier figure and explicitly connecting the film with the \u003cstrong\u003eAmerican Bicentennial of 1976\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFilm background\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEastwood plays \u003cstrong\u003eJosey Wales\u003c\/strong\u003e, a Missouri farmer whose wife and child are murdered by Union-backed guerrillas during the Civil War.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDriven by grief and revenge, Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla band and becomes a feared gunfighter. When the war ends, his refusal to surrender leaves him hunted across the American frontier.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYet the film gradually evolves beyond a conventional revenge Western.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring his flight, Wales attracts an improvised community of displaced people around him, including \u003cstrong\u003eLone Watie\u003c\/strong\u003e, an elderly Cherokee played by \u003cstrong\u003eChief Dan George\u003c\/strong\u003e, whose performance became one of the film’s most celebrated elements.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRather than simply romanticising the solitary gunslinger, \u003cem\u003eThe Outlaw Josey Wales\u003c\/em\u003e examines what happens when a man defined by violence is unexpectedly given the possibility of belonging again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEastwood’s direction balances spectacular gunfights with long stretches of landscape, silence and character observation, making the film one of the major transitional works between the classical American Western and its darker late-20th-century descendants.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDesign\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Japanese artwork is dominated by an enormous \u003cstrong\u003epainted portrait of Clint Eastwood\u003c\/strong\u003e, shown screaming directly towards the viewer while gripping firearms in both hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe image pushes his face almost to the limits of the B2 sheet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis weathered features are rendered in fiery \u003cstrong\u003eochre, burnt orange and deep brown\u003c\/strong\u003e, while the brilliant red neckerchief provides the principal colour accent across the centre of the composition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn either side of his face rise the extraordinarily long barrels of his weapons, creating a powerful vertical frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRather than depicting Eastwood in the familiar restrained, squinting pose associated with his earlier Westerns, this image captures him at the point of explosive violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe effect is immediate and unusually aggressive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeneath the portrait, a line of silhouetted horsemen crosses the horizon, reducing the larger Western landscape to a miniature stage beneath Wales’ monumental figure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“An Army of One”\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross the top appears the English campaign line:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCLINT EASTWOOD THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES …an army of one.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Japanese headline expands upon the same idea:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e「南北戦争末期＝7丁の連発銃を身につけて〈一人の軍隊〉と呼ばれた凄いアウトローがいた！」\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApproximately:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“At the end of the Civil War, there was a formidable outlaw armed with seven repeating firearms, known as ‘an army of one’!”\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe copy turns Josey Wales into a near-legendary figure before the viewer has even encountered the film.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat rhetoric is perfectly matched by the artwork: Eastwood is rendered less as an ordinary man than as the entire Western itself—guns, anger and frontier violence compressed into a single enormous portrait.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe American Bicentennial campaign\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRunning vertically down the right side is the prominent blue text:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e「アメリカ建国200年記念・ワーナー超特作！」\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the founding of America — a Warner super-production!”\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is an especially interesting piece of period context.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReleased during the \u003cstrong\u003eUnited States Bicentennial in 1976\u003c\/strong\u003e, the film was marketed in Japan not simply as another Clint Eastwood Western, but as a major American historical production connected to the nation’s 200th anniversary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe choice is somewhat ironic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRather than presenting an uncomplicated celebration of American nationhood, \u003cem\u003eThe Outlaw Josey Wales\u003c\/em\u003e depicts a country fractured by civil war, political betrayal and competing versions of justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat tension gives the Japanese Bicentennial copy an additional historical interest today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJapanese typography\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lower section is anchored by an enormous red katakana title:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eアウトロー\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— literally \u003cstrong\u003e“Outlaw.”\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe typography is deliberately oversized, occupying almost the entire width of the lower border.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbove it appears Eastwood’s name:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eクリント・イーストウッド\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ein dark blue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe stark combination of \u003cstrong\u003ewhite background, red title, blue campaign copy and warm painted portraiture\u003c\/strong\u003e gives the poster a clean but extremely forceful 1970s Japanese graphic identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike many montage-heavy Japanese Western posters, this design relies upon \u003cstrong\u003eone dominant star image\u003c\/strong\u003e and allows Eastwood’s face to carry almost the entire campaign.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClint Eastwood and the revisionist Western\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy 1976, Eastwood was already one of the defining faces of the Western through Sergio Leone’s \u003cem\u003eDollars Trilogy\u003c\/em\u003e and films such as \u003cem\u003eHang ’Em High\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eHigh Plains Drifter\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Outlaw Josey Wales\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e marked something different.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs director as well as star, Eastwood was increasingly interested in dismantling the mythology that had made him famous.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJosey is formidable with a gun, but the film repeatedly demonstrates that violence isolates rather than liberates him. His eventual companions—Native Americans, settlers, women and other social outsiders—gradually replace vengeance with community.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat tension between the legendary gunslinger and the damaged human being beneath the legend is one of the reasons the film remains so important within Eastwood’s career.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe B2 format\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeasuring approximately \u003cstrong\u003e51.5 × 72.8 cm\u003c\/strong\u003e, the Japanese \u003cstrong\u003eB2\u003c\/strong\u003e was the principal theatrical poster format used by Japanese cinemas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe vertical dimensions are particularly effective for this design.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEastwood’s twin weapons rise almost the entire length of the central image, while his face occupies an extraordinary proportion of the sheet. The relatively pale background gives the portrait tremendous visual separation and allows the enormous red title to dominate the lower register.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginal first-release Japanese paper for major \u003cstrong\u003e1970s Clint Eastwood Westerns\u003c\/strong\u003e has become increasingly collectible, particularly where the Japanese artwork differs substantially from contemporary American campaign designs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVery Good+ \/ Excellent original condition overall.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe poster retains \u003cstrong\u003eexcellent colour and exceptionally strong presentation\u003c\/strong\u003e, particularly across Eastwood’s painted portrait, the vivid red neckerchief and the large red \u003cstrong\u003eアウトロー\u003c\/strong\u003e title.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease review all photographs carefully; they show the \u003cstrong\u003eexact poster for sale, front and reverse\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is an \u003cstrong\u003eoriginal Japanese B2 theatrical poster from the film’s first Japanese release campaign in 1976\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is \u003cstrong\u003enot a reproduction or modern reprint\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is approximately \u003cstrong\u003e50 years old\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCertificate of Authenticity included.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Japan Poster Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57269479735674,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0424\/8859\/4591\/files\/wall-shelf-with-ornaments_21_2069704a-10db-4991-ae19-b7d6125bddb9.jpg?v=1789459966","url":"https:\/\/japanposter.co.uk\/products\/the-outlaw-josey-wales-%e3%82%a2%e3%82%a6%e3%83%88%e3%83%ad%e3%83%bc-original-japanese-movie-poster-1976-first-release-b2-size-51-73-cm-s251","provider":"Japan Poster Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}